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Backcountry is seeking a Merchandise Planner to own open-to-buy plans, demand forecasting, and inventory optimization across multiple product categories. You will partner closely with Merchandising teams to drive sales, margin, and inventory turn goals while delivering actionable insights to leadership.
Within your first six months, you will own the planning cadence for your division(s), lead Open-to-Buy reviews with senior leadership, and establish yourself as the analytical partner for merchandising counterparts. This is a lean team where you will own significant scope, move fast, and make decisions with full end-to-end responsibility.
Key responsibilities include:
- Develop comprehensive merchandise plans aligned with company goals, sales targets, and market trends for multiple product categories
- Own and lead Open-to-Buy meetings and monthly reviews with senior leadership
- Forecast demand using historical data, market trends, and customer insights to drive inventory and replenishment strategies
- Monitor inventory levels, analyze sell-through rates, and recommend actions to optimize inventory turnover while minimizing stock-outs and overstock
- Conduct regular financial analysis of sales performance, margin trends, and product profitability, delivering actionable recommendations to management
- Manage the financial success of your division(s) by meeting sales, margin, and inventory turn targets
- Ensure structured reporting deliverables are accurate, efficient, and follow standardized best practices
- Identify opportunities beyond day-to-day operations to maximize sales potential and surface them with clear, data-driven recommendations
The role offers cross-functional impact, with your analysis and recommendations directly shaping buying decisions, inventory strategy, and financial outcomes. You will build fluency with modern AI tools as part of your daily workflow and develop ownership across your division(s) end-to-end, from demand forecasting through financial review.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 3+ years of assortment, demand, or merchandise planning experience, including 2+ years in a retail ecommerce environment
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with exceptional aptitude for retail math
- High proficiency with Microsoft Excel (pivot tables, vlookups, or beyond) and strong aptitude to learn new technical applications quickly
- Exceptional communication and presentation skills—able to present complex information concisely to varied audiences
- Ability to build and maintain strong cross-functional relationships and influence critical stakeholders
- Flexible and adaptive to changing priorities; able to organize and prioritize workload under pressure
- Demonstrated daily use of AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, or similar) for real work—you iterate on prompts, evaluate outputs critically, and know when AI is the right tool vs. when it is not
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- Softgoods (apparel) planning experience
- Experience planning a mixed-brand business
- Knowledge of demand planning, allocation, and forecasting systems (e.g., JDA, Oracle, SAP, Anaplan)
