POSITION SUMMARY

The VP of Merchandising owns assortment and vendor/buying strategy accountability for two categories with very different operating models: Collision Parts, which represents roughly 70% of CarParts.com's total revenue and spans an assortment of approximately 80,000 SKUs, and Mechanical Parts, which is sourced and warehoused through one of our partners.

For Collision, this is a long-tail, large-catalog hardlines merchandising role rather than brand management or trend buying, and success depends on the leader's ability to operate with precision at the SKU level while also setting category-level strategy. This leader reports directly to the COO and will be one of the most senior operating voices in the company on what we carry, why we carry it, when we buy it, when we stop, and what it's doing in the market once it's live. The role requires someone who is genuinely energized by digging into the data - fitment coverage, sell-through, velocity, channel performance, seasonality curves, vendor lead times - and who treats SKU-level ownership of the assortment as a feature of the job, not a burden.

For Mechanical, the operating model is different by design: the VP of Merchandising sets category strategy and commercial targets for Mechanical, approves assortment scope, and governs the partner relationship jointly with the VP of Sourcing - bringing the assortment and commercial performance lens while Sourcing owns the contractual and fulfillment relationship. The expectation is oversight and accountability for outcomes, not hands-on SKU management at Collision's depth.

The VP of Merchandising will build and lead the team responsible for assortment strategy, vendor management, and SKU lifecycle management for Collision, and will maintain a smaller, dedicated point of ownership for Mechanical category governance. This leader will be the primary voice explaining performance in both categories: what's accelerating, what's decelerating, and why.

This role does not own demand planning, inventory forecasting, replenishment, or pricing for Collision - those functions sit with dedicated Demand Planning/Inventory and Pricing teams - and does not own sourcing, funding, or fulfillment execution for Mechanical, which sits with our strategic partner under the sourcing organization's oversight. This leader will work hand-in-hand with those partners daily, bringing the assortment and SKU-level performance point of view that should inform their forecasts, buy quantities, and price points.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES - COLLISION PARTS

Assortment Strategy - What We Carry, Why, and When

• Own the end-to-end assortment strategy for the ~80,000-SKU Collision Parts catalog: what we carry, why we carry it, and when we bring it in or take it out.
• Define assortment logic by part type, vehicle coverage (make/model/year), and price tier, balancing fitment breadth against inventory efficiency and return risk.
• Build and maintain the long-tail strategy: know which low-velocity, high-coverage SKUs are strategically necessary (fitment completeness, competitive parity, channel requirements) versus which are dead weight.
• Own seasonality planning across the category - anticipate weather-driven and regionally-driven demand swings (e.g., collision-related demand tied to weather events, seasonal driving patterns) and translate that into buying and inventory decisions ahead of the curve.
• Continuously evaluate what we don't carry and why - competitive gaps, new part numbers, new vendors, new categories - and bring a point of view on where the assortment should expand or contract.

Buying Strategy & Vendor Management - What We Buy, Why, and When

• Own the buying decision of what to source, from which vendor, and when to bring it into the assortment - the commercial "what and why" behind every SKU.
• Set and defend the buying rationale SKU-by-SKU where it matters - be able to explain why a given part is in the assortment and sourced the way it is.
• Own vendor relationships and negotiations (cost, terms, quality, vendor-funded programs) in partnership with sourcing/procurement.
• Partner hand-in-hand with Demand Planning/Inventory on purchase quantities, timing, and replenishment cadence, and with Pricing on price-point strategy - bringing the assortment and SKU-performance context those teams need, without owning their forecasts or price decisions directly.

SKU-Level Performance Management - What Sells, What Doesn't, and Why

• Operate at the SKU level, not just the category level. This leader is expected to know, or be able to find quickly, what is selling, what isn't, and why, across an 80,000-SKU catalog.
• Build and personally use reporting and processes that surface velocity, sell-through, margin, and return rate at the individual SKU level, not just rolled-up category metrics.
• Identify and diagnose channel-level performance differences - what sells on one channel but not another (e.g., site vs. marketplace vs. wholesale) - and adjust assortment, pricing, or placement accordingly.
• Proactively flag and act on what's accelerating and what's decelerating within the category, and be able to articulate why: pricing, competition, fitment issues, seasonality, quality/return problems, or demand shifts.
• Drive SKU lifecycle management end to end - introduction, growth, maturity, decline, and rationalization/exit - so the catalog stays healthy and isn't carrying dead or declining inventory without a reason.
• Use this SKU-level fluency to inform pricing, promotional, and marketing decisions in partnership with those teams.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES - MECHANICAL PARTS

Category Strategy & Assortment Governance

• Set category-level assortment strategy, commercial targets (revenue, margin, availability), and priorities for Mechanical Parts, translating them into direction for our strategic partner to execute against.
• Approve additions, exits, and assortment scope changes within the Mechanical catalog: our strategic partner executes sourcing, funding, and fulfillment day-to-day, but assortment decisions remain with this role.
• Ensure Mechanical assortment strategy stays aligned with overall company category strategy, brand standards under the JC Whitney label, and competitive positioning.

