The Sr. Inventory Planning Strategist will be responsible for delivering a best-in-class customer experience through the strategic management of inventory for our fast-growing greenery & decor categories. You will partner with the Merchandising, Purchasing, eCommerce, and Operations teams to maximize sales and in-stocks, identify trends and opportunities, optimize inventory efficiency, and drive profitable growth. You will also have significant interactions with our large vendor network, building relationships to help us sustain our long-term growth.
This full-time position reports to the Manager of Inventory Planning and is expected to work in a hybrid model, which currently includes Tuesday and Wednesday in-office.
What you’ll do:
- Create pre-season, item-level sales plans that align with company financial goals and open-to-buy constraints
- Design inventory strategies that balance the composition of new and core, carry-over merchandise, and support in-stock and inventory level targets
- Determine item level order quantities and flow strategies and partner with Procurement to ensure timely and accurate execution of purchase orders and track on time shipments
- Leverage historical data to identify key learnings around product, pricing, and inventory and apply learnings to future seasons
- Present strategies, investments, risk analysis and recommendations to cross-functional partners and senior leaders
- Perform in-season, item level forecasting and ad-hoc analysis to identify inventory-related risks and opportunities for chase
- Develop strong cross-functional partnerships with Merchandising, Sourcing, E-commerce, Operations, and external vendors
- Provide critical thought partnership to functional leads within the teams you support
- Regularly meet with managers and leaders to understand team landscape, diagnose issues, and brainstorm potential solutions, and generally support team health and pathways forward
- Navigate interpersonal and team dynamics, with comfort and experience managing conflict and difficult conversations
What you bring to the table:
- 5+ years of work experience, with at least 3+ years in an inventory planning or forecasting role
- Bachelor’s degree in Math, Finance, Accounting, Business, or Statistics preferred
- A passion for drawing insights from data
- Excellent business acumen
- Comfort with ambiguity
- Strong Excel skills
- Exceptional communication skills, including the ability to partner with and influence internal partners and external vendors
- Strong attention to detail when identifying data relationships, trends, and anomalies
- Proficiency in retail math and experience managing a traditional open-to-buy
- Creative problem solver
- Ability to take initiative and deliver tangible results within deadlines
- Ability to take direction from several individuals and be self-directed
- Experience in retail or e-commerce strongly preferred
- Experience with direct vendor negotiation preferred
About Us: Balsam Brands is a global, eCommerce retailer with roots in holiday and home décor. We strive for excellence in everything we do and present a unique opportunity for those seeking to have a meaningful impact in a people-first company that values relationship building, authenticity, and doing the right thing. We have steadily growing teams in Boise, the Bay Area, Dublin, and the Philippines.
The company's mission is to create joy together. We empower our team and partners to love what they do, provide products and experiences that inspire meaningful moments with family and friends, and give back to our families and communities in impactful ways. When you join Balsam Brands, you'll find a culture of caring people doing challenging work and building a welcoming workplace.
- Check out our flagship brand, Balsam Hill: www.balsamhill.com
- Balsam Brands in Forbes: https://bit.ly/balsambrandsforbes2023
- Balsam Brands on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/balsam-brands/
- Glassdoor: https://bit.ly/balsambrands-glassdoor
At Balsam Brands, we strive to offer a competitive compensation and benefits package. For permanent, full-time team members, our current package includes:
- Competitive compensation, including a cash-based incentive plan; salary is reviewed yearly and may be adjusted as part of the normal compensation review process
- Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage, with 100% of monthly premiums covered for team members, and 85%+ employer-paid premiums for other coverage tiers that include dependents
- Up to $2,000 annual funding toward HSA accounts
- Medical, transit, dependent care FSA
- Infertility coverage offered on all medical plans
- Generous parental leave program and flexible return options
- Company-paid life and AD&D insurance
- Company-paid short and long-term disability insurance
- 401(k) with dollar-for-dollar company match up to $4,000 per calendar year
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and other mental health and wellness perks
- Paid holidays, annual shutdown week, PTO, and volunteer time-off (VTO) packages
- Paid 5-week sabbatical leave after 10 years of employment
- Annual continuous learning benefit up to $1,000 per person, per fiscal year
- Up to $300 flexible reimbursement to support setup of new team member's work-from-home environment
- Generous team member merchandise discount
- Valuable extras: identity theft protection, subsidized parking, monthly wellness, pet insurance, accident & critical illness insurance
The base pay range for this position is: $90,000-$103,000. Where an individual falls within that range will vary based on several factors including geographic location and may vary depending on candidate qualifications and experience, applicable skills, and other job-related factors. We benchmark our pay ranges against current external data sources and regularly review compensation for our team members. Balsam Brands is committed to providing our team members with an internally fair, externally competitive, and fiscally prudent total compensation package administered in a simple and consistent manner.
At Balsam Brands, we strive to build a diverse, equitable, and inclusive team to fulfill our purpose to create joy together. Balsam Brands is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We encourage people from all backgrounds, ages, abilities, and experiences to apply. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, citizenship, marital or family status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy or caregiver status, veteran status, or any other legally protected status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations to participate in the job application and interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment.
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