Sr. Merchandising Manager, Lifestyle, Street and Fashion

New Balance•Boston, MA

11d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Merchandising Manager will drive the footwear product distribution, segmentation strategy and account category mix for our must-win & priority Lifestyle Street and Fashion accounts. The successful candidate will partner with respective commercial, marketing, & planning teams to collaborate and align on 3-year shape & share plan. Drive the alignment and execution of seasonal key stories, model/silhouette drivers, concepts, and trends in preparation for pre-sell and sell-in linked to long range plan consistent with key brand initiates and financial expectations.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required, with 5+ years of industry experience preferably in footwear and/or apparel buying and/or merchandising.
Experience with product planning, sales forecasting and working to budgets.
Knowledge of account segmentation & differentiation, range architecture, product assortments, concept drivers, and product flow.
Strong leadership skills with the ability to influence, both formally and informally.
Excellent interpersonal skills with the desire to build lasting relationships internally and with key retail partners.
Strong problem-solving and decision-making skills.
Superior communication skills, especially presentation skills.
Computer skills including advanced Excel.
Travel required for this role.

Responsibilities

Drive footwear, product & apparel distribution, segmentation/differentiation strategy, and category mix for a subset of our Key Account priority partners.
Develop seasonal must land assortments from the Regional Footwear/Apparel product line for specific key accounts to support key brand initiatives and deliver financial objectives across categories, price and margin, as well as turn.
In cooperation with Regional Business Unit Merchants, Sales and Marketing, develop best in-class Go-To-Market process, timing and execution.
Evaluate and implement seasonal introduction strategy.
Define key merchandising touch points and function ownership.
Ensure alignment within and across the RBUs to support key drivers and “Head-to-Toe” merchandising.
Drive model and style efficiency; tighter assortments, eliminate overlap between categories and price points, increase expectations within categories we compete in – reduce non-strategic and/or lower volume models, and increase style level expectations.
Ensure a sell in to sell through approach.
Develop mid and long-term product line-ups that clearly communicate model/style lifecycle.
Lead, coach, and train direct report assistant merchandising manager as appropriate