Job Description

Position Purpose:

The Director, Assortment & Space Planning Strategy & Process leads the development and adoption of best practices across the Assortment and Space Planning (ASP) organization. This role is pivotal in driving operational excellence, strategic alignment, and continuous improvement in service delivery to the Merchandising organization. As a key interface between ASP, Decision Science, IT, and Product teams, the Director defines capabilities, shapes product features, improves processes, explores emerging technologies, and steers strategic initiatives.


This leader guides a team in architecting and scaling process improvements that enhance planning efficiency, transparency, and consistency. By translating business needs into actionable tools and capabilities, they ensure alignment across functions and enable smarter, faster decision-making. In close partnership with technology teams, the Director influences product roadmaps to support evolving planning workflows, while also piloting innovations--such as AI, GenAI, and optimization platforms--that future-proof ASP capabilities. Through thoughtful change management and capability building, they foster adoption of new processes and tools, positioning ASP as a driver of value for Merchandising.

Key Responsibilities:

30% Develop, implement and integrate processes for Assortment Plans, Business Reviews and Product Line Reviews to enable better decision making, at faster speed, with improved collaboration across all key stakeholders. 30% Lead execution of detailed Assortment Plans, Business Reviews and Product Line Reviews. Work with merchants to determine needs by category. Provide analysis on a standard set of analytics that provide actionable insights on assortment opportunities and the go-forward strategy for a category. 20% Development of tools and processes to improve merchandise assortment analytics. Partner with cross functional teams e.g. Space, Pricing, IPR, etc. to drive better collaboration during PLR process and create better analytical outcomes for a category. 20% Builds, leads and develops a team of assortment planning professionals

Direct Manager/Direct Reports:

This position reports to VP or Sr. Director Assortment Planning

This position has 4-7 Direct Reports

Travel Requirements:

Typically requires overnight travel less than 10% of the time.

Physical Requirements:

Most of the time is spent sitting in a comfortable position and there is frequent opportunity to move about. On rare occasions there may be a need to move or lift light articles.

Working Conditions:

Located in a comfortable indoor area. Any unpleasant conditions would be infrequent and not objectionable.

Minimum Qualifications:

Must be eighteen years of age or older. Must be legally permitted to work in the United States.

Preferred Qualifications:

Deep subject matter expertise in merchandising, assortment planning, and space planning Proven experience in leading cross-functional initiatives involving analytics, product development, and process transformation Understanding of AI/ML concepts & intellectually curious as to their application in retail optimization Skilled in stakeholder engagement, with the ability to translate business needs into actionable technical solutions Strategic thinker with a bias for execution and continuous improvement Excellent communication and leadership skills Ability to multi task in a highly complex, ambiguous environment Ability to lead change

Minimum Education:

The knowledge, skills and abilities typically acquired through the completion of a bachelor's degree program or equivalent degree in a field of study related to the job.

Preferred Education:

No additional education

Minimum Years of Work Experience:

10

Preferred Years of Work Experience:

No additional years of experience

Minimum Leadership Experience:

None

Preferred Leadership Experience:

None

Certifications:

None

Competencies:

+ Knowledge of merchandising and retail, as well as other related functions + (marketing, operations, etc.)
+ Knowledge of pricing analytics and strategy
+ Knowledge of statistical, econometric, quantitative analysis
+ Understanding of computational methods and applicability to business problems
+ Strong business acumen
+ Ability to build relationships across functions and influence decisions
+ Strategic thinking
+ Familiarity with use of statistical programming software
+ Proficient Power Point and Excel
+ Executive communication skills - Strong written and verbal communication skills required