Sr. Director, Merchandise Planning - Ecommerce

Vuori, Inc•Carlsbad, CA

18h•$200,000 - $250,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Director of Merchandise Planning - eCommerce will focus on building and developing a high performing Merchandise Planning function and lead the successful development, communication, and execution of sales and inventory strategies that support the eCommerce financial plan. This individual is responsible for supporting the team with developing strategic merchandise plans and targets for key categories to maximize sales, optimize inventory, and increase margin through the analysis of historical sales trends, current in-season patterns, and future forecasts. The ideal candidate will have experience with inventory planning processes for eCommerce (including open-to-buy, replenishment processes, category planning, and gross margin) for an apparel business or similar. Ability to be flexible, multi-task, comfortable with high sku counts, and able to prioritize under tight deadlines. It is critical to take initiative, particularly when working cross-departmentally with merchandising, production, finance, and marketing to support our evolving business needs. This individual has a broad skill set including strong Planning, Category management skills, Assortment Analytics, Analytical horsepower, excellent business judgment, and deep curiosity about how things work.

Requirements

10+ years of analytical experience in merchandise planning or inventory management
A hands-on, results-driven mentality combined with a high desire to work strategically
Working knowledge of Retail Metrics (Sales, Inventory, Sell Through, Weeks of Supply, Trend based forecasting, revenue and margin), and the ability to develop scenario plans to drive enterprise decisions.
Comfort with ambiguity and passion/excitement for building new tools and processes.
Proven examples of “thinking outside the box” to improve processes.
Demonstrated retail math and business acumen, including elements of markup, margin planning, selling and inventory productivity measures.
High level of conceptual creative ability.
Strong product sense with proven experience in driving product assortments and partnering with divisional leaders to lead investment strategies that drive business.
Passionate self-starter, decisive and able to move with speed to implement ideas.
Excited by moving fast, investing deeply in relationships, and working through ambiguity within a startup environment.
Excellent leadership, communication, and organizational skills and proven track record of building and coaching teams.

Responsibilities

Manage open-to-buy processes for assigned categories across the organization, providing top-down guidance and direction around key initiatives.
Manage the creation, review and execution of the Open to Buy budget to meet revenue and margin and expectations.
Analyze the business on an on-going basis to understand core drivers; identify opportunities and risks and partner with cross-functional leaders to respond appropriately.
Provide both qualitative and quantitative insights at seasonal hindsight and investment reviews, drawing conclusions to inform future product line architecture.
Build annual plans in partnership with SVP of MP&A to support sales and margin growth and development of assigned product categories while supporting brand initiatives.
Provide high-level analysis, business reports, and qualitative and actionable feedback and recommendations to senior leadership, including contributions to quarterly hindsight and investment reviews.
Lead the strategic financial objectives for assigned product categories through accurate and proactive management and forecasting of sales, margin, and inventory levels to achieve targets for Vuori eCommerce business.
Develop and share merchandise analysis to inform and lead decision making, including upcoming buys, promotional activities, marketing efforts, current opportunities, and risk management scenarios.
Develop a comprehensive merchandise planning strategy, forecasting and reporting by category, class, and Style/Color/Size, based on selling data, customer analytics, category dynamics and market conditions.
Partner with Merchandising on the selection of core items, timing, and quantity of new and existing products, and balance of inventory across product categories and product hierarchy to support sales targets and increase inventory turns.
Partner with Inventory Deployment & Allocation, Production and Merchants to ensure right levels of inventory are ordered and allocated.
Evolve product line architecture as needed and develop pre-season range plans that tie to topline strategies and offer guidance on channel segmentation.
Partner with Finance and Merchants to develop seasonal margin targets and work closely to drive margin improvements.
Create short- and long-term product assortment strategies in partnership with Merchandising that align with the Brand vision, financial plan targets and customer experience goals.
Demonstrates effective working relationships, building strong partnerships and influencing cross functional leaders and teams including Merchandising, Production, Product Development, and Finance.
Drive planning process improvements, standardizations, and best practices aligned to accommodate complexities of the business.