Merchandise Planning Director

THE COMPANY: BIRDY GREY

Birdy Grey is a direct-to-consumer brand whose mission is to celebrate and elevate friendships during one of the most important milestones in a person’s life: THE WEDDING. 

Founded in 2017 by best friends Grace Lee (CEO & Founder) and Monica Ashauer (President & Co-Founder), Birdy Grey offers affordable bridesmaid dresses starting at $100, and fun gifts and accessories for everyone in the bridal party. Brides and bridesmaids alike count on Birdy Grey for their most important day—so much so that we’ve dressed over half a million bridesmaids (and counting) in less than 5 years.

THE OPPORTUNITY: Merchandise Planning Director

REPORTS TO: SVP of Merch & Planning

LOCATION: LA - Hybrid

Headquartered in Los Angeles, CA with an office in New York, NY, Birdy Grey supports hybrid work for eligible roles. This role requires working out of DTLA office 3 days a week. his role is not eligible for visa sponsorship. #LI-Hybrid

The Director of Merchandise Planning reports into the Sr VP of Merchandising and Planning and will own the planning function at Birdy Grey with a key focus on building out new planning tools, processes and a team as Birdy Grey enters into a new phase of growth (including but not limited to pre-season planning, open to buy, inventory reporting) and adapting it to the size of our business. The Director of Planning will drive inventory management and product planning strategies to achieve sales and inventory goals as well as gross margin benchmarks. This person will lead all financial product planning functionality including core product replenishment, Open-To-Buy and sales forecasting, trend forecasting, inventory management and markdown cadence. The ideal candidate has a strong foundation of traditional planning expertise as well as  experience excelling in a high growth and fast-paced environment, strong quantitative, organizational and analytical skills and the ability to foster relationships with cross-functional teams and peers to deliver results.

SCOPE OF RESPONSIBILITIES

• Identify structural opportunities and drive the  implementation and adoption of new processes around pre-season planning, open to buy and inventory reporting
• Build detailed sales and inventory plans incorporating revenue targets and investment levels across categories
• Lead Open-to-Buy discussions and manage the budgeting process, partnering closely with Finance to align on seasonal investments, inventory strategies, and receipt flow 
• Determine promotional strategies and markdown cadence; Hindsight promotions, utilizing partners where needed, to understand customer behavior, elasticity and overall success across metrics. Provide recommendations to Merchandising and Planning  for promotional structures, strategies and product inclusion 
• KPIs: Inventory Turn, WOS, Gross Margin, Achieving Forecast
• Partner with our external replenishment software system partners to monitor and improve forecast accuracy
• Partner closely with the Merchandising team on creating the assortment strategy based on historical swatch and dress sales data, trends, and newness and expected cannibalization and incrementality,  which will inform the open-to-buy strategy and allocation 
• Build a pre-season sales and inventory plan, including hindsight analysis, classplans, and lineplans, Own in-season management of the assortment including new category testing, stockout management and markdowns
• Create monthly reforecast based on Finance and Merch guidance
• Analyze category performance to identify risks and opportunities

THE RIGHT CANDIDATE: QUALIFICATIONS & PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

EDUCATION: Bachelor’s Degree Required 

EXPERIENCE / REQUIREMENTS:

• 6-12  years of Merchandise Planning experience at a large fashion & apparel retailer, including extensive experience managing the pre-season planning, in-season reforecasting, and open-to-buy allocation process. 
• 2+ years of Merchandise Planning experience at a fast-growing direct-to-consumer startup
• Experience leading and managing a team of at least 3 people
• Advanced proficiency in MS Excel, excellent retail math skills,  and strong  financial acumen to extract analytical insights and make data-driven decisions 
• Excellent written/verbal communication and presentation skills to gain support both internally and externally with plans and concepts
• Strong problem solving, interpersonal and organizational skills
• Flexible and able to perform well in a fast-paced, rapidly changing environment
• A resourceful mindset & can-do attitude
• Challenges team & partners to take calculated risks
• Work out of the Los Angeles office in Downtown LA at least 2-3 days per week, to facilitate in-person collaboration with cross-functional partners including the Merchandising team

NICE TO HAVES:

• Start-up experience 
• Interest in bridal and fashion