005651
Store Support Centre, British Columbia, Canada
Planning
As a member of the product team, the Planning team is responsible for ensuring financial success of the company. They work closely with Merchandising and Allocations to understand new product trends (Merchandising) and regional/climate selling, size trends, and logistics (Allocations). The team monitors the business on a daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly basis, understanding changes in trend and reacting to the business to maximize sales and mitigate risk. The priority is to understand and protect the guest experience, followed by delivering profitable sales growth (comp and GM$s).
a day in the life of a Director of Planning
Reporting to the VP of Planning and Allocations, the Director of Planning is responsible for International & North America planning of lululemon products to ensure we are efficient and effective in meeting overall business strategies and maximizing gross margin.
As a Director, this role will ensure understanding and compliance with Company and departmental policies/procedures and internal controls. This role will develop and implement merchandise planning strategies to support the financial objectives of the company. He/she will be accountable for managing sales planning, creating long term strategies and managing day-to-day operations of the planning team and for implementing plans that will ensure business success through maximizing sales and merchandise performance. He/she will provide leadership to achieve crtical inventory management targets and will partner with merchants and field management to refine merchandise planning strategies based on their feedback and seasonal trends. Additionally this position will be a key partner with IT to build system strategies and implement the necessary tools to support the growth targets of the organization.
The finer print
This role is responsible for directing company strategic initiatives in relation to inventory management, buying and assortment planning. Through management of team, provide senior leadership with reports on company sales performance metrics and forward forecast modeling. This position will also draw on internal performance knowledge to provide clear product direction to the Design/Production/Ops teams. The Director of Planning works closely with Logistics to provide accurate and timely information on incoming/outgoing product. Works with IT to help develop systems to manage & support the growing business.
•Review sales, receipt flow, inventory and margin projections for Open to Buy to maximize sales and minimize risks.
•Ensure the financial success by meeting or exceeding sales, GM, margin objectives and inventory turn goals.
•Effectively manage and support the career development process of direct report to ensure job satisfaction and future talent development.
•Oversees the Planning function for North America & International
•Responsible to hit company gross margin objectives
•Responsible for company inventory turn objectives
Academic/Educational Requirements
•Degree in business administration or commerce
Required Skills/Experience:
•7-10 years of experience including 5 years in a similar role.
•Expert ability to set priorities, foster cohesion and provide motivation to cross functional teams.
•Strong ability to accurately assess employee strengths and developmental needs.
•Strong ability to make focused decisions based on Brand integrity and Company values.
•Strong ability to consistently communicate in a clear and timely manner.
•Strong presentation and negotiation skills.
•Strong understanding of financial measurements and how to impact them.
•Solid knowledge of Purchase Order, planning, recapping and other Merchandising systems and spreadsheets.
•Solid knowledge of international production process.
