Senior Manager Assortment Planning, Footwear, Canada

This hybrid position will be located at our Foot Locker Canada Office in Toronto. Expectations for hybrid in-office schedule is three days a week, typically Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Foot Locker, Inc. is hiring a Senior Manager of Assortment Planning, Footwear to join our Foot Locker and Champs Canada team! The Assortment Planner, Sr Manager is responsible for the development, delivery and on-going management of a profitable and productive clustered assortment that is aligned to our consumer preferences. By assorting with intent, the Assortment Planner will ensure the customer has a balance of brands, franchises, and mix of basics & fashion choices.

In close partnership with buying, allocation, and financial planning, the assortment planning team is responsible for:

• Development of store assortments informed by business strategy and customer preference to determine the optimal assortment in each store location
• Providing customer choice count targets by brand/franchise using productivity metrics aligned to in-store merchandising guidelines
• Ensuring depth by style-color needed to achieve sales utilizing Rate of Sale plan and door tiering and clustering
• Adjusting assortment strategy in-season based on changes in business performance or inventory productivity, fashion trend, and store assortment capacity
• Driving customer experience in store and increasing NPS, while maximizing sales, margin, and sell-through rates

The ideal candidate will have the following skills and abilities:

• Change Agent: enthusiastic about improving processes and ways of working and can champion change among the organization
• Strategic Thinker: connect the dots between functions, understand upstream and downstream implications of decisions, and intellectually curious
• Collaborative and Connected: know how to navigate the organization and can quickly follow up or escalate decisions to the right people and drive alignment
• Trusted: Others respect their decision-making and will trust they have made the right decisions in guiding assortments
• Detail Oriented: have no problem rolling up their sleeves and digging into the details of how things work or how decisions should be made

Data Savvy: solid understanding of historical performance data as well as the pitfalls of relying too much on data alone.LI-MN1

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Build Optimized Assortments

• Lead end-to-end Assortment Planning process for area of responsibility from initial brand/franchise forecasting to go-to-market
• Develop pre-season assortment plan to support the merchandise strategy
• Apply assortment analytics, including rate-of-sale and door tiering, to the planning process
• Conduct analysis to support the creation of sku targets by tier
• Ensure accurate life cycle management attribution
• Maximize margin through assortment productivity

Store Clustering

• Create and maintain store clusters based on demographics, space, volume, and product
• Define assortment breadth, depth, and mix for each store cluster
• Assign productivity metrics and evaluate by cluster-product type

Space Analysis and Planning

• Collaborate with Space Optimization to analyze space and capacity for area of business
• Ensure the monthly SKU count flow fits within space capacity
• Provide capital project floorplan guidance based on Merchant strategy and productivity analysis

Cross-Functional Collaboration and Alignment

• Build future assortment and space plans together with the Buying team by visiting brand partners and traveling the market
• Partner with Allocation, Buying, and GTM/VM to ensure alignment on door and distribution
• Partner with Financial Planning on bottoms-up receipt plans by vendor

Vendor Collaboration

• Foster a strong partnership with the brands on assortment build and GTM processes
• Attend brand pre-season meetings, line reviews, and market travel as needed
• Effectively articulate vendor-product strategies
• Conduct scenario analysis as required

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, finance, or merchandising required
• Minimum 7-9 years of relevant retail experience in a trend driven, high-volume company
• Advanced Excel skills are a must
• Experience using Power BI is a plus
• Experience working in assortment planning solutions is preferable
• Retail math proficiency required
• Ability to establish relationships and work effectively with all internal and external constituencies
• Ability to think creatively, highly-driven and self-motivated
• Ability to multi-task in a fast-paced environment with a sense of urgency while remaining organized
• Ability to problem-solve, manage to deadlines, and complete in-depth analysis to support decision making
• 20% Travel

At Foot Locker, we value innovation, authenticity, and integrity in all that we do.  To uphold the security and fairness of our hiring process, we ask that candidates refrain from using AI tools, including ChatGPT, during interviews and assessments.  To ensure a smooth and secure experience, please review the following guidelines:

• Cameras must be on for all virtual interviews.
• AI tools are strictly prohibited during interviews or assessments.

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation as we work together to create a transparent and equitable hiring experience.

The annual base salary range is $70,000 - $85,000 CAD / year. This range represents the anticipated low and high end of the salary for this position. This role is also eligible to receive short term incentives that align with individual and company performance. Salary will be determined by the education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, and alignment with market data. Salary is one component of the Foot Locker, Inc. total compensation package, which includes the below.  

Foot Locker Benefits:  

• Employee Discount  

• Paid Time Off  

• Medical | Dental | Vision Coverage  

• 401(k) | Roth 401(k)  

• Life Insurance  

• Flexible Spending Account  

• Paid Parental Leave  

• Opportunities for Advancement  

• Tuition Reimbursement for Qualified Courses  

• Strong Company Culture  

• Employee Resource Groups