Director, Inventory and Planning

Our family of brands comprises Schoolhouse, the lighting, home furnishings, and lifestyle brand based in Portland, Oregon; Food52, the community-driven cooking and home company, based in Brooklyn, New York; and Dansk, the heritage home brand founded in 1954.

Food52; Schoolhouse; Dansk is looking for a highly qualified (Integrated Business) Director of Inventory and Planning to support our shared services Supply Chain Planning organization to ensure the company's goals and initiatives are met. This role will have frequent interaction with commercial functions at the Executive and Senior management levels.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Inventory and Planning team is responsible for building and managing merchandise financial and SKU level plans that optimize for sales growth, margin and turn, ensuring delivery of the business annual operating plan, while minimizing excess and obsolete inventory. We are a trusted partner to the merchandising organization, providing insight into sales trends, inventory productivity and exit strategies. We are “numbers” people with a passion for analyzing and synthesizing data into forecast models, constantly updating plans in reaction to sales trends. This will require assessing supply inventory requirements, managing product flow, and ensuring company demand, supply and order fulfillment goals and KPIs are achieved. It is critical that the Director collaborates with functional leaders to identify the root cause of variances to plans, and recommends and drives solutions to constraints across the supply chain. This person should have expertise in Integrated Business Planning (demand-supply-inventory-financial planning) process design and a proven track record of successfully deploying and implementing improvements to existing planning processes, systems and tools.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Lead the Team:

• Build, mentor, and manage the Planning team
• Establish a culture of excellence, collaboration, continuous improvement, and accountability within the team
• Provide leadership, communication, coaching, motivation, and recognition of employees to strengthen competencies to optimize team’s and individuals’ professional growth

Develop and Execute Planning/Inventory Strategies:

• Define and implement a comprehensive inventory planning strategy aligned with financial, sales, and operational goals
• Implement and manage IBP/S&OP processes, including effective and efficient Demand Reviews and Supply Reviews
• Review business and strategy with executive merchandising staff. Identify trends, opportunities and actions necessary to maximize objectives
• Develop bottoms-up, rolling 12-month SKU demand forecasts, coordinating and proactively communicating changes in a timely manner across the organization to ensure minimal disruption to the operating plans
• Oversee category-level inventory planning, ensuring the alignment of assortment plans, buy plans, and replenishment strategies – all at the SKU level – with business needs
• Leverage Supply Review and other established forums for proactive and timely communication to senior management of potential supply chain interruptions along with possible solutions
• Drive inventory efficiency by improving inventory turns, overseeing inventory accuracy, minimizing excess stock, reducing out-of-stocks, and ensuring optimal inventory levels across all channels

Enhance Inventory Optimization:

• Review current business and take appropriate action to maximize inventory productivity (daily, weekly, monthly)
• Lead weekly business review updates to communicate inventory position and risk
• Review and forecast sales, expenses and cost of goods and take appropriate action
• Monitor and manage inventory flow and collaborate with the Supply Chain team to ensure that inventory levels are within target to achieve service requirements for manufactured and purchased finished goods based on SKU-level forecasts, vendor performance, demand variation and customer expectations
• Collaborate cross functionally to measure, improve, and report forecast accuracy
• Collaborate with commercial teams to understand and ensure plans are in place for customer and sales driven events outside of normal demand
• Coordinate with Merchants for proper visibility into demand and timing of New Product Introductions and phase outs to optimize revenue and minimize Excess & Obsolete inventory

Foster Cross-Functional Collaboration:

• Partner with key stakeholders in Merchandising, Buying, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, and other departments to ensure inventory plans meet company objectives
• Act as the primary advocate for inventory planning in cross-functional discussions, ensuring alignment and accountability
• Collaborate and drive alignment with key stakeholders across the business to execute the Integrated Business Planning process and cadence

Utilize Data-Driven Insights:

• Leverage advanced forecasting and analytics tools to monitor inventory performance and adjust strategies proactively.
• Provide regular reporting and insights to senior leadership, highlighting opportunities and risks

Drive Process Improvement:

• Identify and implement tools, processes, and best practices to optimize inventory performance across channels
• Continuously assess and refine planning processes to enhance accuracy, agility, and efficiency
• Lead the implementation of new workflows, systems, and technologies to support the company's scaling operations
• Monitor, evaluate and influence supply chain planning process changes to synchronize information and product flows to proactively prevent supply disruptions and quickly pivot to support new business opportunities

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Supply Chain or Industrial Engineering
• 10 years of hands-on combined experience in Demand Planning, Supply Planning, Inventory Management or other Supply Chain disciplines
• 5 years people management experience
• Previous hands-on experience leading the implementation or execution of Integrated Business Planning (IBP) process, S&OP or related business planning process
• Strong understanding of ERP/MRP fundamentals
• Advanced excel skills : demonstrated ability to quickly manipulate large raw data sets to produce reporting that is intuitive and easy to read/understand, advanced formulas and pivot table, and macros knowledge a MAJOR PLUS.
• Power Point : demonstrated ability to summarize analysis into slides appropriate for distribution across the organization/management
• APICs Certification or similar is a plus
• Strategic and Analytical Capability -- Ability to think strategically, and objectively. Effectively translates data into actionable insights, strategies and financial plans
• Leading Teams -- Attracts, develops and motives the talent needed for current and future business requirements. Articulates an inspiring vision for the future, establishes high performance expectations and sets examples through own behavior. Ensures alignment of individual goals with overall business objectives.
• Drive for Results -- Credibility earned through delivering results. Balances urgent and effective action, commitment to excellence, taking initiative to resolve problems and work quality. Demonstrates high initiative and provides leadership in a project-oriented environment
• Effective Communication -- Communicates clearly and effectively both internally with associates at all levels, and with external partners. Strong verbal and written presentation skills including the ability to communicate complex ideas in a simple way and to tailor key messages and presentation style to multiple audiences
• Influence and Collaboration -- Builds and sustains collaborative relationships at multiple levels in the company. Able to work through complex disagreements and conflict to achieve resolution. Builds trust by including others and by keeping the cross-functional teams focused on the success of the entire company. A team player.

WORKING AT FOOD52, SCHOOLHOUSE & DANSK

We are committed to providing our team with a competitive benefits package. Some of our benefits for include:

• Health benefits (medical, dental, and vision)
• Unlimited paid time off
• Monthly fitness reimbursement
• Citibike (NYC) or BikeTown (PDX) company-sponsored annual membership
• Generous employee discount across our brand portfolio
• 401K
• FSA / HSA

EEO STATEMENT

Food52 is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace, providing equal employment and advancement opportunities to all team members. We evaluate candidates without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or other protected characteristics as required by law and as a matter of our company values.