Merchandising Operations Manager

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in California, +11 more states.

📋 Description

• Analyze the current merchandising operations to understand how they function in reality, rather than how they are represented in the organizational chart.

• Revamp essential operational processes to enhance speed, accuracy, and margin protection, including assortment planning, item setup, pricing and markdown, vendor and PO management, allocation, and replenishment.

• Manage the calendar that aligns marketing activations with inventory to ensure that product launches are supported by stock and do not catch the warehouse off guard.

• Convert activation plans into signals for buying, allocation, and replenishment; identify stock risks prior to launch rather than post-launch.

• Oversee vendor commitments associated with activations, focusing on fill rates, lead times, and launch quantities.

• Develop self-service tools and proactive alerts that enhance the buyer-vendor relationship, providing visibility into vendor performance.

• Create automation independently, utilizing Claude and similar AI tools, no/low-code platforms, and lightweight automation, from the initial concept to the final rollout.

• Conduct end-to-end pilot programs: define scope, build, test for accuracy, validate fit, and scale, while ensuring human involvement in decisions critical to margin and inventory.

• Maintain a registry of approved tools and active automations, ensuring clarity on existing resources and their purposes.

• Lead change management for all rollouts, including training, AI literacy for non-technical audiences, office hours, and a group of power users.

• Generate reports on process and automation effectiveness, using the insights to prioritize future developments.

⛳️ Requirements

• Deep understanding of retail merchandising operations, not merely adjacent functions observed from a distance.

• Experience in mapping out a flawed process and redesigning it, rather than just identifying issues.

• Basic technical skills with a genuine eagerness to create, no engineering background necessary.

• Ability to collaborate with a specialist team as a coaching resource rather than a build team, accepting their guidance without relinquishing your responsibilities.

• Experience running a pilot from scoping to adoption, with awareness of the differences between a demonstration and a practical, usable solution.

• Attention to detail regarding essential documentation, standard operating procedures, registries, and training materials that endure beyond the individual who created them.

• Ability to think in terms of workflows and root causes rather than just addressing tickets.

• Understanding the distinction between problems that are worth automating and those that should remain as they are.

🏝️ Benefits

• Competitive benefits package including medical, vision, and dental coverage.

• Equity options, as shared success is fundamental to our mission.

• Flexible Paid Time Off, prioritizing results over hours worked.

• Complimentary VIP membership and a 50% employee discount.

• Opportunity to work for a company committed to making a positive impact on the world by creating innovative products and funding initiatives that benefit the planet!