Director, Company Planning - LOFT

Brand Overview: ascena is a leading national specialty retailer offering apparel, shoes, and accessories for women through our brands Ann Taylor, LOFT, and Lou & Grey, Lane Bryant and Cacique. We operate ecommerce websites and over 1200 stores throughout the United States. Ready to apply? We currently have an opportunity for a Director, Company Planning - LOFT to join our team located at our Times Square Tower-ANN-New York, NY 10036. Position Overview: The role of Company Planning is to generate and promote strategic planning ideas to help drive margin, mitigate liabilities, and manage inventory effectively. The Company Planning team acts as the hub of Planning and the liaison between Merchandise Planning and Finance. The Loft Director of Company Planning drives all advanced analytics to maximize sales for each season/year/long-range plan, owns the risk assessment and mitigation strategy for inventory positioning, determines best practices, works with executive leadership on executing critical business initiatives, leads the development and enhancements for all sales and margin modeling, and generates merchandise analytics to drive incremental sales and profit. This role is responsible for leading a team that… • Acts as a hub of information between Finance and brand CFTs (MP, LP&A, Stores, Merchandising, Ecommerce, and Marketing) to create brand plans • Provides clear, accurate direction on sales, margin, promotional calendar and fiscal calendar shifts • Owns the pre-season and in-season company plan at the channel level for both stores and Ecommerce • Collaborates with business partners and serves as a guide for reconciling bottoms up and tops down plans and marketing budgets • Communicates with leadership across brands and functions to ensure a consistent, cohesive plan and strategy • Owns topline strategic analysis to help drive sales and productivity • Owns promotional guidance and testing analysis • Displays strong influential leadership all the way up to Senior Vice Presidents. Role and Responsibilities: • Establish and maintain business relationships with key stakeholders, including Finance, Executive leadership, Merch Planning, Location Planning, Marketing, Ecommerce, Store Operations, and Merchandising • Partner with key business stakeholders to align on financial goals and key metrics for current season, future season, and long-range plan • Partner closely with SVP Company Planning to create strategies, enhance process and build stretch plans and or long range plans • Create business topline strategies to help drive sales and profitability • Provide in depth analysis at the day level to ensure budget sales and margin goals are achieved • Create brand/channel annual budgets and MP targets to share with business partners and serve as a guide for bottoms up planning and marketing budgets • Determine MP targets that are used to create bottoms up merchandise planning plans • Work closely with MP to understand inventory liabilities and opportunities • Lead the development, analysis, strategic planning and execution of topline company plans and lead weekly meeting with senior leadership to review business and callout topline risk and opportunity • Oversee promotional calendar for each brand and participate in weekly promo meetings to ensure company targets are being met and digital marketing is aligned with any major promotional shifts for the upcoming months • Partner with customer analytics team to understand key metrics drivers and implement learnings to drive profitability • Coordinate deliverables for the CP team • Drive planning tool optimizations Experience and Qualifications: • 10 years of related experience in analytical roles within omni retail environment • Bachelor’s degree, or equivalent; advanced degree a plus • Experience in a financial role a plus, but not required • Ability to provide strategic guidance and build business cases for a multidimensional business and take analysis into action, execute to timelines and provide timely solutions • Ability to build strong and engaged relationships, establish credibility, lead peers and influence key decisions makers • High level of intellectual curiosity that translates into approaches to business issues • Strong quantitative and analytical skills and clear understanding of financial measurements and retail method of accounting • Outstanding verbal, written and presentation skills • Ability to present accurately and eloquently to senior executives (C-Level) • Strong decision-making capabilities; strong point of view and negotiation skills • Proficient in Microsoft Office Applications and Business Intelligence tools (i.e. APT) • Flexible and adaptable to changing priories in a fast-paced environment • Will be in office 3 days a week The target salary for this role is $175,000 - $195,000. Actual compensation within that range is influenced by a wide array of factors including, but not limited to, skill set, level of experience, and other job-related factors. #LI-LL1 Location: Times Square Tower-ANN-New York, NY 10036 Position Type: Regular/Full time Equal Employment Opportunity The Company is committed to hiring and developing the most qualified people at all levels. It is our policy in all personnel actions to ensure that all associates and potential associates are evaluated on the basis of qualifications and ability without regard to sex (including pregnancy), race, color, national origin, religion, age, disability that can reasonably be accommodated without undue hardship, genetic information, military status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other protected classification under federal, state, or local law. We do not discriminate in any of our employment policies and practices. All associates are expected to follow these principles in all relationships with other associates, applicants, or others with whom we do business. Ascena is a leading national specialty retailer offering apparel, shoes, and accessories for women through our brands Ann Taylor, LOFT, Lane Bryant and Cacique. We operate ecommerce websites and over 1,200 stores throughout the United States. To reduce potential fraud, we remind all applicants: • It won’t cost you money to apply for a job with us. Our brands will never ask for money – that includes a wire transfer or a credit card. There will be no charge for equipment, background checks or other expenses in submitting a job application with us. • We will never ask for your bank account information as part of the interview process. Your bank account information should only be entered during the onboarding process after you are hired to set up direct deposit of wages. • Interviews will be conducted in-person or through a secure video call, using a teleconference application that uses email addresses only (not telephone numbers). • Watch closely for email addresses with misspelled or “spoofed” company names in communications during the interview process. Examples of suspicious addresses include “Info@company.net” instead of “Info@company.com,” and misspelled company names like “Info@companie.com” or “Info@compaany.com.” • If you do apply to our Brands through an official job board site rather than using our official website (https://www.ascena.com/home/our-careers/work-with-us/), report suspicious communication immediately to the site or platform used to submit your job application (such as an official job board site). • If you have any questions or are not sure if you’ve applied to our Brands, please reach out to myHRSupport@AscenaRetail.com to confirm. • If you believe you may be a victim of a scam, please contact your local law enforcement.

Salary : $175,000 - $195,000