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Salary: USD 108,000 - 120,000 / annual
Away is a travel essentials company founded in 2016, offering luggage and travel products across DTC and wholesale channels. We're seeking a Merchandise Planning Manager to join our merchandise planning team, reporting to the Director of Merchandise Planning.
In this role, you will own the end-to-end planning process for assigned channels and categories, managing inventory pacing, monitoring channel trends, and reacting in-season to drive sales performance. You'll build and maintain Open-to-Buy (OTB) plans by account, door, market, and SKU level, aligned to financial pacing and margin targets. You'll collaborate with commercial partners to inform pre-season assortment and volume recommendations.
Key responsibilities include partnering with B2B, Product, and Finance teams to balance shared product pools across competing channels, evaluating trade-offs to optimize total business performance without overexposing inventory. You'll analyze historical trends, sell-through, and delivery cadences to surface actionable insights for product mix, pricing, and lifecycle strategies.
You'll serve as a core functional tester during user-acceptance testing (UAT) and system implementation for Away's planning and allocation tool, validating demand inputs and planning logic ahead of the 2027 rollout. Following the 2027 launch, you'll translate topline demand forecasts into automated product-level buys, utilizing system analytics to optimize replenishment and lifecycle execution. You'll maintain baseline demand-tracking models and current operational tools, generating quality benchmark data to support model calibration and ongoing operational pacing.
You'll proactively evaluate and adopt emerging AI tools and digital planning technologies to streamline inventory analysis, automate routine reporting, and enhance category execution. This is an office-based position working from Away's Soho, NYC headquarters four days per week, with working hours 9am–6pm ET and a common-sense approach to workplace flexibility.
REQUIREMENTS:
- At least 5 years of experience in merchandise planning, demand forecasting, or inventory management within multi-channel retail environments
- Demonstrated expertise in building and managing Open-To-Buy (OTB) plans, financial pacing, gross margin optimization, and product lifecycle management
- Hands-on experience participating in enterprise planning system implementations or User Acceptance Testing (UAT), with strong willingness to learn, adapt to, and leverage AI-driven demand forecasting tools
- Strong quantitative skills with proficiency in data analysis software and inventory management platforms to translate complex data into actionable channel recommendations
- Proven ability to partner effectively across B2B/Sales, Product, and Finance teams, navigating competing channel priorities and communicating data insights with minimal guidance
- Creative and innovative mindset; ability to build fresh, unique solutions while staying on brand
- Agile and motivated by fast-paced, ever-changing environments
- Passion for transforming travel for all
