Associate Merchandise Planner Jobs in Connecticut

About Us:

vineyard vines is a highly successful, privately held, American clothing and accessory retailer founded in 1998 on Martha's Vineyard by brothers, Shep and Ian Murray. With Shep & Ian still at the helm today, vineyard vines has experienced exponential year over year growth and now operates over 120 retail locations including an outlet division, a successful e-commerce business, domestic distribution center, and expanding corporate headquarters. In addition, vineyard vines is carried in major department stores such as Nordstrom and Bloomingdales as well as numerous specialty boutiques across the US. 

vineyard vines was founded on a state of mind that Every day should feel this good. 

You don't need to be on a beach, by the ocean or on vacation to have Every day should feel this good moments. It's a state of mind that we all experience, and one where everyone is invited. At vineyard vines, we don't live an #EDSFTG life away from our desks - we bring it to work with us, too.

In our stores, at our Harbor Drive headquarters or working remotely, our company culture is fun, encouraging and welcoming to all. We work hard and play harder, and we never take ourselves too seriously. And while we have many company goals, our number one priority is making vineyard vines a great place to work for all employees.

Our team is our family, and we'd never have grown to where we are today without them. 

We're committed to building an inclusive team across all channels, departments and stores within our community. We hope you'll join us and see what the smiling pink whale is all about. 

Overview:

The Associate Planner is primarily responsible for analyzing, identifying, and communicating sales and inventory opportunities and providing risk-mitigation recommendations.

Key Responsibilities:

• Communicate financial results, forecasts, and action plans to management and cross-functional team on a weekly basis 
• Analyze historical data and current trends to identify risks and opportunities
• Provide hindsight analysis and partner with merchandising on future product positioning and opportunities
• Present financial forecast and supporting action plans in monthly open to buy meetings
• Manage basic inventory levels and forecast replenishment buys to support sales forecast
• Identify inventory risks and opportunities and work cross-functionally to solve
• Prepare pre-season plans; financial sales, merchandise margin, and inventory, consistent with the company's top-down goals
• Ownership of bottoms up SKU plans and buy quantification across category
• Prepare monthly merchandise reprojection including analytical activities to understand health of category(ies) and actions leading to profitable inventory management
• Quarterly hind-sight responsibilities including SKU productivity and sell-through analysis

What You Bring:

• 1-2 years of dedicated planning experience and supporting an OTB, and presenting it to senior management and cross-functional partners.
• Proficient with Microsoft Excel – pivot tables, v-lookups, etc.
• Possess a clear understanding of financial measurements: sales, gross margin, weeks of supply, inventory turn, sell through, etc. and how to impact them
• Ability to negotiate with and influence peers, members of a cross-functional team, and management
• Strong interpersonal communication and cross-functional collaboration skills
• Strong time management, prioritization, and organizational skills
• An understanding and adherence to all policies related to the organization 
• Organizational skills are essential as well as the ability to multi-task and work on multiple projects simultaneously to meet deadlines
• Team focused, confident, and professional
• Ability to effectively receive and communicate feedback
• Passion for the vineyard vines brand

Every-day Will Feel This Good Because:

• We have a fun-spirited entrepreneurial culture filled with truly “good” people
• We offer a generous employee discount so you can rep our lifestyle on-and-off the boat
• We offer a competitive salary package, 401-K, commuter benefits, and paid-family leave, health savings, flex spending accounts, life & disability insurance
• We have an onsite gym as well as financial wellness programs to keep you active
• We offer 2 summer Fridays to take off in addition to a competitive vacation policy & holiday calendar