VP, Front Room Merchandising

Advance Auto Parts•Raleigh, NC

19h•Hybrid

About The Position

The Vice President, Front Room Merchandising provides enterprise leadership for category strategy, portfolio performance, and merchandising execution across assigned businesses. The role translates company strategy into an integrated category agenda that strengthens customer relevance, supplier value, and profitable growth across DIY, Professional, and eCommerce channels. It owns the performance of a broad category portfolio and establishes the operating mechanisms, talent, and cross-functional alignment needed to achieve sales, gross margin, inventory productivity, working capital, cash flow, and return on invested capital objectives. As a senior merchandising executive, the Vice President leads category leaders, advises executive leadership, and builds strategic partnerships across Merchandising, Supply Chain, Finance, Marketing, Inventory, Store Operations, eCommerce, and the supplier community. The role sets priorities, makes enterprise tradeoffs, and ensures category plans deliver consistent execution and measurable business outcomes. The position is hybrid, based at the corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, with four days in the office and one day remote.

Requirements

15+ years of progressive experience in category management, merchandising, strategic sourcing, procurement, supplier management, or a related commercial discipline, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
7–10+ years of significant people leadership experience, including leading leaders and building high-performing teams.
Demonstrated ownership of a large, complex category portfolio and delivery of measurable outcomes across sales, margin, inventory, working capital, cash flow, and/or return on invested capital.
Proven success shaping enterprise strategy, leading transformation, and influencing executive stakeholders across multiple functions.
Extensive experience leading complex supplier relationships and high-value negotiations.
Exceptional financial acumen, analytical judgment, strategic thinking, communication, and executive presence.

Nice To Haves

Undergraduate degree in Business Administration or a related field preferred.
Advanced degree is a plus.

Responsibilities

Establish the vision, strategic direction, and multi-year roadmap for a broad portfolio of categories, aligned with company strategy and the customer value proposition.
Identify emerging categories, portfolio opportunities, and category role shifts using industry, competitor, customer, and consumer trends.
Integrate category strategies across assortment, branding, innovation, pricing, promotion, space, marketing, digital, and supply chain to maximize enterprise value.
Allocate resources and investment across categories based on strategic importance, growth potential, customer needs, and financial return.
Create operating rhythms that improve category planning, decision quality, accountability, and execution across the organization and supplier community.
Own portfolio-level business performance, including sales, gross margin, gross margin rate, inventory productivity, working capital, cash flow, and return on invested capital.
Provide executive leadership in developing strategic financial plans, annual operating plans, budgets, forecasts, and performance commitments.
Establish portfolio-level financial guardrails, risk tolerance, and investment criteria for pricing, promotion, assortment, inventory, and vendor programs.
Use customer, market, competitive, and financial insights to identify performance gaps, prioritize value-creation opportunities, and accelerate corrective action.
Lead complex business decisions and enterprise tradeoffs that balance near-term performance with sustainable long-term growth.
Define supplier strategy across the portfolio, including segmentation, joint business planning, innovation, sourcing, performance expectations, and risk management.
Serve as executive sponsor for strategic supplier relationships and build partnerships that improve customer value, differentiation, profitability, and supply continuity.
Establish negotiation strategies and enterprise positions for high-value, complex, or top-tier supplier negotiations.
Align sourcing objectives and supplier investments with category strategy, company priorities, and available resources.
Monitor macroeconomic conditions, cost drivers, regulatory changes, and supply-base dynamics to anticipate risk and protect business performance.
Translate corporate vision into clear merchandising and category priorities, operating plans, and measurable outcomes.
Lead enterprise-wide initiatives requiring alignment across Merchandising, Supply Chain, Finance, Marketing, Inventory, Store Operations, and eCommerce.
Influence executive and senior leaders to resolve competing priorities, remove barriers, and accelerate execution.
Create governance, decision rights, and accountability for strategic category initiatives and cross-functional work.
Communicate strategy and business rationale clearly to internal and external audiences to ensure consistent understanding and execution.
Build and lead a high-performing organization of category leaders and teams, setting clear expectations for strategy, commercial judgment, collaboration, and results.
Develop succession plans and a strong leadership pipeline through coaching, differentiated development, talent movement, and meaningful career opportunities.
Set the standard for inclusive leadership, constructive challenge, disciplined decision-making, and enterprise collaboration.
Design the organizational capabilities, roles, processes, and ways of working needed to deliver category strategy.
Create an environment where teams use data, customer insight, and financial acumen to make timely, high-quality decisions.
Think enterprise-first and make decisions that optimize total company value.
Set a compelling direction and convert strategy into disciplined execution.
Build trust, align stakeholders, and communicate with clarity and consistency.
Develop leaders, strengthen organizational capability, and hold teams accountable for results.
Balance customer needs, commercial outcomes, operational realities, and long-term growth.