Lead Assortment Planner

WHO YOU’LL WORK WITH
You will be part of the Planning team, reporting directly to the Sales Planning Director. You will be part of a cross-functional matrix, working with stakeholders across Merchandise Financial Planning, Merchandising, Retail, Brand and Supply Chain. You will be a critical stakeholder, building strong relationships to deliver mutual profitability and aligned financial goals.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR
We’re looking for a Lead Assortment Planner to drive consumer-based franchise/merch class plans to optimize sales, margin and profitable sustainable growth for our Nike Marketplace Partners while ensuring consumer demand is met, and a healthy pull market is maintained. The success of this role relies on cross functional collaboration and strong stakeholder management both internally and with our partners. Our best assortment planners step up to address difficult issues, operate effectively when the way forward isn’t clear, think strategically, and develop innovative ideas to deliver success.

• 5 years+ retail planning experience, in a vertical retail or wholesale environment and a bachelor’s degree in business, finance, sales, retail, supply chain, economics or related fields.
• Demonstrated experience in assortment planning with an understanding of financial metrics, retail KPIs, product and inventory planning.
• Strong influencing and stakeholder management experience and confidence to engage with multiple cross functional teams.
• You are proactive and have strong written and verbal communication skills, including ability to design and deliver compelling communications grounded in data.
• Demonstrated problem solving and critical thinking skills focused on developing accurate plans that optimize trade-offs and outcomes.
• You think beyond prescribed solutions, leveraging industry & market trends to maximize business outcomes.
• Strong Excel skills essential.

WHAT YOU’LL WORK ON
Assortment planning is integral to the overall team’s success. Working across pre-season, in-season and post-season horizons, this role is responsible for developing seasonal plans inclusive of sales, gross margin, and inventory for critical franchises/merch classes. Using your strong planning experience, product knowledge and consumer insights, you will help to optimize and evolve the product line and implement franchise/merch class strategies.

• Develop robust stock & sales plans for critical franchises/merch classes to drive in-season decision-making and forecast seasonal OTB investment/bookings, including depth, flow and SKU efficiency.
• Lead post-season reviews at the franchise/merch class grain, including brand campaign performance by SKU and share insights to drive future growth opportunities.
• Lead conversations with our partners grounded in analysis, to develop action plans on risk and opportunity.