Merchandise Planner 3

We are looking for a Merchandise Planner to join our client's pivotal team, where you will serve as a key connective point between global strategy and marketplace execution. You will drive decisions that shape product assortments, strategic investments, and seasonal priorities, directly contributing to the retail performance of a leading global brand. This role combines advanced analytical skills with strategic planning and executive storytelling, offering a unique chance to influence both short-term performance and long-term growth across owned channels.

Key Responsibilities

• **Global Marketplace Planning:** Develop and maintain a forward-looking view of marketplace demand, consumer trends, and product performance. Partner with global and geographic planning teams to build demand plans aligned to seasonal priorities and strategic business objectives. Translate marketplace insights into recommendations that influence assortment, inventory, and investment decisions, driving alignment between global priorities and geographic marketplace needs.
• **Franchise and Assortment Strategy:** Analyze portfolio evolution and category performance across multiple consumer segments and channels. Evaluate opportunities to expand emerging franchises while optimizing existing business drivers. Influence assortment decisions through marketplace insights, performance analysis, and consumer demand signals, partnering with merchandising and product teams to inform future line planning and seasonal product strategies.
• **Business Reviews and Performance Management:** Support creating and updating executive-level scorecards, dashboards, and business reviews that monitor global retail performance. Provide senior leadership with clear perspectives on performance trends, risks, opportunities, and recommended actions. Consolidate insights across owned channels, partner marketplaces, and retail channels into a single marketplace narrative. Support key planning forums, operating reviews, marketplace reviews, and seasonal business checkpoints.
• **Advanced Marketplace Analytics:** Help build scalable analytical frameworks that improve visibility into sales performance, consumer behavior, inventory health, and marketplace trends. Leverage automation, data science, and AI-enabled processes to accelerate decision-making and reporting efficiency. Translate complex datasets into clear business implications and strategic recommendations, developing tools, reporting solutions, and planning methodologies that can be adopted across the broader organization.
• Support critical operations by analyzing reporting and updating stakeholders, and contributing to projects for future merchandising plans.

Required Skills & Experience

• Direct merchandise planning experience.
• Excellent communication skills, capable of conveying complex information clearly and concisely.
• A self-starter with a proactive approach to problem-solving and task management.
• Strong strategic thinking skills, with the ability to connect details to the bigger picture.
• Familiarity with Excel for data analysis and reporting.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguous environments, adapting to evolving priorities.

Nice-to-Have Skills

• 3-5 years of experience in a merchandise planning role.
• A degree in a relevant field.
• Familiarity with AI tools for data analysis and forecasting.
• Wider merchandising knowledge beyond just planning.
• Previous retail experience.

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About Aquent Talent

Aquent connects the best talent in marketing, creative, and design with the world's biggest brands. Our eligible talent get access to amazing benefits like subsidized health, vision, and dental plans, paid sick leave, and retirement plans with a match. We also offer free online training through Aquent Gymnasium. More information on our awesome benefits! Aquent is an equal-opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics. We're about creating an inclusive environment-one where different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are valued, and everyone can contribute, grow their careers, and thrive.