Group Director, Merchandise Planning:

Chanel is expanding its Merchandise Planning team to address the rapidly changing competitive environment and to support its dynamic business model. The Merchandise Planning team streamlines workflow processes, owns sales and inventory plans, and forecasts all points of distribution to create efficiencies throughout the organization (merchandising, retail, strategy & finance teams).

The Group Director will support the Head of Merchandise Planning to implement and execute products and processes (including building Excel tools and developing inter-organizational relationships) to fulfill broad group directives, visions and strategies as developed and directed by the Head of Merchandise Planning.

Position Responsibilities:

• You will oversee managing and setting all seasonal and yearly merchandising plans including sales and inventory for leather goods
• You will partner with both global and local business partners to create adequate amount of inventory and sales plan and help create unique merchandise plan for each boutique by analyzing and understanding both sales and client data
• You will perform monthly forecast event and provide the company a comprehensive outlook on key financial Kpis focusing on sales, sell through and inventory levels and build action plans to maximize productivity, profitability and customer satisfaction levels
• You will develop a robust replenishment process by working with the merchandise and supply chain teams and guide cross functional teams to build a seamless process to maximize customer satisfaction, sales potential while achieving optimal inventory levels
• You will perform in-depth performance and future planning analysis on each segment of the leather goods business
• You will provide post-season hindsight to identify and communicate learnings and recommendations for upcoming market
• You will closely monitor all retail merchandising performance, analyze details, and make recommendations to maximize profitability through effective inventory management practices and solutions
• You will collaborate with It to evaluate and recommend enhancements to systems used to drive the planning process and champion changes in management processes throughout the organization
• You will work with the merchandise team daily to determine business strategies for the leather goods division
• You will work closely with finance and liaise between the merchant and finance teams for all financial submissions and business updates; Budget setting, Q1F, Q3F, Mtp
• You will work with the retail team (Btq regional leaders, Btq directors, Lease regional leaders) and be a strategic partner to determine quarterly goals, Otb amount
• You will work with the retail ops and warehouse teams to strategically determine all inventory movement schedules (markdown pull back, markdown redeployment, employee sale, obs calendar)
• You will work closely with the global finance team to understand performance Kpi, target for leather goods
• You will work closely with department store teams to build a successful lease business model
• A keen ability to identify opportunities to streamline current processes and develop enhancements that can be adaptable with future business models
• Analytical prowess to reconcile data between local systems and global Bi to ensure all parties are monitoring business on the same platform
• Willingness to challenge the status quo and actively look for enterprise efficiencies
• Ownership of all merchandise planning related responsibilities, including sales planning and inventory plans and forecasting
• Centralizing and streamlining workflow processes, including inventory management and business reporting

You Are Energized By:

• Achieving group goals by collaborating with different business partners
• Storytelling and drawing conclusion through data and analysis
• Managing ambiguity and problem solving through proactive, agile & resilient mindset
• Expressing Innate curiosity, intuition, drive, & authenticity
• Being an active leader through developing and coaching members of teams
• Making decisions by conceptualizing future opportunities and developing strategic business initiatives

Position Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree required, Mba a plus
• Minimum 7 years of Planning or Merchandise Planning experience
• Minimum of 3+ years of managerial level experience
• Extensive knowledge and experience in merchandise, assortment and financial planning initiatives
• Excellent presentation and communication skills, both spoken and written
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Experience In luxury fashion a plus
• Expertise in assortment planning, replenishment and monthly forecast system required
• Position requires 10% domestic and international travel