NA Merchandising Lead Merchant, WNSW ApparelHybrid

Title: NA Merchandising Lead Merchant, WNSW Apparel

Location: Beaverton, OR

Duration: 4-month contract

NIKE, Inc. does more than outfit the world's best athletes. It is a place to explore potential, obliterate boundaries and push out the edges of what can be. The company looks for people who can grow, think, dream and create. Its culture thrives by embracing diversity and rewarding imagination. The brand seeks achievers, leaders and visionaries. At Nike, it’s about each person bringing skills and passion to a challenging and constantly evolving game.

WHO YOU WILL WORK WITH

As a Lead Merchant, North America Nike Women’s Sportswear (NSW) Apparel, you will report directly to the Merchandising Director of Women’s NSW Apparel. Within the team, you will manage the Fleece & Tees business, inclusive of line planning, assortment curation and day-to-day management. It is imperative that you foster strong relationships with your merchandising and cross-functional teammates to seek integration and alignment across everything you do.

With regularity, you will be balancing your interactions with Global Merchandising partners and your North America Marketplace (MPUs) partners to deliver Consumer Right Assortments.

Building and maintaining positive relationships with Global Merchandising, Consumer Field of Play (CFOP) teams, MPUs, Sales, Planning, and Brand Marketing will be critical to your success in this role.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We are looking for a Merchant with experience managing large and complex businesses, is trend-savvy, optimistic, curious and solution-oriented. Experience in Retail Buying, Product Merchandising, Product Creation, and Marketplace Merchandising are ideal backgrounds for this Lead Merchant role in North America Women’s Sportswear Apparel.

• Bachelor's degree or higher, or combination of relevant education, experience, and training
• 5+ years of experience in Merchandising, Product Management, Marketplace, Buying or integrated retail related roles
• Consumer-centric mindset and strong merchandising acumen
• Passion and knowledge of Women’s fashion and trends
• Self-starter, proficient information seeking skills, and a drive for results
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, including presentations to various cross-functional partners
• Excellent attention to detail
• Ability to influence, empower, lead and negotiate across various functions
• Ability to manage multiple deadlines and seasons
• Proficiency with Microsoft applications including Keynote, Word and Excel

WHAT YOU WILL WORK ON

As a Lead Merchant, North America Women’s Sportswear Apparel, you will have a diverse set of responsibilities as part of the team that brings our Women’s Strategic Priorities and Consumer Relevant Assortments to life.

You will regularly collaborate cross-functionally with Global and Marketplace Merchandising teams, Sales, Planning, Brand, and X-Gender Consumer teams to influence and curate seasonal assortments, create and present bi-annual line planning briefs to Global, assist in the creation of NA Product Creation (GEL) briefs and Speed briefs.

You will balance inputs from your data analysis with insights shared by MPU partners to deliver informed and timely assortment and product feedback your Global Merchandising partners.

Key accountabilities:

• Be the voice for the Women’s consumer in North America. Anticipate and influence Her needs in North America to Global Merchandising team to create end-in-mind, credible seasonal assortment strategies that serve both cultural and retail moments.
• Prepare for and own key seasonal meetings throughout the Consumer Code calendar. This is inclusive of presenting and leading conversations with cross-functional partners.
• Own the curation of seasonal assortments, pricing decisions, product opportunities and marketplace segmentation strategies.
• Partner with Planning on assortment forecasting, align across W’s FOPs (Field of Plays) on color connectivity in key franchises and reviews of shared merch classification to avoid duplication of products.
• Manage seasonal merchandising tools, VLPs (Visual Line Plans) in Merchandising system (AV), facilitate the management of the line plan systemically with MIA partners.