APAC Footwear Merchandise Manager

Columbia Sportswear
life insurance, 401(k)
United States, Oregon, Portland
Oct 29, 2024
*This is a hybrid position based out of our corporate HQ near Portland, Oregon. In office expectations are 3 days a week* ABOUT THE POSITION The APAC Merchandising Manager is the cross-functional champion for the regional merchandising direction, as they are directing specific categories of the product line, specifically footwear. They are tasked with developing clear seasonal strategies and objectives to deliver consumer right assortments that drive growth and profitability. A critical partner to sales, they will work together to ensure the assortment direction meets the needs of the marketplace. They have a strong numbers acumen and steward the product line through the go to market process. APAC region consists of China, South Korea, and Japan. Columbia has a long history within these countries and strong growth expectation for both short and long term. Time and experience within these markets is beneficial. The regional merchant will provide a robust seasonal framework to global product creation to convey consumer and market feedback. Determine and identify new product and merchandising needs, trends and opportunities for the category. HOWYOU'LLMAKE A DIFFERENCE Deliver seasonal assortment direction and lead the building of your regional product assortment across franchise by categories based on consumer trends and analytics. Work with product to fulfill any gaps or emerging opportunities. Partner with country merchandising leaders to align commercial partners across channels and key accounts. Keeping the long-term growth roadmaps top of mind to ensure the assortment delivers a balance of brand energy with commercial drivers. Support the seasonal Go-To-Market processacross multiple seasonal deliverables ensuring work is accurate and completed at a high level, including system accuracy, catalog, forecasts, and pricing. Represent your category during key pre-line meetings, presenting to broad internal stakeholders during checkpoint meetings, and ultimately owning the product hand-over to sales. Inform market insights to global creation team as regional market expert. Influence Global Merchandising through leveraging your knowledge of the market, competitive landscape, consumer and market trends in order to ensure product needs for your region are incorporated into the global seasonal line plan. Demonstrate, effective cross-functional communication (verbal and written), collaboration and coordination throughout the seasonal product creation process. Follow through and closed loop communication effort is mandatory. Effectively present ideas and concepts to a diverse audience through storytelling and business justification. Deliver results, drive business analytical workstreams (margin, style/sku count, style/sku productivity, forecasting, bookings, and sell-thru analysis) and Market/Consumer knowledge improvement to build team expertise on the regional business and the management of it. YOU ARE A Global merchant, with a strong understanding of the Asia Pacific region. A strong leader, mentor, and expert in leading business analytical workstreams and teams. A product guru, able to achieve sales targets and adjust product assortment as needed. Well-versed in international markets relating to product merchandising, and retail sales. Effective at working collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders. A strong communicator, including written, verbal, and presentation skills. YOUHAVE MBA and/or Bachelor's degree in business or related discipline Minimum of 8+ years footwear merchandising experience in the sportswear, outdoor or action sports industry. 8+ years Team Development and Management experience. Prior experience working in a distributor model or with international markets. Solid business management skills with demonstrated financial acumen. Strong understanding of the consumer, retail environment and competitive marketplace in region. Highly proficient in MS Word, Excel, Power Point. Demonstrated ability to develop strategic plans to meet or realign regional revenue & gross margin targets. Must be a leader, communicator, listener, analytical thinker, presenter with footwear merchandising skill set and business management expertise. Knowledge of and/or basic understanding in Digital Marketing/eCommerce/social media is preferred #LI-JC1 #Hybrid #Onsite This job description is not meant to be an all-inclusive list of duties and responsibilities, but constitutes a general definition of the position's scope and function in the company. Columbia Sportswear is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics. The Know Your Rights poster is available here: https://www.eeoc.gov/poster The pay transparency policy is available here: https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/OFCCP/pdf/pay-transp_%20English_formattedESQA508c.pdf Columbia Sportswear is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process, please notify your recruiter. At Columbia Sportswear Company, we're proud to offer regular full-time employees a benefits package that includes a variety of services and products to help make your life and work more rewarding. Our benefit programs contribute to overall employee well-being by aligning those programs with the fundamental elements of well-being: physical, social/emotional, financial, career and community. Benefits that can protect your family's financial future and help you save money through our 401k plan plus a generous company match. Columbia offers medical, dental, vision, life Insurance, disability, flexible spending accounts, health savings account, and an assortment of voluntary benefit offerings (accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity, and legal services). In addition, Columbia offers EAP + which is free and confidential 24/7/365 counseling services. We have extensive wellness benefits, employee discounts and a generous time off program available. If you need an accommodation/adjustment to successfully complete and submit your application, please reach out to AskHR@columbia.com with the Subject: Applicant Assistance Requested.