Manager, Merchandise PlanningThis role will be accountable for driving profitable sales for the region, managing sales and inventory activities by setting SKU sales targets, maintaining a bottoms-up open-to-buy plan, monitoring inventory aging and quality, and providing stock productivity analysis. The ideal candidate blends strong analytical capability with a commercial mindset and collaborative communication skills.
What You'll Do- Develop seasonal financial plans by class, department, and channel, including sales, units, margin, and inventory.
- Build and maintain item-level or class-level forecasts based on historical performance, trends, and merchant strategy.
- Translate business strategy into monthly and weekly sales plans.
- Own inventory flow, weeks of supply, and receipt plans to support sales while minimizing markdown risk.
- Partner with Allocation/Replenishment to optimize initial buys and ongoing replenishment.
- Identify risks and opportunities related to overstock, shortages, or flow disruptions.
- Manage the markdown in season and closeout/end-of-life process.
- Produce style count and SKU productivity targets to govern the region's range selection activity. Monitor performance against these targets and make recommendations to the Merchant team to improve results.
- Partner with Merchants/Buyers to align assortments and buy quantities with financial goals.
- Work with Finance on forecasts, re-projections, and inventory investments.
- Collaborate with Supply Chain and Allocation to ensure receipts and store/channel flow align with demand.
- Analyze sell-through, productivity, aged inventory, and margin drivers.
- Provide post-mortem analysis to inform future seasons.
- Work cross-functionally with other departments within the organization to optimize buy targets, SKU optimization, and time-phased category plans.
- Monitor OTB flow for the current buying season and an extended 18- month strategic open-to-buy plan for future product seasons.
- Manage in-season inventory activities, forecasting to a roll-forward projection and making adjustments based on the agreed-upon top-down plan.
What You'll Bring- Experience in footwear retail merchandise planning, buying, demand, and supply planning
- Knowledge of different business operating models
- Successful Retail Merchandise, Buying, Demand and Supply Planning experience
- Experience in key distribution channels - wholesale, retail, and digital
- Ability to analyze trends and use that information to plan and forecast effectively
- Strong analytical and verbal skills
- Strong computer skills, including the following tools:
- Data warehouse/data mart query and report development tools
- Advanced Microsoft Excel (if statements, linking, pivot tables, etc.)
- Planning Software (MID, Blue Yonder, NSB/STS/MMS, I2, Retek, Evant, SAP, etc.)
Actual compensation within a pay range will be based on factors including but not limited to a candidate's relevant experience, qualifications, performance, Clarks' business needs, internal equity and any statutory obligations. The pay range for this role may be modified by Clarks at any time in the future. 
