Assistant Buyer - Brand

Columbia Sportswear Company; Portland, Northern (OR, KY); Hybrid; USD 52,000 - 72,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401k with company match

Medical, dental, vision coverage

Life Insurance

Job summary

Columbia Sportswear Company is seeking an Assistant Buyer to join our buying team in the Portland area. The role focuses on data analytics, seasonal buys, and cross-functional collaboration to execute go‑to‑market plans.

You will build visual assortment tools, manage pricing, and support in-season reporting using Excel and related tools, working closely with product lines, allocation, planning, and store teams.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree 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 metrics and presentation skills.
• Illustrator experience preferred.

Responsibilities

• Support seasonal buying strategies with data analytics and reporting.
• Build visual assortment tools and analyze multi-year data for season planning.
• Collaborate with product line managers, allocation, planning, and store operations.
• Manage pricing and promotions in-season and prepare reports and dashboards.

Skills

Interpersonal communication

Analytical thinking

Time management

Creativity

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Tools

Excel

PowerPoint

Word

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

Please note: Relocation Assistance is not available for this role #LI-CS1 #LI-hybrid

Benefits

• Columbia offers 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.

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.

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.