Planning Manager

BRICK Executive Search; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Brick Executive Search is partnering with a fast-growing contemporary womens retail/ wholesale brand to recruit a Planning Manager. This role oversees merchandise and financial planning across multiple categories, driving sales, margin and inventory health.

You will collaborate with merchants, allocators and cross-functional teams to build, analyze and execute seasonal plans and lifecycle improvements, ensuring targets are met.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in retail, e-commerce and/or international markets.
• Experience within an apparel business is a plus.
• Retail math and margin planning experience evident.
• Strong verbal and written communication, able to present complex material.
• Strategic thinker who builds business cases and influences leadership.
• Strong product sense to guide assortments and investments.
• Excellent time management, detail-oriented and collaborative.
• Proven track record driving financial results and mentoring talent.
• Ability to articulate financial concepts to non-financial partners.
• Experience with Forecast & Replenishment, Financial Planning and Allocation systems.
• Advanced proficiency in Excel, Access or BI tools.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with merchant team to aggregate 12-month revenue and margin plans.
• Monitor performance vs forecasts; adjust metrics monthly with insights.
• Communicate variances with supporting details to stakeholders.
• Align merchants and buy levels at all checkpoints.
• Partner cross-functionally to analyze performance for new product introductions.
• Develop merchandise assortment plans to meet financial objectives.
• Set seasonal sales and margin goals; reconcile top-down and bottom-up forecasts.
• Account for assortment changes due to store count, launches, or discontinue products.
• Lead product reviews with marketing, merchandising and design.
• Oversee a team of category-management and replenishment planners.

Skills

10+ yrs exp

Retail

E-commerce

International exp

Merchandise planning

Financial planning

Forecasting & replenishment

Excel

Access

BI tools

Tools

Excel

Access

BI tools

Job description

Brick Executive Search has been exclusively retained by the fastest growing contemporary womens retail/wholesale brand of elevated contemporary apparel , accessories and footwear product to secure a Planning Manager for this hyper Growth Business.

Position Overview:

Responsible for the oversight, development and implementation of the merchandise and financial planning processes across a multi-category business This role will develop and deliver overall brand, and product plans by strategically driving metrics including sales, margin and turn for current and future seasons. Resourcefulness and agility will be key as you work with multiple business leads, allocaters, and merchants to analyze and incorporate retail trends, develop and manage complex projects, drive strategic decisions around new product introductions/phase outs, and deliver financial targets.

Key Responsibilities:

Sales, Margin, and Inventory Planning

• Collaborate with the merchant team to aggregate forecasts into comprehensive 12-month revenue and margin plans.
• Monitor actual performance against forecasts, making monthly adjustments to key financial metrics based on sales insights and order updates.
• Clearly communicate variances, providing supporting details.
• Ensure alignment between merchants and buy levels at all checkpoints.

Merchandise Planning

• Partner with cross-functional teams to analyze historical performance and identify needs for new product introductions to achieve targets.
• Develop merchandise assortment plans that support product line development and meet financial objectives.
• Set seasonal sales and margin goals, reconciling forecasts from both top-down and bottom-up perspectives before finalization.
• Account for changes in assortment due to store count fluctuations, sales trends, product launches, and discontinued products.
• Participate in product reviews with marketing, merchandising, and design teams to ensure alignment with detailed plans.
• Secure management consensus on assortment buy-levels and margins for final buy approval.

Planning & Analysis

• Create and distribute weekly reports and visualizations on sales and inventory performance.
• Engage regularly with teams to understand and influence open-to-buy (OTB) forecasts, identifying category opportunities and risks, and making promotional recommendations.
• Lead discussions on business drivers, delivery performance and promotions with sales partners on a weekly basis.
• Utilize historical data and current trends to develop actionable plans and build consensus on strategies.

Demand Forecasting and Order Planning

• Develop and build standardized reports to perform in-season selling analysis and post season hind-sighting for continuous improvement.
• Collaborate with cross functional peers to develop and communicate a comprehensive inventory strategy that aligns future financial and product opportunities by business unit.
• Lead the development of new capacities and analytics that support the development of pre-season assortment strategies, financial plans, and style level investments and in-season life cycle management.
• Analyze the business on an on-going basis to understand core drivers; identify opportunities and risks.
• Prepare and present reports to Senior Leadership.
• Solicit and perform ad-hoc analysis as needed.

Leadership:

• Oversee a team of category-management and replenishment planners to drive cohesive end to end planning vision.
• Provides leadership, supports, motivates, directs and retains high-caliber staff.
• Builds credibility and strong relationships within the organization, cross functional partners and Division Heads.

Our Best Fit Candidate Would Have

• 10+ years of experience, Retail, e-commerce and/or international experience is a plus.
• Previous experience within an apparel business is a plus.
• Demonstrated retail math and business acumen, including aspects of markup, margin planning, selling and inventory productivity measures
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Adept at presenting complex material in an organized compelling manner.
• Strategic thinker who recognizes opportunities and can recommend strategies by building business case and influence senior leaders to move to execution
• Strong conceptual creative capability. Leverages strong product sense to partner with business leaders to drive product assortments and investment strategies that increase business.
• Strong time management skills, attention to detail, problem solving, interpersonal and organizational skills – communication between functional groups is essential
• Proven success in driving results through financial strategies
• Track record of managing and mentoring strong talent in analytical based roles, developing diverse and high performing leaders and teams
• Ability to build a business case and articulate financial concepts to non-financial business partners in a clear and concise manner
• Forecast & Replenishment, Financial Planning, and Allocation system experience preferred
• Advanced Proficiency in Microsoft Excel, Access or other Data Warehouse / Business Intelligence tools

Ournclient offers compelling and competitive benifits.