Planning Director jobs in Norwalk, CT

Senior Director, Wholesale Planning 

About us:

vineyard vines is a highly successful, privately held, American clothing and accessory retailer founded in 1998 on Martha’s Vineyard by brothers, Shep & Ian Murray. With Shep & Ian still at the helm today, vineyard vines has experienced exponential year over year growth and now operates over 120 retail locations including an outlet division, a successful e-commerce business, domestic distribution center, and expanding corporate headquarters. In addition, vineyard vines is carried in major department stores such as Nordstrom and Bloomingdales as well as numerous specialty boutiques across the US.

vineyard vines was founded on a state of mind that Every day should feel this good.

You don’t need to be on a beach, by the ocean or on vacation to have Every day should feel this good moments. It’s a state of mind that we all experience, and one where everyone is invited. At vineyard vines, we don’t just live an #EDSFTG life away from our desks—we bring it to work with us, too.

Whether in our stores, at our Harbor Drive headquarters, our company culture is fun, encouraging and welcoming to all. We work hard and play harder, and we never take ourselves too seriously. And while we have many company goals, our number one priority is making vineyard vines a great place to work for all employees. 

Our team is our family, and we’d never have grown to where we are today without them.

We’re committed to building an inclusive team across all channels, departments and stores within our community. We hope you’ll join us and see what the smiling pink whale is all about.

Overview:

The Senior Director will report directly to the SVP, Planning. They will be primarily responsible for analyzing, identifying and communicating sales and inventory opportunities and providing risk-mitigation recommendations for the growing Wholesale business. In addition, the Director will be expected to meaningfully contribute to broader strategic and resource planning conversations across the company.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead Wholesale planning processes including preparing pre-season original plans; financial sales, merchandise margin, and inventory, consistent with the company's top-down goals, to be used in development of the merchandise strategies for the season and to support assortment development and buying needs
• Lead monthly merchandise plan review and approval overseeing all analytical activities to include development, interpretation, and hindsight of key operational metrics to drive process improvements resulting in increased productivity and efficiencies
• Oversee all merchandise plans, inventory positions and markdown strategies to drive business results, inventory, profit and turnover objectives
• Establish assortment rationalization and optimization across all channels of distribution that support business growth
• Develop, manage and lead the monthly reprojection process that delivers the financial merchandising plans and tracks budget expectations.
• Analyze historical data and current trends to identify risks and opportunities by Wholesale business and account
• Provide hindsight analysis and partner with merchandising on future product positioning and opportunities
• Collaborate with the sales team and external account partners on in-season and pre-season management
• Partner with sales leads to build seasonal bottoms up revenue targets by account
• Oversee a team managing basic inventory levels and forecast replenishment buys to support sales forecast
• Strategize and manage inventory for a sku intensive blank style assortment that supports Wholesale deco businesses
• Builds a high performing planning team through strong leadership, development, coaching, and accountability
• Interact and collaborate with all areas of the company, including Merchandising, Stores, Marketing, Distribution Centers and Senior Management.

What you bring:

• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills; retail math skills, understanding of forecasting
• 10 years of Planning experience, at least 3 in a Wholesale environment
• Proficient with Microsoft Excel including pivot tables, v-lookups, index match, etc.
• Familiarity with EP or other planning modules 
• Organizational and time management skills are essential as well as the ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously to meet deadlines
• Communication and presentation skills: concisely presents complex information/recommendations in terms meaningful to various audiences
• Strong leadership skills; manage 3 direct reports and help to develop them

Every day will feel this good because:

• We have a fun-spirited entrepreneurial culture filled with truly “good” people
• We have flexible working hours and work from home days to accommodate your personal life
• We offer a generous employee discount so you can rep our lifestyle on-and-off the boat
• We offer a competitive salary package, 401-K, commuter benefits, and paid-family leave, health savings, flex spending accounts, life & disability insurance
• We have an onsite gym as well as health & financial wellness programs to keep you active
• We offer 2 summer Fridays to take off in addition to a competitive vacation policy & holiday calendar