Senior Manager Merchandising Cs Em

Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organisation:_
- You will be responsible for maximizing the sales, profitability & brand equity of the Emerging Markets retail & franchise organization by building and leading the merchandising pre-season strategy for full price owned channels. _
- You will be driving and constantly innovating all processes around connecting financial ambitions to product planning acting as the HUB representative for owned brick&mortar channels between brand & regional stakeholders. You will own merchandising & financial planning (i.e. Open to buy), store clustering, grading & option planning, space planning and support the regional merchandising teams on assortments strategies as well as in-season operations._
- You will be among the EM SPOC for enhancing merchandising tech capabilities as requested by the business._
- You will play a key role in standardizing a merchandising way of working across regional teams through upskilling and implementing effective retail centric standards._
- Key Responsibilities:_
- _Work with Senior Director/Director Merch in executing EM OR merchandising goals and ensure deployment by working collaboratively with clusters teams._
- _Deliver financial targets including Net sales, Sell through, Standard margin._
- _Lead pre-season planning including Open-To-Buy (OTB) plan, pre-season product planning, option planning, forecasting (including handover to BUs, clusters & Demand Planning) for owned full price brick & mortar channels._
- _Support the deployment of ranges and assortment planning strategies for own retail & franchise stores in collaboration with the brand team._
- _Review Open-To-Buy (OTB) & seasonal buy plans of regional teams and drive changes to the strategy where needed to ensure the right level of stock based on commerciality and brand vision. _
- _Support clusters in maintaining a healthy stock level pre-season & in-season_
- _Work closely with the Business Solution Team to meet world class merchandising best practice._
- _Work with Director in mapping the merchandising process and define appropriate merchandising capabilities enhancement for the market._
- _Work with the Director to define the methodology of option and space management. Lead clusters through deployment of the same._
- _Develop a trading framework between HUB & clusters_
- _Contribute to the development of key merchandising reports and be responsible for its implementation in markets._
- _Review in season stock cover and drive actions with the regional teams._
- _Identify and maximize new & in season business opportunities by understanding and executing on respective channel potentials._
- _Liaise with markets to ensure they implement the correct end of season management to maximize clearance and minimize cost of reduction._
- _Store visits as needed and advised by the business (expected ratio office/travel is 80%/20%)_
- _Role model the leadership framework and ONE EM mindset._
- _Lead and develop your own team_
- _Interface with key stakeholders including Marketing, Visual Merchandising (VM), Store Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, Logistics_
- _Drive innovation across the function in terms of process automation and optimisation to improve availability across channels_
- Key Relationships:_
- _Bus (category merchandising), CTC (Concept-to-Consumer)_
- _Retail Operations_
- _Marketing activation_
- _Demand Planning_
- _Supply chain_
- _Retail leads_
- _Finance/Controlling_
- _Relevant Global Teams - Merchandising, CTC._
- Knowledge, Skills and Abilities_
- :_
- _You are an absolute team player who puts WE before I_
- _You can be seen as a role model for leadership and influencing capabilities_
- _You are a confident about your retail merchandising & product expertise and can be seen as an expert_
- _You understand the E2E retail merchandising stream in detail and can effectively upskill team members_
- _You have a strong analytic background and a good eye for product_
- _You can navigate the ambiguity of a matrix organization_
- _You are proactive and finding solutions to business needs motivates you_
- _Ability to work effectively under pressure and with multiple diverse regions_
- _Strong trading mindset, with an entrepreneurial flair to maximize business opportunities._
- _Fluent in English and other language(s) is an advantage_
- Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications:_
- _University degree, ideally in business with marketing and sales focus
- MBA a plus_
- _Retail Merchandising expertise required _
- _Total of 5-8 years experience with minimum 5+ years’ leadership / directorial / head of dept experience of core buying &merchandising function preferably in a retail organization, with broad-based experience working with fashion franchises, vertical and multichannel retailers. Experience working with a Sporting Goods retailer is preferred._
- _Functional awareness of store operations, Visual Merchandising, Marketing Activation, Human Resources, Financ