Planning Manager

Brick Executive Search; Illinois; On-site; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive benefits

Job summary

A leading recruiting firm is seeking a Planning Manager for a fast-growing women's retail brand. The successful candidate will oversee merchandise and financial planning, ensuring alignment with sales targets and inventory. The role requires 10+ years of experience in retail or e-commerce, with a preference for apparel background. Strong communication and analytical skills are essential, along with proficiency in financial planning tools. Competitive benefits offered.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in retail or e-commerce is preferred.
• Experience in an apparel business is a plus.
• Proven track record in financial strategies.

Responsibilities

• Oversee merchandise and financial planning processes.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams.
• Prepare and present reports to Senior Leadership.

Skills

Retail math and business acumen

Excellent communication skills

Strategic thinking

Time management

Analytical skills

Tools

Microsoft Excel

Data Warehouse 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.

Overview

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.
• Ensure alignment between merchants and buy levels at all checkpoints.
• 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.