The strategic project manager, assortment planning will work closely with internal cross-functional partners, merchants, vendors and leadership to develop assortment/merchandising solutions that support strategic objectives.  The position will assess business needs and conduct competitive and market benchmarking to help identify and define processes and data opportunities to drive sales, improve efficiency and deliver insights.  The project manager must not only develop new ideas, but effectively communicate across levels and consistently deliver results against a timeline; they are a thought leader who is comfortable operating in both technical and business environments, working with developers, data scientist and business partners.  The strategic project manager understands retail merchandising best practices, will support ad hoc requests and must be equally comfortable working at the strategic level (generate ideas) and the tactical level (analyzing data, solving problems).  This is a high-profile position with potential updates to executives and sr. leadership on a periodic basis.

Major Tasks, Responsibilities & Key Accountabilities:

• 80% Work in collaboration with Merchants to determine category review goals and objectives, conduct standard and ad hoc analysis to identify key drivers of performance, recommend assortment decisions that will improve category performance and develop financial plans that reflect category changes. Typical analysis will include: (a) marketplace and macroeconomic trends impacting the category including competitive assessment, (b) vendor portfolio strengths and weaknesses including private brand, (c) line structure, (d) store clustering, (e) customer and store feedback, (f) identifying key product attributes and (g) regional performance. Develop executive-level presentations that summarize analysis including historical category performance, strategic rationale underpinning assortment decisions and expected financial impact. Report out to all levels of management. Accountable for accuracy, thoroughness, thought process, timeliness and viability of recommendations.
• 10% Support to develop and maintain a calendar of category reviews.
• 10% Own MVP/DMM and Merchant/Associate Merchant relationships for designated department. Strategic projects. Ad hoc analysis and reporting.
  Nature and Scope:
  
  • This position reports to the Senior Manager, Assortment Planning
  • Rsponsibility for supervising 2 Senior Analysts. 
    Environmental Job Requirements:
    Environment:
    
    • Located in a comfortable indoor area. Any unpleasant conditions would be infrequent and not objectionable.Travel:
      
      • Typically requires overnight travel less than 10% of the time.
        Additional Environmental Job Requirements: