Merchandising Specialist

Kontoor Brands, Inc.; Greensboro (NC); On-site; USD 50,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Merchandising Specialist to support product development and execution. This role involves collaborating with cross-functional teams, managing the GTM calendar, and developing product concepts. The ideal candidate will possess strong communication and organizational skills, with a focus on building relationships to achieve business objectives. Join a dynamic team that values individual contributions and fosters a culture of belonging while providing a comprehensive benefits package to support your well-being.

Benefits

Paid Parental Leave

Flexible Fridays

Tuition Reimbursement

Employee discounts on apparel

Qualifications

• Strong communication and coordination skills are essential.
• Ability to manage complex projects and prioritize tasks effectively.

Responsibilities

• Support product offering development and execution.
• Maintain GTM calendar and manage cross-functional communication.
• Develop product concepts and manage sample lines.

Skills

Clear communication skills

Cross-functional Coordination

Complex problem-solving

Task prioritization

Organizational skills

Job description

Who We Are:

Kontoor Brands, Inc. (KTB) is the parent company of Wrangler, Lee and Rock & Republic, with owned manufacturing facilities in Mexico and Nicaragua. Kontoor also owns and operates over 140 retail stores across the globe. Our global company employs more than 15,000 people in 65 countries, with world headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina, and regional headquarters in Geneva and Hong Kong.

Job Posting:

Merchandising Specialist

Key Responsibilities:

1. Supports the development and execution of the product offering.
2. GTM & Line Management: Maintains team accountability to the GTM calendar and supports creation and/or collection of necessary inputs and calendar aligned deliverables at each milestone meeting.
3. Partners with manager to develop a strong understanding of the consumer target’s needs, leveraging insights gained to identify current and future growth opportunities.
4. Aggregates volume projections, cost targets, and margin expectations to build value across the product line for both the consumer and the business unit.
5. Creates and maintains visual product line plans, providing timely updates and key information to the cross functional partners to effectively reach milestone dates.
6. Provides overviews and expectations of preliminary needs, actionable tasks, and deliverables of each GTM milestone to the Merchandising and cross functional teams.
7. Creates tools that clearly communicate refined style concepts and key innovation narratives to share with brand marketing and design counterparts, coordinating photoshoots, consumer insight studies, and hindsight reviews.
8. Coordinate and attend regular meetings with Merchandising and Design teams to foster synergy and alignment of key development needs in terms of line structure, product requirements, and overall direction for seasonal lines.
9. Pro-active communication of relevant assortment and product changes, by updating communication tools and project management resources to ensure accuracy and seamless implementation.
10. Independently develop product concepts and needs, partnering with the Manager to refine and finalize seasonal strategy ahead of handoff to design teams.
11. Maintains product sample lines, confirming receipt, ensuring meeting ready presentation, and coordinating product sample needs with our sales and marketing partners.
12. Creates and maintains master line sheets for adopted styles, actively monitoring line sheet system progression, and providing updates on potential obstacles or delays.
13. Initiates development requests for ticketing needs, coordinating the tracking and completion throughout the process.
14. Manage ticketing and hierarchy information by style in Global Master Data file for technical package completion.
15. Maintains digital library of final tickets, style numbers, hierarchy and technical information, approved pricing, and other relevant details and history on total product line.
16. Under the guidance of Manager and Director, maintains and distributes relevant information and digital library of production packaging, style numbers, hierarchy, and other technical information, inclusive of presentation materials for all Merchandising owned milestone meetings, line sheets, and marketing tools.
17. Builds and maintains key cross functional relationships. Creates, implements, and sustains highly effective and influential relationships with internal and external partners to deliver business objectives. Develop understanding and empathy for cross functional partners and their business needs to support efficient processes, handoffs, and execution of deliverables. Aids in informing Operations & Sourcing Team of all line decisions relevant to the product assortment and collaborating on action items to achieve financial and inventory objectives.
18. Schedule and coordinate sample line/shot list for creation of Brand sell in resources, digital assets, account requests, and commercial shoots.
19. Participate/capture takeaways in seasonal product line reviews as well as owning/presenting if requested and based on business needs.

Skills for Success:

1. Clear communication skills
2. Cross-functional Coordination and relationship building
3. Experience with complex problem-solving
4. Demonstrates autonomous task prioritization and efficient organizational skills

Why Kontoor Brands?

At Kontoor, we offer a comprehensive benefit package to fit your lifestyle. Our benefits are crafted with the same care as our products.

When our employees are healthy, secure, and well, they bring their best selves to work. Kontoor Brands supports you with a competitive benefits program that provides choice and flexibility to meet your and your family’s needs – now and in the future. We offer resources to support your physical, emotional, social, and financial wellbeing, plus benefits like discounts on our apparel. Kontoor Brands also provides four weeks of Paid Parental Leave to eligible employees who are new parents, Flexible Fridays, and Tuition Reimbursement.

We are proud to offer a workplace culture centered on equitable opportunities and a sense of belonging for all team members. Here we have a global workforce of high-performing teams that both unlocks our individual uniqueness and harnesses our collaborative talents.