Costing & Merchandise Planning Manager

Skechers USA Ltd.; Manhattan Beach (CA); Hybrid; USD 85,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

Skechers USA Ltd. is seeking a cost-control professional to develop and implement apparel costing procedures, supply seasonal projections, and support merchandise planning. You will collaborate with Merchandisers, Sales, Product Developers, Suppliers and Production to optimize margins and ensure timely costing updates.

The role requires strong Excel capabilities, multi-tasking, and effective communication to influence senior leadership decisions and improve financial performance.

Qualifications

• Education: Degree required in a related field.
• Experience in apparel costing or development preferred.
• Advanced Excel skills and ability to analyze margin reports.

Responsibilities

• Costing management and analysis of apparel from development to production.
• Develop costing processes, tools, and training for teams.
• Conduct margin analyses by gender, silhouette, and COO.
• Calculate target FOB to meet margin requirements with provided inputs.
• Collaborate with Materials on costs and seasonal projections.
• Partner with Merchandisers and Sales to set seasonal margin targets.
• Negotiate MOQ/MCQ and Skechers Cost Standards as needed.
• Maintain FOB and Pre-cost data in Flex and Excel for SMU/Off-Price.
• Provide high-level analyses and reports to senior leadership.
• Manage Compass updates and internal/external communications.

Skills

Excel skills

Excellent communicator

Negotiation skills

Multitasking

Margin analysis

Education

Degree Required

Tools

Excel

Job description

WHO WE ARE:

Headquartered in Southern California, Skechers—the Comfort Technology Company®—has spent over 30 years helping men, women, and kids everywhere look and feel good. Comfort innovation is at the core of everything we do, driving the development of stylish, high-quality products at a great value. From our diverse footwear collections to our expanding range of apparel and accessories, Skechers is a complete lifestyle brand.

ABOUT THE ROLE:

Develop and implement Skechers apparel cost control procedures and policies to enhance organizational costing performance against key objectives. In addition to costing, this role will also support the merchandise planning needs by supplying seasonal projections to be used for capacity planning and material bookings.

In this highly collaborative role you will work closely with Merchandisers, Sales, Product Developers, Suppliers and our Production team to support the entire product development costing and merchandise planning process.

WHAT YOU'LL DO:

• Responsible for costing management and analysis of all apparel from development through production. This includes the development, evolution and implementation of the short-term and long-term strategic agenda with focus on improved financial margins. All while ensuring transparency of any financial risks and opportunities to internal partners.
• Develop and deliver costing processes, tools, and training to development teams to enable and empower better decision making to increase margins.
• Conduct cost comparisons by gender, silhouette, COO to ensure optimal margin is achieved.
• Skilled/experienced in IMU/margin calculations and able to calculate target FOB to hit specific margin requirements (based provided Wholesale, Duty, Target Margin, Freight).
• Collaborate with Materials team on material costs and process improvements, providing seasonal volume projections to aid in negotiations and ensuring that updates are communicated in proper cadence with costing calendar deadlines.
• Partner with Merchandisers and sales to develop seasonal margin targets and work closely to drive for margin improvements.
• Negotiate and reconfirm MOQ/MCQ and Skechers Cost Standards as needed. Engages in vendor assessments specific to development deliverables, costing and overall quality of product.
• Maintain System's FOB and Pre-cost in Flex and working excel files for SMU/Off-Price.
• Provide high-level analysis, business reports, and qualitative actionable feedback to make recommendations to senior leadership, including contributions to quarterly hindsight's.
• Manage needed Compass updates.
• Manage communication with internal and external teams.

WHAT YOU'LL BRING:

• Ability to multi-task.
• Excellent communicator and team player.
• Great Negotiator/Compromiser.
• Excellent Excel skills. Manage/generate margin reports, analysis, ad hoc reports.
• Able to analyze complex margin reports, cost component breakdowns, materialization breakdowns, production pair reports.

REQUIREMENTS:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required.

• Education: Degree Required.
• Experience in apparel industry; preferred development and/or costing experience.
• Computer Applications, Excel skill is mandatory.

The pay range for this position is $85,000-$95,000/yr USD.

About Skechers

Skechers, a global Fortune 500® company, developsand markets a diverse range of lifestyle and performance footwear, apparel, and accessories. Serving over 180 countries and territories, Skechers connects customers to products through department and specialty stores, e-commerce and digital stores, and through our more than 5,300 Skechers retail locations.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Skechers is committed to providing a safe, inclusive, and respectful work environment. Skechers provides equal employment opportunities for all employees and applicants for employment without regard race, color, religion, gender, gender identification and expression, national origin, marital status, age, disability, genetic information, military status, sexual orientation, or any other protected characteristic established by local, state or federal law.

Reasonable Accommodation

Applicants for employment who require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job should request appropriate accommodation by emailing [e-mail]. To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each job responsibility satisfactorily. The skills, abilities and physical demands described are representative of those duties that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities, who are otherwise qualified for the job position, to perform the essential functions.