Director, Assortment Planning

The Director of Assortment Planning is responsible for leveraging consumer and customer insights to drive optimized assortment strategies that meet financial and customer satisfaction goals. This role involves leading a team of assortment planning managers, collaborating with cross-functional teams, and ensuring alignment with overall business strategies. The position requires a blend of strategic leadership, data-driven decision-making, and operational excellence to create a competitive edge in-store and online.

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership and Strategic Projects:

• Provide expert leadership over strategic projects and workstreams with broad cross-functional and enterprise-level impact.

• Partner with store operations, core merchandising, inventory management, and finance to ensure alignment of enterprise strategy and project/program strategy.

• Lead key cross-functional initiatives by evaluating and understanding customer insights, market trends, competitive intelligence, and other forces impacting current and future business performance.

Assortment Strategy Development:

• Develop and execute assortment strategies with a customer-back approach through Product Line Reviews, weekly business reviews, and other company initiatives and processes.

• Collaborate with GMMs and MVPs to define assortment tactics needed to deliver business strategy and category growth.

• Guide the Assortment Planning team to deliver assortment plans for merchant initiatives, end-to-end product line reviews, and business reviews for assigned businesses and store projects.

• Oversee merchandise assortment plans, item and assortment planning to execute the merchant vision in support of strategic and financial objectives.

• Partner with GMM and Category Director to ensure alignment of merchandise assortment and item plans to the category strategy and merchant vision.

Analytical Leadership:

• Analyze, review, and identify assortment opportunities using a suite of strategic and analytical solutions (e.g., Category Optimization, Store clustering, Competitive intelligence).

• Partner with Merchandising, Inventory Planning, and Finance to influence category strategies, create resolutions, and drive execution.

• Technology and Process Improvement:

• Partner with Product, Business Analytics, and Engineering teams to ensure stability of existing tech and development of new tools that drive category growth through analytical decision-making and efficient execution.

• Drive organizational adoption of assortment planning business processes and technology through change management, training, and performance reporting.

Team Development and Training:

• Hire, train, and develop a team of leaders and experts who utilize a balance of design thinking and data-driven problem-solving to drive business growth.

• Establish and implement robust training programs to enhance the skills and knowledge of the Assortment Planning team.

• Provide ongoing coaching and mentorship to associates, guiding them to achieve personal and professional goals and aspirations.

• Foster a culture of continuous learning and development, encouraging team members to stay updated with industry trends and best practices.

• Develop clear career paths and progression plans for team members, promoting internal growth and retention of top talent.

Communication and Reporting:

• Communicate with multiple levels of senior leadership across merchandising, supply chain, and store operations on projects and initiatives.

• Provide ongoing status updates, recommend mitigation tactics, and course-correct decisions to drive continuous improvement.

Customer Experience Differentiation:

• Create a customer experience in-store and online that differentiates products and services from competitors.

• Develop vision and strategy on breadth and depth of assortment by clusters, ensuring a superior on-shelf merchandising experience that aligns with category strategy and meets financial and customer expectations.

This role requires a visionary leader who can integrate consumer insights with strategic planning to enhance the company's competitive edge through superior assortment planning and execution. The ideal candidate will be a strong advocate for talent development, providing direction and guidance to build a high-performing team capable of driving significant business growth.

Experience:

• 6+ years experience

• Bachelor's degree (BA / BS / BFA) or equivalent

• Deep understanding of and experience in retail planning

• Expertise in planning methodologies including assortment planning, item planning, merchandise financial planning and store clustering

• Strong analytical and financial analysis skills

• Experience collaborating with Merchandising and Inventory Management professionals to deliver business results.

• Strong communication and leadership skills to manage people and teams.

• Excellent communication skills and ability to interact with all levels of management.