What are the responsibilities and job description for the Director of Merchandise Planning position at At Home?
Job Summary:The Director of Planning is a key leadership role for At Home. This role leads their merchandise planning team through the successful development, execution and communication of financial plans and strategies to meet or exceed sales, gross margin and turn goals. The Director of Planning works in partnership with their DMM to maximize overall financial performance of product categories and is accountable for driving continual success by articulating vision, measuring and developing talent and ensuring successful operations of their planning teams.
Key Roles & Responsibilities:
- Direct the development of divisional, departmental and bottom-up merchandise financial plans; collaborates with DMM and VP Planning to ensure reconciliation of plans back to top-down targets
- Collaborate with DMM to support product planning processes (merchandise strategy, inventory planning, assortment & buy planning) with analytics and reconciliations to merchandise financial plans
- Establish Middle-out sales targets that align with corporate strategies and historical performance
- Reconcile top-down & bottoms-up department plans to division plans and forecasts
- Partner with the DMM to create and present divisional forecasts and action plans for monthly OTB meetings in order to manage opportunities and risks
- Provide timely recommendations and strategic actions to maximize sales, margin, optimize inventory and mitigate risk
- Responsible for overseeing the forecasting process for area of responsibility to ensure adequate product flow based on business trends
- Oversee the allocation process and communicate allocation best practices
- Oversee replenishment strategies and goals with planners
- Lead and/or participate in large scale cross-functional projects, assist in developing business cases, and driving accountability for systems adoption and stability
- Build a high-quality planning team by developing partnerships, leading, coaching and providing constructive feedback
- Facilitate a team environment between Buying and Planning organizations that is collaborative, innovative and results-orientated
- Evaluate techniques, processes and systems with management to identify improvement areas
- Support initiatives to develop and maintain best practices to constantly improve efficacy and efficiency of the planning organization
- Balance workload priorities across division and departments to ensure successful execution of merchandise plans and allocation strategies
- Accountable for career development and skill development of teams to ensure job satisfaction, retention and future talent development
- Lead goal setting process to meet brand and individual development objectives
SKILLS REQUIRED:
- A strong track record of successful operation and management of a team of planning professionals
- Strong analytical and problem- solving skills; thinks conceptually and strategically
- Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, Access or other Data Warehouse / Business Intelligence tools
- Business Acumen: Ability to evaluate business indicators and translate data into actionable results.
- Analytic Skills: Ability to think objectively and interpret meaningful themes from quantitative and qualitative data
- Financial and Business Acumen: Ability to evaluate financial and business indicators and translate data into actionable information to drive results; proficiency in retail math
- Problem Solving & Decision Quality: Able to use rigorous logic and methods to solve problems with effective solutions
- Relationship Management: Able to build constructive and effective relationships with a broad and diverse group of business partners
- Presentation Skills: Strong story-telling ability to synthesize data and strategies into conclusions and recommendations
- Influencing & Negotiation: Can present ideas and directions that lead others to action
- Planning & Priority Setting: Demonstrate an ability to set objectives and goals and organize work appropriately to meet and exceed goals
- Process Management: Can identify and articulate the processes necessary to get things down efficiently and align resources effectively complete activities
- Demonstrated ability to roll-up sleeves and work with team members in a hands-on management capacity
QUALIFICATIONS:
- 6 -10 years retail experience
- 3 - 5 years Merchandise planning and allocation experience
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
