WHO YOU’LL WORK WITH

Nike Direct Merchandising is part of the wider Nike Merchandising Function.

Our role is to win with consumers through anchoring our strategies in the Consumer X Field of Play Offense. We obsess consumer, marketplace, competition, digital and store insights to serve our consumers’ needs, while driving the business today in tandem with a long-term growth direction. This can only be done through strong cross-functional work and partnership with the below teams.

Key Cross-Functional Partnerships to build and collaborate with:

• Merchandising partners: Nike Stores Merchandising, Consumer Merchandising, Marketplace Merchandising, Geo Express Lane (GEL).

• Planning in and pre-season teams.

• Digital Platform Experience team.

• Digital Marketing Team.

• CFOP Nike Direct Men’s Lifestyle.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We are looking for someone who has a passion for product and a clear understanding of the consumer and how we serve them, while being able to recognize and respond to evolving marketplace trends both online and offline.

As you will be leading a complex business area, former merchandising or buying experience is a must for this candidate (internal or external experience). This candidate has great knowledge of how to build and trade an assortment on Digital as well as Stores and can drive a balanced portfolio mix, with related buying processes and tools. You need to have a confirmed knowledge in retail acumen, the digital landscape and a strong communication skillset with a proactive approach in your daily and seasonal work. 

You need to thrive working within a dynamic environment. You will work on multiple seasons simultaneously, while managing through ad-hoc requests.  Therefore, you need to know how to prioritise your workload and have a flexible mindset and ability to toggle between various subjects, a strength in multi-tasking is required.  Within this role, the candidate is expected to present their work to x-functional stakeholders on a regular basis; strong presentation skills are needed.

As a brand and company, we evolve continuously to ensure we always put the consumer at the centre of everything we do. This means that change is inevitable, as we improve our tools and processes, as well as overall Nike Inc and Nike Direct strategies. We are looking for a candidate who embraces change, is flexible when a different approach is needed, and can pivot to react with speed and agility. This person is solution driven and will proactively problem solve.

Requirements:

• Ability to manage a complex and volatile business matrix.

• Future thinking attitude, always eager to try and test new strategies as well as strategic and enterprise thinking.

• Translate trends, data & insights into actionable seasonal strategies and assortment plans.

• Merchandising Excellence: 

• Build the seasonal assortments for Nike Digital and Nike Partner Stores within a strategic framework down to execution, leveraging business KPI’s & member data alongside marketplace insights and the competitive landscape.

• Strong retail and financial acumen - understanding retail KPI’s and how to read sales data and take necessary action.

• Consumer centric mindset (consumer specific knowledge) alongside trend knowledge; although this role is lifestyle, an affiliation for sport is fundamental as it is the DNA of our brand.

• Business and Stakeholder management and influencing skills

• Actively involve x-functional partners throughout the Merchandising CODE deliverables to ensure delivery of your merchandising plan.

• Effectively influence Consumer Merchandising on future assortment needs and x-functional ND counterparts on product support and trade levers.

• Fosters effective teamwork and values differences.

• Tools: merchandising assortment visualization, database tools, online analytical dashboards, fluency in Office suite (Power-point and Excel focus).

• Strong communication + presentation skills:  verbal/written English

WHAT YOU’LL WORK ON

We are looking for someone to inspire and serve our consumers by supporting the Nike Direct merchandising team in building a top in class merchandising and product assortment for EMEA. This person is responsible for seasonal assortment creation for the Men’s Lifestyle Footwear business (Air Max and City Tech), creating a Nike Direct omni-channel assortment that caters to both Nike Digital and Nike stores. This role will require close collaboration/influencing with the cross-functional team.

From a day-to-day perspective, the candidate accountability/focus will be on:

• Building assortments from seasonal strategy to execution; showcase visually and reflect in assortment plan (excel and online tools); decide on product distribution and flow of product for Nike Direct; drive the seasonal process and engage with key stakeholders.

• Partner with respective merchandising counterparts to make sure we are driving the Nike Direct strategy and vision forward.

Business management:

• Pre-season: provide clear assortment direction to planning counterparts and jointly land a seasonal buy in support of the most productive and profitable Nike Direct business whilst aligning to business strategies.  Present seasonal strategy for respective business portfolio during sign-off gates and seasonal handovers to x-functional stakeholders

• In-season: with your x-functional counterparts optimize business results leveraging respective trade levers. Navigate a complex matrix in a volatile business with significant revenue impact. Trade your respective business area, actively participate in trade meetings and leverage retail data to understand the performance of the business portfolio; read-and-react using data to drive informed decisions to optimize the business and provide input on monthly or quarterly business re-caps.

• Future Seasons:  Provide geo consumer insights to relevant stakeholders and influencing future line plan needs for the ND consumer.

Stakeholder management:

• Responsible for the seasonal Nike Direct Merchandising deliverables, ensuring delivery of your merchandising plan with x-functional partners.

• Works closely with your merchandising leader and team to provide relevant consumer insights and product opportunities that can be integrated in future line planning.

Team:

• Contribute to the overall team culture both in the Men’s Team as well as the Nike Direct Merchandising family. 

• Fosters effective teamwork and values differences.

• Provide direction and mentorship to teammates.