About the Role
As the Senior Director of Footwear Planning, you will report to the Vice President of Planning and will be responsible for the tactical and strategic planning, purchasing, and inventory management of Ariat’s Domestic (North America) Wholesale Footwear business. You and your team will own the 18-month rolling demand plan and 3-year strategic demand plan and be responsible for the management of purchases and inventory to support these plans. This position will coordinate the forecasting and purchasing of footwear for our Direct-to-Consumer and Global businesses. You will oversee the analysis of current business trends, market data, and historical data across all sales channels to direct our inventory and purchasing to respond to changing market requirements and service and financial goals.
You will directly lead and manage the team responsible for developing demand forecasts, managing inventory, and executing purchases. Working directly with senior management from Merchandising, Sales, Finance, and Sourcing, you will provide leadership and direction on a cross-functional basis to ensure optimum inventory levels to meet margin targets, financial objectives, and customer service requirements.
The ideal candidate will drive business results, develop teams, and evolve processes to achieve strong positive results in a growing business. The responsibilities outlined below are representative of the essential duties and tasks expected for this role; however, additional duties may be assigned as necessary to meet the needs of the organization.
You’ll Make a Difference By:
Forecast/Rolling Demand Plan
- Leading and driving facilitation of the monthly Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process including maintenance of rolling 18-month consensus plans and gaining full alignment with Finance, Sales, Merchandising and Senior Leadership.
- Driving the quality of forecasts in terms of accuracy, timeliness, coordination, and communication; identify ways to streamline and improve the process.
- Leading the budgeting process for the Planning function, partnering with Finance and Product Management/Merchandising Team leads.
- Partnering across Supply Chain functions (Sourcing, Logistics, Distribution) to ensure infrastructure supports current and future volume plans and product mix.
- Establishing annual forecast accuracy targets; communicate key forecast accuracy metrics to senior level management and functional teams, including opportunities and actions to drive improvement.
Purchase Planning and Inventory Management
- Leading team to maintain optimal inventory levels and manage products through their lifecycle (including promotions, markdowns, etc.) to meet financial targets of inventory turns, margin, sales objectives.
- Collaborating with Global Sourcing teams (currently Asia and Rest-of-World) to establish and manage factory capacity plans; anticipate and manage production and capacity issues.
- Partnering with Logistics team to expedite product as needed to drive sales and meet customer service requirements.
- Partnering with Distribution/Transportation teams to ensure adequate supply chain resources to execute Inbound inventory requirements.
People and Process Leadership
- Developing team members, including talent management, career planning, and professional education. Leading the growth and development of the Demand Planning and Supply Planning Process within the team of Managers/Planners.
- innovation and focus on continuous improvement to ensure procedures and policies are followed across the supply chain organization.
- and collaborating cross-functionally to complete special projects as required by a growth organization, including work on IT system implementations, alternate manufacturing & costing models, alternate distribution models (globally and domestically), and core demand planning improvement efforts.
- Promoting a culture of curiosity and continuous learning.
About You
- years minimum experience in demand planning and inventory management role with open to buy experience, at least 5+ years’ experience leading a Planning function.
- thinker with strong analytical skills complemented by solid business acumen and an understanding of key financial metrics.
- to problem solve within and beyond own area of responsibility.
- to synthesize large amounts of data, distill the data down to its essence, and present information in a compelling and persuasive manner.
- and entrepreneurial leader with ability to work cross-functionally to build alignment to support new ideas and initiatives.
- record of process improvement and change management.
- interacting with and presenting to senior leaders and executive team.
- verbal and written communication skills.
- planning and management experience.
- with enterprise-level software applications such as SAP/S4, and CCH Tagetik (formerly Vanguard) demand and supply planning software, Tableau and Cognos.
- proficiency in MS Excel and PowerPoint
- flexibility to travel both domestically to customers and internationally to suppliers.
About Ariat
Ariat is an innovative, outdoor global brand with roots in equestrian performance. We develop high-quality footwear and apparel for people who ride, work, and play outdoors, and care about performance, quality, comfort, and style.
The salary range for this position is $190,000 - $205,000 per year.
The salary is determined by the education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, and alignment with market data for geographic locations. Ariat in good faith believes that this posted compensation range is accurate for this role at this location at the time of this posting. This range may be modified in the future.
Ariat’s holistic benefits package for full-time team members includes (but is not limited to):
- Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance options
- Expanded wellness and mental health benefits
- Paid time off (PTO), paid holidays, and paid volunteer days
- 401(k) with company match
- Bonus incentive plans
- Team member discount on Ariat merchandise
Note: Availability of benefits may be subject to location & employment type and may have certain eligibility requirements. Ariat reserves the right to alter these benefits in whole or in part at any time without advance notice.
Ariat will consider qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with state and local laws. Ariat is an Equal Opportunity Employer and considers applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, orientation, national origin, age, disability, genetics or any other basis protected under federal, state, or local law. Ariat is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to candidates with disabilities. If you need an accommodation during the application process, email human.resources@ariat.com.
Please see our Employment Candidate Privacy Policy at www.ariat.com/careers to learn more about how we collect, use, retain and disclose Personal Information.
Please note that Ariat does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruiters or employment agencies. In the absence of a signed Agreement, Ariat will not consider or agree to payment of any referral compensation or recruiter/agency placement fee. In the event a recruiter or agency submits a resume or candidate without a previously signed Agreement, Ariat explicitly reserves the right to pursue and hire those candidate(s) without any financial obligation to the recruiter or agency. Any unsolicited resumes, including those submitted directly to hiring managers, are deemed to be the property of Ariat.
