6d ago

Vice President, Merchandising

United StatesRemoteFull-timeexecutive

OtherPresident

4 views0 saves0 applied

Apply Now

Quick Summary

Overview

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Vice President, Merchandising based in the United States.

Technical Tools

OtherPresident

As Vice President, Merchandising, you will own the full merchandising function for a portfolio retail brand, spanning assortment strategy, vendor relationships, catalog quality, pricing, margin, and promotions. You will shape a clear merchandising vision that creates a curated, commercially compelling assortment. The role combines strategic leadership with hands-on ownership in a lean, fast-moving environment. You will directly influence revenue, gross margin, vendor economics, and customer experience. You will also introduce AI-enabled workflows to accelerate analysis, reporting, catalog management, and decision-making. Working closely with executive and cross-functional leaders, you will have significant autonomy and accountability for results. This is an opportunity to build a modern merchandising organization while directly shaping business strategy.

Own assortment and category strategy across categories and price points, identifying assortment gaps, opportunities, underperforming SKUs, and potential new adjacencies based on customer, search, competitive, and market signals.
Establish SKU productivity standards and continuously optimize the catalog, expanding high-performing areas while rationalizing low-productivity assortment.
Develop and maintain the brand's merchandising point of view so the assortment is cohesive, curated, differentiated, and aligned with customer demand.
Source, onboard, and manage drop-ship vendors, overseeing the pipeline from prospecting through first live SKU.
Negotiate commercial terms covering cost, margin, freight, delivery, returns, defects, rebates, marketing funding, and exclusivity, while evaluating each vendor's total cost-to-serve.
Establish vendor scorecards, service-level expectations, quarterly business reviews, and performance improvement or exit strategies where appropriate.
Develop exclusive and co-developed product programs that strengthen differentiation and margin, while maintaining awareness of market and category trends through trade shows and industry relationships.
Own catalog quality, including product setup, taxonomy, attributes, imagery, descriptions, dimensions, and lead-time accuracy, while improving onboarding speed and data consistency.
Partner with technology, site merchandising, and marketing teams to improve product data systems, search relevance, category architecture, collections, seasonal campaigns, and gifting experiences.
Own gross margin and pricing strategy, using competitive and marketplace intelligence to guide pricing, MAP/MSRP discipline, and promotional decisions.
Build and manage the promotional calendar, including negotiations for vendor-funded promotions, and partner with Finance and executive leadership on revenue and margin planning.
Leverage AI to automate recurring analysis and reporting and develop workflows for assortment analysis, vendor scorecards, competitive pricing, catalog enrichment, and business reviews.
Validate AI-generated outputs against source data and commercial logic before using them to inform business decisions.
Build, mentor, and develop the merchandising organization while collaborating closely with Marketing, Site, Operations, Finance, and executive leadership.
Own the merchandising perspective in broader company strategy and communicate performance, challenges, opportunities, and planned actions clearly.

Requirements

~1 min read

10+ years of experience in merchandising, buying, or category management within retail or e-commerce, including direct people leadership.
Demonstrated ownership of revenue and gross margin performance, rather than assortment management alone.
Strong experience negotiating vendor relationships and commercial agreements, including the ability to establish, renegotiate, improve, or exit vendor partnerships.
Fluency in product data and catalog management, including PIM or equivalent systems, taxonomy, attribution, and large-scale item setup.
Proven ability to use AI-assisted tools such as Claude, Copilot, BI-native AI features, or similar technologies to automate analysis, reduce manual work, and improve team productivity.
Comfort connecting AI-enabled workflows with live business data sources such as data warehouses or ERP systems.
Strong analytical and financial capabilities, including advanced Excel skills and working knowledge of SQL or business intelligence tools.
Ability to translate data and commercial insights into clear decisions and defend those decisions with stakeholders.
Strong understanding of merchandising economics, vendor performance, pricing, promotions, and customer demand.
Ability to operate effectively in a lean organization with substantial autonomy, shifting between strategic planning and hands-on execution.
Strong leadership, mentoring, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
Preferred: experience with drop-ship or marketplace merchandising.
Preferred: experience in home, furniture, or home décor categories.