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Director - Merchandising
Cornerstone Brands
West Chester, OH, United States
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The Director of Merchandising leads a team in driving sales, growth and margin results, supporting the total business and brand objectives based on a robust understanding of the customer. He/She collaborates to develop the seasonal growth strategy for a collection of categories based upon a detailed knowledge of the brand objectives, understanding of the customer and understanding of the competition and overall market trend/ trend forecast. He/she critically evaluates the assortment and reacts to sales and current trends, influencing the product pipeline and translating to future seasons. The Director is the primary contact for Design, Planning, Creative, and Marketing to ensure the Merchandising vision is communicated and consistently executed across digital, catalog, and retail channels of business. He/She must possess strong leadership skills and holds responsibility for driving cross-functional communication/ collaboration and motivating the team to be customer-focused, innovative, and team-oriented. The Director demonstrates strategic thinking as it relates to long term growth strategies for their category.
Responsibilities:
Leadership and Strategy
• Align department with annual category growth objectives, actively reacting to shifts in performance
• Demonstrates a holistic approach and champions cross-category alignment and partnership
• Develops and maintains effective working relationships with members of cross-functional teams by leading critical business meetings that impact forward strategy and prioritization of work load for direct reports and cross functional partners
• Drive category alignment and collaboration between design and planning partners
• Leads day to day communication between all members of the team
• Demonstrates the leadership courage to identify and take smart, calculated risks.
Financial
• Accountable for sales, growth, and margin targets for the department, recognizing opportunities for incremental growth and risk management
• Develop departmental architecture by season and cascade to merchant and planning, ensuring plans stay within the financial framework of the total category
• Collaborate across departments to build and cascade seasonal hindsight, focusing on impact to forward strategy in building financial architecture, product assortments, and inventory investments
• Ensure price value relationship is in line with consumer expectation and the competitive environment
• Understand product trends and historical data at the category level in order to manage opportunities
• Partner with Planning to maximize inventory investment and product availability
Product
• Lead the assortment planning processes to maximize digital, catalog, and retail productivity while ensuring a brand appropriate product offering.
• Effectively manage and quantify category opportunities through the execution and prioritization of new product launches, launch testing, seasonal newness, and core product exit strategies
• Drive cross functional partnership to influence product pipeline, delivering an assortment that correlates with the positioning of the brand, trend and opportunity, and meets the needs of our consumer.
• Understand competitive environment; proactively seeking market knowledge
Talent
• Train, motivate and develop team to ensure effective performance and growth through consistent on-the-job training
• Architect the Merchant Training and Development curriculum by identifying skill set opportunities, providing a holistic learning experience by level, impacting business results through constant improvement of team
• Act as a role model within the company by coaching and mentoring team members to work holistically together to achieve results
Qualifications:
• Bachelor’s degree in Merchandising, Marketing, or related field or equivalent experience
• 10+ years of Brand Development and Merchandise Buying experience with 5+ years of management experience. Experience in a home brand a plus.
• Successful track record in driving business growth and bottom line results
• Ability to innovate change through visionary thinking
• Excellent taste level with proven talent to create a cohesive viewpoint
• Proven leadership experience inspiring a team
• Strong presentation, listening, verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to mentor and train direct and indirect reports
• Ability to adapt well to diverse audiences and environments
• Systems savvy
• Ability to travel both domestically and international
• Experience in partnering with domestic and international vendor base.