Senior Merchandise Planner

Dolls Kill•Oakland, CA

160d

About The Position

The Senior Merchandise Planner plays a critical role in driving top-line growth, profitability, and inventory efficiency across assigned categories and channels. This role partners closely with Buying, Sourcing, Finance, and Marketing to develop financial strategies, manage in-season inventory, and optimize product flow in a high-velocity, trend-driven environment. You will own end-to-end planning—from OTB management to in-season forecasting—using data, consumer insights, and strong cross-functional communication to push the business forward.

Requirements

5–7+ years of Merchandise Planning, Allocation, or related experience in fast-paced retail or e-commerce (fashion strongly preferred).
Deep understanding of retail math, forecasting, inventory management, and OTB discipline.
Advanced proficiency in Excel/Google Sheets; experience with BI tools (e.g., Metabase), NetSuite, Amazon Seller Central, and Shopify is a plus.

Responsibilities

Build, own, and manage department-level financial plans, including sales, margin, receipts, markdowns, and inventory targets.
Translate company strategies into actionable plans by month, department, subclass, and delivery.
Develop weekly sales forecasts, scenario models, and risk/opportunity analyses to inform business decisions.
Partner with Finance to align on seasonal revenue, IMU, and margin expectations.
Own OTB for assigned departments; manage monthly reconciliation, purchasing strategies, and inventory flows.
Monitor performance trends and drive in-season actions to maximize revenue and GM%—including chasing winners, reclassing inventory, and managing markdown and promo levers.
Maintain optimal weeks-of-supply, turn targets, and sell-through health across channels (DTC, Marketplace, Retail Stores).
Identify and mitigate inventory liabilities; recommend exit strategies when needed.
Collaborate with Buyers to create assortments that balance trend, depth, and profitability across major collections and seasonal programs (e.g., Halloween, Festival, Holiday).
Influence product strategy through insights from historical performance, category trends, and competitive analysis.
Partner with Marketing on inventory availability, pricing strategy, and campaign alignment.
Leverage advanced reporting and retail math to drive decision-making across the business.
Build and maintain dashboards (Metabase, Google Sheets, Excel) to track KPIs, including turn tiers, SKU efficiency, forecast accuracy, margin performance, and channel-level sell-through.
Ensure data integrity across planning systems (NetSuite, Shopify POS, Seller Central, and internal tools).
Identify opportunities to improve processes, automate reporting, and refine planning frameworks.
Present business readouts, hindsight recaps, and strategic recommendations to senior leadership.
Serve as a cross-functional thought partner in discussions around pricing, inventory risk, operational constraints, and growth opportunities.