Manage pre-season and in-season Planning & Buying of Lifestyle categories for Own Retail concept stores + Ecom. In this role you are part of a team responsible for maximizing the sales, profitability & brand equity of the EMC region (UAE, KSA, KAZ, UKR, MOR, EGY) by building the merchandising strategy for the market alongside your direct reports who you will be managing. 

Job Profile:  

• Work with Senior Manager (CS + Ecom) and Director Merch in executing MENA DTC merchandising goals and ensure deployment by engaging with BU’s, CTC and Hub. 

• Deliver financial targets including Net sales, Sell through, Standard margin for your team’s respective categories. 

• Optimize in-season trade through liaising with Operations across our EMC markets, utilizing our readily available tools and understanding market trends to ensure we gain in-depth consumer insights & implement learnings into pre-season & in-season strategy.  

• Develop a strong understanding of your categories as well as the consumer sets at a country level, with strong knowledge behind both brand and commercial led offerings. 

• Own and present the Strategy, Ranging, Segmentation and volume plans for future season buys in your respective categories whilst also managing your teams to ensure quality and milestone timelines are being hit.  

• Attend, partake and complete tasks associated to key buying milestones to support you and your teams vision and strategy for future season buys. 

• Ensure execution of Category campaigns by aligning with Brand Calendar, Omni execution, Visual merchandising and SCM to ensure timely arrivals. 

• Collaboration is key. Ensure consistent touch-bases with your direct reports, as well as weekly and bi-weekly meetings with key stakeholders within B&M, Brand, SCM and Hub. 

• Key Relationships:  

  • BUs, CTC (Concept-to-Consumer) 

  • Omni, Visual Merchandising 

  • Retail & Ecom Operations 

  • Supply Chain management 

  • Relevant EM & Global Teams – Merchandising, CTC. 

  Your Profile:  

  • Strategic thinker 

  • Proactive and time-based thinking 

  • Commercial acumen 

  • Cross-function collaboration 

  • Project Management mindset: Structured, organized and process orientated 

  • Passion for improvement (Kaizen) 

  • Organized and agile 

  • Results driven 

  • Attention to detail 

  • Ability to present clearly to any audience 

  • Ability to work effectively within a fast-paced team environment and under pressure 

  • Fluent in English 

  • University degree in business, ideally with marketing and sales focus or equivalent professional experience 

  • Merchandising Experience: 4 - 6 years