Assistant Buyer

Columbia Sportswear Company; Longview (WA); Hybrid; USD 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401k with company match

Medical, dental, vision insurance

Life Insurance

Disability insurance

Flexible spending accounts

Employee discounts

Generous time off

Job summary

Columbia Sportswear Company is seeking an Assistant Buyer to support seasonal buying strategies, analytics, and reporting. You will collaborate with product line managers, allocation, planning, store operations, and other partners to inform go-to-market decisions.

The role emphasizes data-driven pricing and promotions, building catalogs, and delivering accurate reports using Excel and Power BI dashboards. A bachelor’s degree and 1–3 years buying experience are expected; hybrid work with four

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equiv. experience required.
• 1–3 years buying, retail merchandising, or allocation experience.
• Proficient in Excel, Word and PowerPoint; strong analytical skills.

Responsibilities

• Provide accurate data enabling teams to analyze current business trends and take action.
• Support in-season management and seasonal buys by preparing documentation and analyzing data.
• Participate in cross-functional meetings to gather information for merchandising decisions.
• Create product catalogs to support seasonal strategy and upload orders and reconcile seasonal buys.

Skills

Interpersonal communication

Analytical thinking

Time management

Resourceful

Resilient

Confident

Presentation skills

Education

Bachelor’s degree, applicable certification, or equivalent experience

Tools

Excel

Word

PowerPoint

Illustrator

Job description

This position is designated as a hybrid role based out of our headquarters near Portland, Oregon. The current expectation is for employees to work onsite four days per week, subject to change based on business needs. This in-office requirement may be adjusted at the discretion of the company.

ABOUT THE POSITION

As an Assistant Buyer and key member of the buying team, you'll support execution of seasonal buying strategies to achieve sales and gross margin goals. Your responsibilities will include data analytics, building and maintaining advanced reporting, and preparing and disseminating weekly, monthly, and seasonal documents. Within this role, you'll work with your direct manager to learn and contribute to all facets of the go-to-market process. This includes working with cross functional partners such as product line managers, allocation, planning, in store marketing, visual merchandising, and store operations teams. You will build visual assortment tools and multi-year historical data analysis to inform the seasonal buy strategies. In season tasks will be focused on managing pricing and promotions along with supporting the greater team with accurate reporting and analytics using PBI dashboards and excel.

HOW YOU’LL MAKE A DIFFERENCE

• Provide accurate data enabling teams to analyze current business trends and take action as needed
• Support direct manager with in-season management, and support varied team members with seasonal buys across planning and execution by preparing documentation, collecting and analyzing data, and creating visual documentation
• Participate in cross-functional meetings to gather key information and execute merchandising decisions
• Create product catalogs to support seasonal strategy for leadership product reviews and retail stores, upload orders and reconcile seasonal buys

YOU ARE

• Well-versed in interpersonal communication
• Analytical and creative, balancing both skills to create an assortment
• Able to exercise effective time management
• Resourceful, resilient, and confident

YOU HAVE

• Bachelor’s degree, applicable certification, or equivalent experience
• 1-3 years of buying experience, retail merchandising, merchandise planning or allocation
• Excellent Excel, Word, and PowerPoint skills
• Proven understanding of retail industry and retail specific metrics
• Solid communication skills, both written and verbal, as well as excellent presentation skills
• Illustrator experience preferred
• #LI-CS1 #LI-hybrid

This job description is not meant to be an all-inclusive list of duties and responsibilities, but constitutes a general definition of the position's scope and function in the company. Columbia Sportswear Company is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law. Columbia Sportswear is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities. https://www.eeoc.gov/sites/default/files/2023-06/22-088_EEOC_KnowYourRights6.12.pdf. If you need reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process, please notify your recruiter. At Columbia Sportswear Company, we're proud to offer regular full-time employees a benefits package that includes a variety of services and products to help make your life and work more rewarding. Our benefit programs contribute to overall employee well-being by aligning those programs with the fundamental elements of well-being: physical, social/emotional, financial, career and community.

Benefits that can protect your family’s financial future and help you save money through our 401k plan plus a generous company match. Columbia offers medical, dental, vision, life Insurance, disability, flexible spending accounts, health savings account, and an assortment of voluntary benefit offerings (accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity, and legal services).

In addition, Columbia offers EAP + which is free and confidential 24/7/365 counseling services. We have extensive wellness benefits, employee discounts and a generous time off program available.

If you need an accommodation/adjustment to successfully complete and submit your application, please reach out to [e-mail] with the Subject: Applicant Assistance Requested.

Founded in 1938, Columbia Sportswear Company is a global leader in designing, sourcing, marketing, and distributing outdoor and active lifestyle apparel, footwear, accessories, and equipment. Our four primary brands - Columbia®, Mountain Hardwear®, SOREL® and prAna® - complement each other to address the diverse needs of active consumers and their products have gained an international reputation for their innovation, quality and performance. Learn more about our family of brands here.