[Hiring] Director of Inventory Planning @Stio

Role Description

The Director of Inventory Planning (DIP) is responsible for developing, communicating and executing inventory strategies to maximize sales, optimize inventory and increase margin. The DIP will own pre-season planning, purchasing, and in-season inventory management for all categories and channels. It is a highly collaborative role and partners with a variety of cross functional teams to drive toward business objectives. The DIP leads and coaches the Planning team.

The DIP is on the Operations team and reports directly to the Vice President of Operations.

Responsibilities

• Leadership
  • Manages, coaches and develops the Inventory Planning team by fostering a culture of collaboration, high performance and continual process improvement.
  • Prioritizes and balances the team’s workload across in-season and pre-season planning deadlines to ensure on-time and accurate execution.
  • Participates as a member of the Operations Leadership team including All Staff presentations, department meetings and cultural initiatives.
  • Partner with VP of Ops to develop and manage Planning team’s OKRs, ensuring they are aligned with company priorities and progress is tracked and communicated regularly.
• Seasonal Inventory Planning Strategies
  • Develops, communicates, and gains alignment on seasonal inventory strategies throughout the GTM process including OTB and Revenue meetings.
  • Oversees pre-season, item-level sales and inventory plans that align with historical performance, merchandising strategies and financial targets.
  • Provides Category Planning Managers with category/channel level strategy direction including growth, margin, safety stock and delivery targets. Ensures the alignment of bottoms-up sales and buy plans to the tops down targets.
• Inventory Management and Optimization
  • Manage in-season pricing and markdown strategies to maximize sales and margin, while meeting sell through targets.
  • Oversee omni-channel approach to inventory planning, ensuring optimization across sales channels. Partner with key stakeholders to provide visibility to slow moving inventory and work cross functionally on action plans to hit target inventory levels.
  • Identify and implement tools, KPIs, processes and best practices to optimize inventory performance.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration & Process Improvements
  • Actively partner cross functionally to drive shared business goals and key outcomes.
  • Identify and lead projects to continuously improve current processes, tools and meeting.
  • Manage weekly and monthly inventory reporting and insights, highlighting opportunities and risk. Look for opportunities to standardize reports and streamline processes.
  • Lead the implementation of new workflows to maximizing inventory planning software across the planning team.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in finance, business, engineering, economics, operations management, or equivalent.
• 8+ years of experience in inventory planning including forecasting, purchasing, allocation and inventory management.
• 3+ years supervisory role/experience managing people with proven ability to build relationships and lead and develop a high-performing team while achieving business goals.
• Possess a clear understanding of financial measurements including sales, gross margin, return rate, months on hand, sell through, turn rate, and how to positively impact these metrics.
• Exceptional analytical skills and the ability to translate analytical findings into actionable recommendations and processes.
• Excellent computer skills, including advanced Excel (pivot tables, charts, logical functions (sumif, vlookup, etc.).
• Experience with planning software is required; Toolio preferred.
• Strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills along with curiosity to continually drive for results and process improvement.
• Outstanding verbal and written communication and presentation skills including presenting complex material.
• Strong interpersonal and organizational skills with the ability to work collaboratively and cross-functionally to drive business initiatives forward.
• Experience leading or participating in an omni-channel business including wholesale, Ecommerce, full price retail and outlet retail; apparel experience preferred.

Requirements

• Must be able to work in a stationary position 50% - 75% of the work day.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental Vision plans.
• Company Paid Long Term Disability.
• Employee Assistance Programs.
• 401k with Match.
• Generous paid time off policies.
• Gear test, perks and more.

Company Description

Stio® is an omni-channel mountain brand that designs, develops and sells beautiful, functional, and innovative apparel, footwear and other accessories infused with the soul of the mountain lifestyle. With headquarters in Jackson, Wyoming, Stio draws inspiration from the surrounding Teton Range and offers product via Stio.com, catalog, B2B and its Mountain Studio® retail locations.

We live and love mountain life, and as such see ourselves as caretakers of the resources that provide it. We are proud partners of Protect Our Winters and the Conservation Alliance among many other organizations. We have a strong preferred materials platform, use Bluesign® approved textiles wherever possible, audit our supply chains for best practices, and operate our workplaces responsibly.

We think that outside is the best side and that you can’t improve on nature. It’s good for mind, body and soul, and it’s our responsibility to help enable access for all people, regardless of race, gender, beliefs, background or ability. We strive for inclusion at Stio and in our local and national communities.