Lead Merchant

Location: Beaverton, OR
Contract length: ~5 months
Schedule: Hybrid in Beaverton, OR (working remotely some Fridays)
Pay: $38-43.34/hr, DOE

The Planet Group is looking for a Lead Merchant to join our well-known retail brand on a roughly 5-month contract! This role is 40 hours per week and will be hybrid in Beaverton, OR, working from home on some Fridays. This person will work closely with fellow merchants and cross-functional teams within Geo and Global Merchandising, Planning, and Brand Marketing. They will also work with Finance, Operations and the Insights & Analytics teams; relying on business reporting which includes quantitative and qualitative metrics on sales, inventory and consumer behaviors.  

Lead Merchant Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or higher, or combination of relevant education, experience, and training 
• 5+ years’ experience in Footwear, Apparel, Equipment, or relevant consumer product merchandising, product creation and/or retail in a vertical, multi-brand or digital environment 
• Possess solid retail acumen and analytical skills, and an understanding of retail environments
• Agile, and solution-oriented
• Strong command of common retail and/or digital metrics such as sell-through, margin, full price realization, weeks of supply, etc. 
• Proven ability to translate consumer, sales, trend, and marketplace insights into in-season and long-term breakthrough strategies 
• Experience developing strong working relationships with teammates and cross-functional partners 
• Great teammate and contributor, with an attitude and excitement to learn new things 
• Strong communication skills and comfort navigating a cross-functional matrix with an emphasis on influencing skills 
• Attention to detail, understanding the importance of consistency 

Lead Merchant Description:

• Build consumer-centric assortment plans with an understanding of the full marketplace, blending fact-based and intuitive inputs
• Participate in seasonal reviews & assortment building in partnership with marketplace account-focused merchants
• Balance multiple seasons
• Use insights to contribute to future season plans
• Partner with Marketplace and Territory Merchandising for key insights and partner upstream with Global Merchandising to inform future line plans
• Manage areas of assortment planning in depth during the seasonal process and gather consumer trends and marketplace insights from in-market seasons
• Work autonomously at times
• Drive the consumer product offering across the different merchandising dimensions
• Influence the product offering End to End (from insights to adoption) as well as focus on multi-season management of the client's most innovative franchises
• Prepare seasonal tools to equip your marketplace partners with an understanding of seasonal priorities