Location: Markham, Ontario

Job Description:

Job Summary

This leadership role is central to shaping how merchandise planning informs product, inventory, and financial decisions in a fast-paced retail environment. The Director will drive strategic financial planning to optimize sales, margins, inventory health, and shipments, collaborating deeply with Merchandising, Proprietary Brands, Pricing, Promotions, and Supply Chain teams, and will be a key liaison between Merchandising and FP&A teams.

Beyond day-to-day financial responsibilities like sales forecasting and inventory management, this role is also about building foundational planning processes, introducing new ways of working, and leading change management as planning becomes a formal, integrated function within the business.

Key Responsibilities:

Develop and manage Merchandise Financial Plans:

• Develop merchandise financial plans which optimize product category sales, financial, margin, and inventory goals, including tactical margin, shipments and sales building blocks to reach annual financial targets.
• Accountable for delivering against key business metrics such as sales, gross margin, sell-through, inventory turn, and weeks of supply.
• Responsible for optimizing inventory investment and driving ROI across product categories and channels.
• In-season management of the financial plan, collaborating closely with merchants and FP&A team
• Work closely with merchandising teams to develop and track sales, margin and shipment building blocks/tactics, identify gaps and collaborate with merchants to close financial gaps.
• Develop and deliver performance analysis across the business that measures achievement of sales, margin, and inventory plans on weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual basis.
• Analyze key performance indicators (KPIs) like sales, margin, and inventory at sub-category/category levels to identify areas for improvement and drive financial performance.
• Influence key stakeholders by delivering insights and recommendations that support strategic product and investment decisions.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Proprietary Brands, Merchandising, Pricing, Promo, Finance and Supply Chain teams to ensure cohesive business strategies and product execution.
• Support the buy review process for new products with forecasting and analysis including halo and cannibalization estimates, required for inventory investment and store distribution decisions.
• Support the forecasting for carryover and new product launches and new store openings.

Team Leadership & Change Management:

• Build and lead a high-performing team of merchandise planners.
• Success requires not only technical excellence in financial planning and analytics but also strong cross-functional influence and the ability to translate data into actionable insights.
• The Director will serve as a trusted advisor to Merchandising, helping the team make more informed and strategic decisions, while driving clarity, structure, and operational efficiency across the organization.

Qualifications

• A bachelor’s degree in a relevant field (Business, Merchandising, Finance, etc.).
• 5+ years of experience in retail planning, buying, or retail business analytics — ideally in a high-growth or multi-channel environment.
• A strong understanding of retail financial metrics and inventory management principles.
• Experience partnering with Merchandising or Buying teams and bringing structure to decision-making in environments that are less process-driven.
• Strategic thinking and the ability to distill complex data into clear, actionable insights.
• Comfort navigating ambiguity and change — with a proactive, solutions-oriented mindset.

Skills:

• Strong understanding of financial planning principles and processes, including forecasting, budgeting, and variance analysis.
• Proven experience in merchandise planning, inventory management, and retail operations.
• Ability to analyze data, identify trends, and develop actionable insights.
• Excellent communication skills, especially in influencing cross-functional stakeholders and presenting to leadership.
• Strong leadership and management style focused on empowerment, development and collaboration
• Advanced proficiency in Excel and business intelligence tools to Advance proficiency in Excel
• Cross-functional Collaboration