Senior Merchandising Manager Road Running & Gravel

Amer Sports is the world leader in sports equipment with brands such as Salomon, Arc’teryx, Peak Performance, Atomic and Wilson.

Salomon SAS, “The Mountain Sport Company,” was founded in 1947 in the heart of the Alps, the birthplace of modern mountaineering. Driven by a passion for sports and innovative design, Salomon has created a wide range of revolutionary new concepts in bindings, boots, skis, and apparel for alpine and Nordic skiing. They have also provided innovative solutions in footwear and equipment for snowboarding, competition, mountaineering, hiking, trail running, and many other sports.

Through this focus on performance, Salomon innovates and excels in mountain sports, turning new ideas into products and pushing the boundaries of what is possible. Salomon’s commitment, culture, and heritage are all tied to a simple concept: every employee can make Salomon the leading mountain brand. Salomon is committed to responsible outdoor practices through its Play-Minded program. Diversity is one of Salomon’s five values, which is why we are committed to creating an environment accessible to all.

Salomon’s headquarters are based in Annecy (74), France.

We are looking for our new Senior Merchandising Manager Road Running & Gravel!

Your main duties will be:

Merchandising:

• Develops and deploys seasonal, annual and long-term product strategy and merchandising plans for Footwear Road Running in North America.

• Creates and delivers market relevant consumer driven assortments by sport, consumer profile and channel.

• Identifies regional opportunities and provides feedback/input to global merchandising and product team to drive relevant solutions for the North American market.

• Collaborates with the global category merchandising team to influence the product offering from insights to adoption, achieving brand objectives for the category.

• Manage multi-season product assortment with a deep understanding of consumer, marketplace landscape and retail environments.

Pricing and Profitability:

• Manages category pricing, margin, inventory and channel mix in collaboration with the VP to achieve profitability targets on a seasonal/annual basis.

Forecasting:

• Owns the omnichannel market forecasting for the category working in close partnership with regional demand planning team.

• Works with regional demand planning team to ensure product flow and inventory meets business objectives.

Analysis and Reporting:

• Analyzes sell-in and sell-thru data and identifies insights to define industry and consumer trends for implementation into category merchandising plans.

• Conducts regular market landscape assessments including competitor benchmarking, channel assessment and brand positioning for their category.

Communication and Collaboration:

• Demonstrates effective cross-functional collaboration with regional and global partners thru the seasonal process • Partners with regional marketing team to enhance the consumer experience in the marketplace.

• Collaborates with regional sales team to identify new market opportunities, provides relevant merchandising and selling tools.

• Owns presentation of Category strategy and seasonal plans at sales launches, pre-lines, key account meetings, introduction of new technologies, etc.

• Acts as the product expert for the category with internal and external stakeholders.

The ideal candidate will have 7+ years of related experience in merchandising, product or category management  and hold a prior experience in the running industry, with focus on Footwear preferred.

Skills and Competencies:

• Market knowledge and consumers knowledge: the ideal candidate will spot emerging market trends and implications for customers and be able to identify emerging customer groups as well as emerging competitors and their impact, strengths and weaknesses.
• Strategic thinking: the ideal candidate will understand the strategy and craft it to the North American market in the most effective way.
• Communication & Collaboration: the ideal candidate will pass clear messages and show high standard of collaboration in a cross functioning team.

Language: Fluent in English.

Permanent, full-time position.

Based in Ogden, UT, USA.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS & WORKING ENVIRONMENT

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. www.salomon.com While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk and hear. The employee is frequently required to sit, stand and walk. The employee must occasionally kneel, stoop, crouch, twist and lift to 30 pounds, with or without accommodation. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, color vision, and ability to adjust focus. The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate