North America Lead Direct Planning Manager
NORTH AMERICA – DIRECT PLANNING

ABOUT CONVERSE

Are you interested in working for the most iconic and well-loved sneaker brand in the world? Born in sports and made for the street, Converse is a place to explore your potential, obliterate boundaries and push out the edges of what can be. We seek people who can lead, grow, think, dream, and create. Our culture thrives by embracing diversity and rewarding imagination. Converse seeks achievers, leaders, and visionaries. At Converse, it’s about each person bringing their authentic self, skills, and passion to serve the daring spirit of youth.

ABOUT OUR TEAM

The Converse Direct Planning team unleashes the power of information and data to forecast, predict, and obsess our consumer demand, profitability, and inventory. These insights drive decisions and plans that help to ensure our consumer has access to the products they want, when they want them, and how they want to get them.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We’re looking for a Planning Manager to join the Converse North America Direct Planning team.

This individual will power up our sales, profitability, and inventory through the product launched on converse.com and in our Converse branded stores. In this role, you will drive growth to achieve company financial plans while delivering the brand and geography priorities & vision. You will collaborate with North America partners to develop and execute cohesive strategies and process to optimize the Digital and Stores businesses. Using data-driven insights, you will initiate and proactively partner with teams to manage the product life cycle, inventory, and pricing for the Direct business and build recommendations for the future.

The role requires someone who is curious and can be agile, roll-up their sleeves, and is excited by managing the fast-paced direct-to-consumer business. You have a passion for creating impact and can identify trends and synthesize demand signals to develop key highlights and action plans. You ask questions, are continually learning, and are finding opportunities to share knowledge with others.

WHAT YOU WILL WORK ON

You will work alongside business partners to manage the Merchandise Financial Plan and drive Converse Direct towards growth, profitability, and healthy inventory levels.

To do this, you will:

• Forecast, communicate, and implement Open-to-Buy (OTB) plans that maximize sales, margin and inventory to support financial targets
• Recommend and align with team members on inventory and pricing actions based on the OTB forecast. Ensure these actions are incorporated into the forecast and executed, including but not limited to Closeout management and transfers between channels.
• Partner with Finance and Business teams to create forecasts and align on risks & opportunities
• Create and iterate on forecasting tools and reporting at the store, retail KPI, and product levels
• Build and oversee the execution of the promotional strategy and calendar aligned to financial and brand priorities
• Manage daily forecasts and provide demand order flow outlook to the Operations teams
• Lead weekly business reviews and drive cross-functional collaboration to achieve business results
• Effectively communicate merchandise strategies, insights, and action plans to peers and leadership
• Actively collaborate with team members to identify business opportunities and efficiencies
• Coach and develop a direct report

WHO YOU WILL WORK WITH

You will report to the Director of Direct Planning. This role is heavily collaborative and sits at the epicenter of the business, working with many cross-functional teams such as finance, buying, allocation, site, analytics, store operations, marketing, and consumer planning.

WHAT YOU BRING

• Bachelor's degree or combination of relevant education, experience, and training
• 5+ years in merchandise planning, demand planning or business planning
• An understanding of key business metrics with experience in Direct-to-Consumer a plus
• Strong retail math, analytical, financial modeling, and problem-solving skills utilizing Excel
• Proven ability to prioritize and manage multiple projects at once
• Self-starter with the skills to manage through ambiguity in a fast-paced environment
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to communicate and influence across diverse audiences 

We offer a number of accommodations to complete our interview process including screen readers, sign language interpreters, accessible and single location for in-person interviews, closed captioning, and other reasonable modifications as needed. If you discover, as you navigate our application process, that you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please complete the Candidate Accommodation Request Form.