Partner Governance & Performance Oversight

• Co-own governance of the Mechanical business with the VP of Sourcing: participate in the SKU-level scorecard (fill rate, quality, in-stock rate) and quarterly business reviews, bringing the commercial and assortment lens while Sourcing owns the contractual and fulfillment relationship.
• Serve as an escalation point, alongside Sourcing, when Mechanical category performance (sell-through, margin, availability) falls short of target - helping determine whether the root cause is an assortment/commercial issue or a sourcing/fulfillment issue, and driving it to the right owner for resolution.
• Maintain a dedicated point of ownership (a category manager or analyst) for Mechanical category oversight, sized appropriately to a partner-governance model rather than the full operating team Collision requires.

Reporting & Representation

• Represent Mechanical Parts performance in the same reporting cadence as Collision, so the COO and executive team see one unified merchandising performance narrative across both categories.
• Report on Mechanical category health - growth, margin, availability, and any partner performance issues - with the same clear, data-driven point of view expected for Collision.

CATEGORY P&L AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

• Own the Collision Parts category P&L, budget, and forecast - top-line growth, margin, and inventory health.
• Own the Mechanical Parts category P&L outcomes - top-line growth and margin.
• Lead a regular (daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly) performance management cadence with the team and cross-functional partners, calling out gaps to plan and the specific actions to close them, across both categories.
• Report category performance to the COO and executive team with a clear, data-driven point of view - not just what happened, but why, and what we're doing about it.

BUILDING THE TEAM

• Build, lead, and scale a merchandising team (buyers, category managers, assortment/data analysts) capable of operating with SKU-level rigor across the 80,000-SKU Collision catalog.
• Maintain a smaller, dedicated Mechanical category governance function - sized for partner oversight rather than direct SKU management.
• Set the standard for analytical discipline on the team - instill the habit of asking "what's selling, what isn't, and why" as a daily practice, not a quarterly exercise.
• Recruit, coach, and develop category management talent; be a hands-on player-coach willing to go SKU-deep alongside the team when needed.

CROSS-FUNCTIONAL LEADERSHIP

• Partner closely with the COO, Finance, Marketing, and E-commerce/Marketplace teams to align assortment and buying decisions with broader operating goals.
• Work hand-in-hand, daily, with Demand Planning/Inventory and Pricing - the two functions most dependent on this role's Collision assortment and SKU-level insight.
• Partner closely with the VP of Sourcing (and the Sourcing organization) on the strategic partner relationship for Mechanical Parts - aligning on category targets, partner scorecards, and joint escalation when performance issues arise.
• Partner closely with Data Science to build and refine the SKU-level performance, velocity, and channel-performance models this role depends on - co-defining what to measure and how to act on it.
• Partner with the CEO's Technical Advisor and the Catalog team on fitment data quality, part-number/catalog structure, and the technical foundation that underpins assortment and SKU-level decision-making at this scale.
• Represent Collision and Mechanical Parts in company-wide strategic planning, budgeting, and executive reviews.
• Serve as a key advisor to the COO and executive team on the health and direction of both categories.

CANDIDATE PROFILE

Experience & Expertise

• 10+ years of progressive merchandising, category management, or buying leadership experience, with direct responsibility for large, complex, hardlines assortments of 40,000+ SKUs.
• Automotive aftermarket, collision/body parts, or hard-parts experience highly preferred, but not required - strong hardlines/long-tail merchandising fundamentals matter more than industry pedigree.
• Demonstrated experience managing long-tail catalogs - deep fitment/part-number complexity, low-velocity/high-SKU-count assortments - not just top-seller merchandising.
• Proven track record building and executing assortment strategy: deciding what to carry, what to cut, and when, with clear commercial reasoning.
• Strong vendor negotiation and management background.
• Experience governing a category or vendor relationship through a third-party, drop-ship, VMI, or fully-funded partner model - comfortable holding a partner accountable to targets without owning day-to-day execution.
• Experience factoring seasonality into assortment and buying decisions, and translating it into direction for demand planning partners.
• Comfortable and effective operating at the SKU level - genuinely enjoys digging into granular sales, margin, and inventory data to find the "why" behind performance, and expects the same of their team.
• Experience analyzing and acting on channel-level performance differences (e.g., direct site, marketplaces, wholesale/B2B).
• P&L ownership experience for a business unit or category of meaningful scale.
• Advanced proficiency with data and analytics tools (Excel/Tableau/SQL or similar) sufficient to interrogate SKU-level data directly, not solely through analysts.

Leadership & Behavioral Competencies

• A detail-obsessed operator who is energized - not drained - by getting into the weeds of an 80,000-SKU catalog; treats deep SKU-level command of the assortment as a core competency of the role.
• Equally comfortable operating at two different altitudes: hands-on SKU depth for Collision, and strategic partner governance for Mechanical - without defaulting to one style for both.
• Strong analytical and strategic thinking, with the ability to move fluidly between SKU-level detail and category-level strategy in the same conversation.
• A clear, structured communicator who can expla