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CSC Generation is seeking a Vice President of Merchandising to own the full merchandising function for one of its portfolio brands. This is a strategic leadership role reporting directly to the CEO, with end-to-end responsibility for assortment strategy, vendor partnerships, catalog quality, pricing, margin management, and promotional calendar execution.
Key Responsibilities:
Assortment & Category Strategy: Set assortment strategy by category and price point, run continuous gap analysis against customer demand signals and competitive intelligence, own SKU productivity metrics, and define a clear merchandising point of view so the brand's assortment reads as curated rather than aggregated.
Vendor Partnerships & Terms: Source and sign new drop-ship vendors, negotiate and renegotiate commercial agreements (cost, margin, freight, returns, co-op funding, rebates, exclusivity), evaluate true operational cost beyond COGS, hold vendors accountable via scorecards and quarterly business reviews, build exclusive and co-developed product programs, and represent the brand at trade shows.
Product Data & Catalog Operations: Own catalog quality (item setup, taxonomy, attribution, imagery, copy, dimensions, lead-time accuracy), compress time from vendor signature to live sellable catalog, normalize vendor feeds into clean searchable assortment, and partner with Site Merchandising and Marketing on category architecture and seasonal moments.
Pricing, Margin & Promotion: Own gross margin, set pricing strategy against competitive intelligence, manage MAP and MSRP discipline, build promotional calendar with vendor funding, partner with Finance and CEO on revenue and margin plans, and report results honestly.
AI-Enabled Ways of Working: Leverage AI tools to automate recurring analysis and reporting, drive identification and rollout of new AI-enabled merchandising workflows (assortment gap analysis, vendor scorecarding, competitive pricing, catalog enrichment), model AI adoption for the team, and build AI-assisted capabilities that enable faster merchant decision-making.
Team & Leadership: Build, mentor, and develop the merchandising team as the business scales, operate as a peer to Marketing, Site, Operations, and Finance leaders, and bring the merchandising point of view into company strategy.
In the first 6–12 months, success means a rationalized catalog with clear SKU productivity standards, renegotiated vendor terms reflecting true cost-to-serve, a functioning vendor scorecard program, and AI-enabled workflows embedded across the team's recurring analysis.
This is a lean team environment. You will own significant scope, move fast, and make decisions with full end-to-end responsibility.
Requirements:
- 10+ years in merchandising, buying, or category management in retail or e-commerce, including direct people leadership
- Demonstrated ownership of a revenue and gross margin number, not just assortment
- Real vendor negotiation experience: setting and resetting commercial terms, walking away from bad deals, repairing important relationships
- Fluency with product data and catalog management (PIM or equivalent, taxonomy, attribution, item setup at scale)
- AI fluency: hands-on experience using AI to materially speed up team output (Claude, Copilot, BI-native AI features, or similar), comfort connecting tools to live data sources such as data warehouse or ERP
- Strong analytical and financial instincts, fluent in Excel, comfortable in SQL or BI tool, able to translate data into defensible decisions
- Comfort operating without scaffolding in a lean team reporting to CEO
Preferred Qualifications:
- Drop-ship or marketplace merchandising experience
- Home, furniture, or home decor category experience
