CalabasasCAJob DescriptionThe Director of Merchandising Strategy and Operations supports identifying, setting and driving the overall department strategy, goals and KPIs, driving process improvements, and maintaining strong relationships with cross-functional partners.
The role has a particular emphasis on determining opportunities, driving collaboration and delivering on continuous improvement across the Merchandising and Marketing teams.
The Director partners closely and supports the EVP of Merchandising and Marketing as well as the leaders across the Merchandising and Marketing departments to help execute and deliver strategic initiatives on the merchandising pillars: product assortment, marketing and promotion, pricing, in-store presentation and overall business performance.The Director will lead a team focused on Product Marketing as well as Strategy & Ops for the Merchandising department.
The team will be deeply involved in Harbor Freight’s Product Marketing process – both optimizing our core business as well as driving the successful launch and marketing of over 800 new products each year.
In particular, the Director will oversee a team that ensures proper management and delivery of Harbor Freight’s product marketing campaigns, initiatives and processes to support all aspects of our product marketing efforts.
This role provides thoughtful and effective solutions as well as plans for accurate and timely execution across projects.The role is highly collaborative, and will involve deep stakeholder management across our Merchant, Promo Planning, Merchandising Operations, Store Environment, Email, Digital, Ecommerce, Social and Owned Media, Paid Digital, National Media and Creative Design teams.
The Director is expected to own and implement numerous initiatives to augment the company’s capabilities to better market and merchandise our products.
In addition, the Director is responsible for mentoring and developing a team to become future leaders for the department and organization more broadly.Overall, the Director is responsible for thinking about the bigger picture and ensuring that each team’s priorities are aligned with the department and organization’s goals.Essential Duties and ResponsibilitiesAssist with setting and developing merchandising strategy and department goals.
Partner closely with cross-functional teams to ensure successful implementation and executionMaintain strong relationships with cross-functional partners to drive forward merchandising and product marketing strategy and initiatives.
Problem solve and escalate project-related issues with the Merchandising, Marketing, Creative Design, Retail/Store Ops, Inventory, Finance and Legal teamsIdentify in addition to lead a team that delivers on merchandising strategy / special projects to assist the organization in strong decision-making (understand retail and market trends, customer insights, and competitive analysis to evaluate new opportunities and align with company growth objectives)Lead, develop and grow a team that continuously improves our product marketing as well as merch strategy and ops capabilitiesDirect the development of analytical reporting tools to support teams in tracking progress and key decision making; develop, track and drive success in operating and financial KPIsConsistently identify and drive continuous improvement initiatives across the department to help better market and merchandise our productsConduct macro business review of monthly deliverables (product marketing campaigns, new product launches, etc.) to ensure merchandising, product and company goals are metDevelop processes and guidelines for teams to effectively meet their goals set by the merchandising pillars; drive process improvement across the department Manage successful and on-time delivery of product marketing assets and campaigns and ensure the day-to-day execution of department deliverables are met in WorkfrontDevelop and coordinate product marketing tests and ensure results are read and appropriately analyzed and reportedManage the coordination of cross-department deliverables.
Liaise across the organization to ensure all projects are on schedule and, where necessary, reprioritize project workloads as necessaryReview systems and processes to ensure scalability with growth of the CompanyScopeStaff supervision and development – YesDecision Making – Supports and collaborates on policy development and resolves problems; provides data for decision support; provides consultation or expert adviceTravel – 10%Location – Corporate HQ / Remote