Senior Planner - International Retail Company

Job description / Role

Key Roles and Responsibilities:

Financial Planning
- Manage the development of annual, seasonal, monthly and weekly merchandise plans
- Develop and communicate comprehensive department financial and product strategies
- Reconcile top-down and bottoms-up class plans to department plans and forecasts
- Develop pre-season plans and recommend purchase/investment quantities and develop accurate receipt flow forecasts
- Manage monthly department level open-to-buy activities
- Ensure alignment of multiple class plans to department objectives
- Develop multiple class level pricing recommendations and strategies in alignment with department’s financial plans
- Analyze historic performance and planned strategies to identify areas of opportunity or risk
- Develop, maintain and update tools, reports, etc to support the needs of the business
- Provide periodic reporting on business performance

Product Planning
- Partner with Merchants to size and forecast product / brand sales and profit components
- Establish and maintain accurate demand forecasts and execute managing / anticipating product changes, promotions, etc.
- Manage inventory plans from investment through allocation execution, including ongoing evaluation and updates
- Actively participate in assortment development and review, providing data and analysis to support decision-making
- Collaborate on best strategies to address product liabilities and develop action plans to liquidate in a timely and profitable manner
- Develop, maintain and update tools, reports, etc to support the needs of the business
- Evaluate, analyze and report on business metrics

Business Process Management
- Maintain business processes and serve as subject matter expert for process improvements
- Balance workload thru multiple process steps (including buy planning, pre-release forecasting and weekly re-forecasting)
- Act as primary partner for buyers on planning and inventory management processes and operating models
- Develop, maintain and update tools, reports, etc to support the needs of the business


Plan Management - Allocation
- Partner with Allocations Manager to implement consistent and profitable in-season replenishment strategies and practices
- Lead teams in assessing and executing exceptions for in-season replenishment
- Develop department wide risk mitigation plans and execute when appropriate
- Partner with Allocations team to ensure right stock, right place, right quantities, right stores, right time
- Develop, maintain and update tools, reports, etc to support the needs of the business

Requirements

- Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
- 7 + years’ retail experience in Merchandise Planning
- Excellent communication skills in English
- Strong presentation and negotiation skills
- Experience in dealing with high volume planning/merchandising budgets
- Strong decision making skills
- Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite

Skills Required:
- 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: Effective in a variety of presentation settings including one-on-one, small and large groups, and with peers and bosses
- Influencing and Negotiation: Can present ideas and directions that lead others to action
- Planning and 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
- Systems and Tools Acumen: Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access and have aptitude to learn technical applications quickly
- Risk Management: Anticipate risks and identifies contingency plans and processes to prevent disruptions when risks occur
- Possess strong organizational and time management skills
- Demonstrates strong listening, written and oral communication skills

About the Company

Since 2010, our team has successfully placed some of the world’s finest graduate to mid and C-level talent in organisations across EMEA and APAC, and it all comes down to our niche approach and understanding of the market place, skill sets and trends.

From our offices in Dubai, Riyadh, London and Singapore, we run a sector specific operation. Meaning we specialise in your industry and are able to completely understand your vision, provide market insights and intelligence, and deliver the best talent to fit seamlessly into your operations.