Sr PDM - Merchandise Planning Technology

Five Below • Philadelphia, PA

2d • Onsite

About The Position

At Five Below our growth is a result of the people who embrace our purpose: We know life is way better when you are free to Let Go & Have Fun in an amazing experience, filled with unlimited possibilities, priced so low, you can always say yes to the newest, coolest stuff! Just ask any of our over 27,000 associates who work at Five Below and they’ll tell you there’s no other place like it. It all starts with our purpose and then, The Five Below Way, which is our values and behaviors that each and every associate believes in. It’s all about culture at Five Below, making this a place that can inspire you as much as you inspire us with big ideas, super energy, passion, and the ability to make the workplace a WOWplace! Position Summary The Senior Product Manager, Merchandise Planning Technology is a senior product leader within Five Below’s Commercial Systems organization, reporting to the Director, Product Management – MP&A, and is accountable for product‑led value delivery within the Merchandise Planning space. This role owns the strategy, roadmap, and outcomes for our planning technologies, ensuring they deliver differentiated capabilities for Planning and Buying while improving productivity and supporting sales, margin, and inventory health. Success in this role will be measured by improvements in forecast accuracy, planning cycle time, inventory productivity, and the ability to scale profitable assortments across seasons. You will lead cross‑functional product squads of engineering, architecture, data, and business partners to define problems, prioritize work, and ship technology that measurably improves how Five Below plans seasons, manages open‑to‑buy, and responds to performance in‑season. You are hands‑on in discovery and delivery and comfortable operating at both strategic and detailed levels.

Requirements

• Proven experience leading and supporting implementation of merchandise financial planning and assortment solutions, including packaged MP&A platforms (e.g., Blue Yonder, Oracle Retail, o9 Solutions, Anaplan, S5 Stratos or similar) as well as in-house and Excel-based tools, enabling end-to-end planning, forecasting, and inventory optimization.
• Demonstrated ability to own a domain roadmap, make tradeoffs, and drive outcomes across multiple squads or complex platforms.
• Proven ability to manage stakeholders, define clear requirements, and prioritize work based on value.
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to translate complex domain and technology topics into clear narratives for senior business and IT leaders.
• 7+ years of experience in product management, product ownership, or closely related roles in technology, with at least 4+ years focused on retail, CPG, or consumer‑facing domains.
• Ability to use data (quantitative and qualitative) to frame problems, measure outcomes, and influence decisions.
• Experience working in agile delivery environments, partnering closely with engineering, data, and QA teams.
• Experience using AI productivity tools (e.g., Microsoft 365 Copilot, Cursor, Atlassian Intelligence/Rovo, Glean or similar) to accelerate analysis, documentation, and delivery.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, Computer Science, Engineering, Supply Chain, Analytics, or related field; or equivalent practical experience.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Five Below‑relevant platforms (e.g., O9 for MFP and attribute planning, ladder planning tools, Oracle Retail or related commercial systems) is a strong plus.
• Background in Planning, Allocation, Merch Finance, or Inventory functions, or substantial experience partnering with these teams.
• Familiarity with product management frameworks (JTBD, journey mapping, MoSCoW, SLIs/SLOs) and their application in enterprise platforms.
• Experience in large‑scale retail or multi‑banner environments where planning and allocation are critical differentiators.
• Experience leading or contributing to large-scale business and IT transformation initiatives (process, technology, or operating model).
• Strong hands-on experience with Azure Databricks (Delta Lake, Unity Catalog) for data exploration, analysis, and validation, along with experience using Power BI.

Responsibilities

• Product Strategy & Vision – Merch Planning Develop and continuously refine a multi‑year product vision and roadmap for the Merch Planning domain, aligned to Five Below’s enterprise strategy, IT Strategy, and Long‑Range Plan (LRP). Translate business strategies for Planning and Buying into clear product outcomes and capabilities across tools like MFP, Attribute planning, Assortment Planning and related planning solutions. Define and socialize product north stars, success metrics (e.g., forecast accuracy, plan cycle time, inventory productivity), and guardrails for the domain.
• Roadmap Ownership & Delivery Own the domain backlog: frame problems, write clear epics and features, and prioritize using data, value, risk, and effort signals. Lead squads through discovery → design → build → test → launch for enhancements, new capabilities, and technical upgrades (e.g., planning engine upgrades, integrations, performance improvements). Partner with Engineering, Architecture, and Data teams to ensure solutions are scalable, resilient, and integrated with upstream and downstream systems (e.g., item/price, inventory, financial systems, reporting). Balance new capability delivery with technical debt, upgrades, platform health, in partnership with product and engineering leadership.
• Stakeholder & Domain Leadership Serve as the product lead for Planning and Buying partners within the MP&A space, translating business strategies, constraints, and stakeholder feedback into a prioritized product plan and roadmap. Facilitate working sessions and workshops to understand current planning processes, pain points, and opportunities; document journeys and Jobs‑to‑Be‑Done to guide solution design. Communicate roadmap, status, risks, and outcomes clearly to business and IT leadership, and broader IT team.
• Product Excellence & Ways of Working Apply strong product management practices (discovery, experimentation, measurement) to ensure we build valuable, usable, and feasible solutions. Define and monitor SLIs/SLOs and operational KPIs for planning platforms in partnership with Engineering and Operations (e.g., job success rates, data freshness, planning cycle SLAs). Drive continuous improvement in backlog hygiene, release quality, incident response, and post‑release learning across your domain. Mentor other Product Managers or Business Analysts in the domain on product craft and domain knowledge, even if not formally managing direct reports.
• Operational Rigor & Compliance Ensure planning solutions are designed and operated in alignment with enterprise architecture, security, data, and audit standards. Partners with IT Operations, Finance, and Audit teams when needed to support walkthroughs, controls, and evidence for key planning processes. Support structured problems and incident management for the domain, ensuring root causes drive backlog items and durable fixes.

Benefits

• Explore our benefits site to discover all the perks and support we offer! From health coverage to financial and personal wellness, we've got you covered—check it out today! benefits.fivebelow.com/public/welcome

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level