Senior Director, Merchandise Planning and Inventory Management (East-Asia Pacific)

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Reporting into VP Asia Merchandise Planning & Inventory Management, the incumbent is the key MPIM representation for East Asia Pacific Cluster. In this role, you will capture and translate the needs of the cluster/ markets and channel business and represent the best interests of MPIM for East Asia Pacific at a senior leadership level within key markets in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines.

Overview

• Responsible for growth and professional development of a team of MPIM professionals across the East Asia Pacific market
• Develop & oversee cohesive merchandise management strategy execution within East Asia Pacific across channels
• Drive inventory usage and optimization across the region i.e. Inventory Turns and E&O
• Review and sign off investment plans with MD and MPIM Leadership to ensure budget and target can be achieved
• Ensure commonality across channels and markets where commercially beneficial
• Hindsight seasonal hits and misses to influence merchant team to develop right assortment
• Oversee in-season sales review and demand management (i.e. OTB)
• Review and plan, OTB forecast, provide strategic inputs to meet financial goal
• Provide business process leadership and standardized Ways of Working across the markets, e.g. Investment/Buy Reviews, hind-sighting, S&OP, WOR meetings (Channel rollup)
• Escalates market specific issues early to ensure resolution in time

Key Responsibilities

• Managing the East Asia Pacific Buying/ Merchandising Planning/ Allocation/Inventory management team to ensure best-in-class execution
• Lead team to work closely with Merchandising to develop customer segment and store segmentation productivity targets (assortment architecture) based on historical performance and strategic brand direction
• Manage bottoms-up (product level) sales & inventory buy plan and monthly flow, delivering on productivity targets and informing financial & inventory decisions
• Manage monthly demand forecast based on latest sales trend with particular attention on core/replenishment products.
• Lead East Asia Pacific Cluster S&OP planning process to align demand and sales to exceed sales and minimize business risk. Work with commercial GMs to reduce excess and obsolete inventory
• Lead and ensure consistent in-season allocation & replenishment to drive appropriate coverage across stores and DC
• Accountable for commercial insights in driving in-season decisions to maximize inventory, drive sales and deliver margin targets
• Build effective inventory strategies that align with financial objectives of the company. Responsible for the management of inventory within budget targets
• Manage and ensure forecast accuracy to strive for the right balance of hitting the financial target and the inventory target.
• Develop new processes and reporting; manage and execute existing processes and communication streams
• Support and advocate implementation of new planning tools, process, and ways of working within the business teams
• Dive deep into inventory planning, fully understand and clearly communicate with strategical action plans to improve inventory turns
• Bridge the communication between global and local functional teams to ensure ways of working and brand strategy are consistently executed in local market.

Key Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in areas including but not limited to the following – Merchandise Financial Planning, Buying, Demand Forecasting, Inventory Management, Store Allocation, Production Planning, Sales & Operations Planning and Planning Systems &