Visual Merchandising Program Manager

Meijer•Grand Rapids, MI

About The Position

As a family company, we serve people and communities. When you work at Meijer, you’re provided with career and community opportunities centered around leadership, personal growth and development. Consider joining our family – take care of your career and your community! Meijer Rewards Weekly pay Scheduling flexibility Paid parental leave Paid education assistance Team member discount Development programs for advancement and career growth Please review the job profile below and apply today! The Marketing Operations team is responsible for increasing efficiencies and driving results within the Meijer Marketing department by establishing, managing and optimizing effective processes that empower teams to maximize performance. The Visual Merchandising team is responsible for creating a customer-focused, efficient shopping environment through the management of the overall look of Meijer stores through semi-permanent signage (i.e., wayfinding, business area signage, seasonal graphics). This includes, but is not limited to, maintaining communication with all stakeholders, managing workflows, timelines, and budgets in the development of all visual merchandising signage, as well as closely collaborating with key internal and external partners. The Visual Merchandising (VM) Program Manager plays a pivotal role in orchestrating large-scale, cross-functional initiatives that shape the in-store customer experience through strategic visual communication. This role is responsible for leading the end-to-end execution of visual merchandising programs across enterprise-wide initiatives, ensuring alignment marketing strategy and operational timelines. This role is also responsible for effectively communicating with cross-functional partners, facilitating meetings throughout the visual signage development processes, and ensuring processes are being adhered to, while proactively identifying areas of improvement for the overall process. While this role is an individual contributor, the VM Program Manager leads the Visual Merchandising Squad within the Marketing Agile Train, comprised of VM Specialists, Designers, Copywriters and Proofreaders. This role must be adept at defining project scopes, setting timelines, securing approvals, and communicating details from key stakeholders across Merchandising & Marketing teams. This involves planning, assigning, scheduling, supporting and proactively facilitating projects through completion, as well as reporting on all incoming projects to leadership and key stakeholders. The position requires close attention to visual signage project risks for facilitating resolution with input from key stakeholders. The VM Program Manager will work closely with internal and external agency partners and all levels of leadership. Ability to lead through influence and impact is critical. This job profile is not meant to be all inclusive of the responsibilities of this position. May perform other duties as assigned or required.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree
4+ years of experience in marketing and/or project management.
Strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to be an empathetic listener and effective communicator.
Able to work cross-functionally across business areas, with all levels of Meijer team members, project leads, leadership and vendor partners.
Familiarity with Lean-Agile principles, including understanding of the “Scrum Master” role within an Agile Train.
Professionally represents the Marketing department internally and externally.
Strong planning and tracking/controlling skills.
Ability to think critically, plan long-term and react short-term, and juggle multiple tasks.
Exceptional organizational skills and ability to manage details.
Ability to lead peers, including through ambiguous situations.
Strong customer service orientation and skills.
Knowledge of Corporate financial and fiscal year budgeting processes.
Excellent written, verbal and oral communication skills.
Ability to work with Microsoft Office Tools.
Willing to travel to various store locations, as needed.

Responsibilities

Partners across all levels of Marketing and Merchandising business partners at the onset of a project, and throughout, to understand the scope, allocate appropriate internal/external resources, and define a critical path forward for visual signage.
Develops and maintains program roadmaps, aligning visual merchandising initiatives with broader marketing and business goals. Anticipates resource needs and proactively mitigates risks.
Serves as the central point of contact for internal and external stakeholders. Facilitates alignment meetings, secures approvals, and ensures transparency through regular updates and reporting.
Identifies and implements process improvements to increase efficiency, reduce bottlenecks, and enhance collaboration across teams. Champions a culture of continuous improvement and operational excellence.
Facilitates all daily Visual Merchandising Squad meetings, including Planning, Backlog Refinement & Stand-Ups and ensures Visual Merchandising Squad remains focused on and delivers against iteration goals, specific to PI objectives.
Leads Visual Merchandising Squad during Marketing Train events, including PI Planning every 10 weeks.
Partners with Manager, Visual Merchandising & Manager, Project Management to increase effectiveness and efficiency by driving process improvements across the Marketing department.
Ensures that requested projects have necessary leadership approvals, prior to kick-off.
Coordinates the initial detail and information needed to start each project and assigns to appropriate Squad/team members.
Aids in organizing people, tasks, project timelines, production and resolving issues.
Successfully supports multiple projects at any given time.
Maintains proper documentation and files for reference and resource.
Defines and manages project risks with input from stakeholders, elevates risks and facilitates resolutions.
Owns monitoring and maintaining begin to end schedules for each project.
Owns and operates daily within visual merchandising project management tools, including Microsoft’s Azure DevOps (VSTS), Ziflow and Miro.
Effectively communicates deadlines, volume and resource utilization as well as risks.
Develops relationships with agency and internal customers to earn respect and trust while managing large campaigns, and monitoring agency responsibilities.