Central Planning Manager - Remote

Manager, Central Planning

The Manager, Central Planning contributes to Claire's success by leading the target setting, channel management and merchandise analytics for the company. This role has influence on sales, margin and inventory goal setting.

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• Own and drive the annual/seasonal/quarterly pre-season planning process on behalf of Merchant Leadership. This includes, but not limited to comp drivers, and key initiatives that will be used to set top-down sales, margin and inventory targets for total company, division, and channel.
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• Collaborate with finance and merchandise planning to ensure plans are aligned with company margin and EBIDTA targets.
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• Manage the monthly planning meeting process, reviewing merchandise plans with SVP and Merchandise Leadership. Mine for areas in quarterly plans for comp sales opportunities and margin improvement.
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• Create and maintain value-add analysis that will support senior leadership's decision making to help maximize sales and profit. Examples of this may include: inventory productivity, price point analysis and receipt flow management.
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• Provide strategic and analytical leadership working with the planners and buyers on category deep dives, localization opportunities and promotional performance.
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• Develop, prepare and present KPIs for evaluation of business initiatives, trends using internal and external data
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• Initiate deep dives into the business by division to uncover country specific opportunities.
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• Provide direction for calendar shifts by geography/channel (holidays, BTS shifts, promotional shifts, etc) to incorporate in to merchandise financial plans
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• Develop and own best-in-class pricing framework, practices and tools to be used by Category Leaders
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• Drive analytical projects in-support of strategic initiatives with consistent and accurate information.
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• Create a planning calendar that aligns with finance and key milestones within the corporate calendar.
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• Identify areas of opportunity to streamline processes to enable continues productivity increases.
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About You

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• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience required
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• 5 to 10 years of planning and inventory management experience
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• Creative problem solver, with strong math and analytical skills
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• Strong written and verbal communication skills
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• Superior proficiency in Microsoft Excel, Access, and business intelligence tools such as Power BI, Microstrategy, etc.
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• Demonstrate collaborative skills and ability to work well within cross functional teams
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• Sense of urgency with ability to work in a fast-paced and deadline-oriented environment
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• Strong project and time management skills and the ability to organize and assist team members in the prioritization of workload
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• Self-motivated with critical attention to detail, deadlines and reporting
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• Prior global retail experience preferred
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Claire's is an equal opportunity employer with a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion. We prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, veteran status, marital status, or any other legally protected status. Applications by members of all underrepresented groups are encouraged.