5-7 years of experience in brand planning or related field
Strong commercial and financial acumen
Proficient in retail math and forecasting
Ability to analyze business performance and trends
Excellent communication and collaboration skills
Experience working cross-functionally with diverse teams
Responsibilities
Review business results and optimize KPIs with brand IM lead
Validate commercial plan strategy and guide future strategies
Guide merchandise planning through the monthly open-to-buy process
Analyze variances between forecasts and provide insights
Prepare for monthly forecast discussions with brand leadership
Identify emerging risks and opportunities for financial targets
Support continuous improvement in planning processes and tools
Benefits
Significant exposure to leadership within the organization
Opportunity to influence key business decisions
Collaborative work environment with cross-functional teams
Engagement in continuous improvement initiatives
Potential for career growth within the company
Full Job Description
About the Role The Brand Planning lead is an essential contributor to the end-to-end management of the Gap/Gap Outlet business, sitting at the intersection of investment strategy, product strategy, and customer experience. Through close cross-functional partnership across the inventory management, merchandising, site merchandising, company planning, and commercial planning organizations, the brand planning lead facilitates all key business processes, and works as a close counterpart to the brand IM lead to foster data-based decision-making in weekly business management, monthly open-to-buy forecasting, and at key inventory investment milestones. This role provides significant exposure to leadership across the Gap/Gap Outlet organization, and helps provide, brand-wide perspective, and recommendations on business performance, risks, and opportunities.
What You'll Do
In-Season
Review business results in partnership with brand IM lead and divisional merchandise planning teams, and identifying actions to optimize KPIs
Partner with merchandise planning, commercial planning, and pricing to validate commercial plan strategy, hindsight promotions, and guide future strategy
Guide the merchandise planning team through the monthly open-to-buy process: provide timelines and forecasting guidance to the merchandise planning team; review forecast roll and identify risks + opportunities vs the finance forecast/budget; publish monthly receipt reconciliation data
Work with company planning partners to hand off key forecast inputs (receipts, markdown conversion) and understand any variances between tops down/bottoms up forecasts
Partner with brand inventory management lead to prepare for monthly forecast discussions with brand leadership
Analyze business results and trend outlooks to identify emerging risks and opportunities, and recommend actions needed to achieve financial and operational targets.
Provide forward-looking assessments of business performance, highlighting key drivers, risks, opportunities, and mitigation plans for leadership decision-making.
Pre-Season
Guide the development of quarterly financial targets by division and department, to ensure that plans reflect recent business trends and long range plan priorities, and align with budget parameters
Provide key insights to buy plan position throughout the planning cycle, and identifying risks and opportunities in the investment profile
Communicate with company planning regarding buy plan rolls and variances to budget targets, and partner with IM and merchandising leadership to prepare for investment milestones
Participate in SME groups and transformation work across key planning functions, to support continuous improvement in processes and tools
Who You Are
Strong commercial acumen with the ability to assess business performance, identify emerging trends, and translate insights into actionable recommendations that drive results.
Ability to proactively evaluate risks and opportunities, develop scenario-based action plans, and influence cross-functional partners to deliver desired business outcomes.
Enterprise mindset with a forward-looking perspective on market, customer, and business trends, balancing short-term performance needs with long-term growth objectives.
Strong financial acumen and retail math skillset
Ability to communicate clearly across functions, and collaborate effectively with a variety of cross-functional partners
Extensive knowledge of all key planning responsibilities, and the ability to 'connect the dots' between them
