Associate Planner & Merchandiser - Rockets of Awesome : Job Details

**Rockets of Awesome** is reinventing the way parents shop for kids by leveraging technology, data, brand, personalization, and exceptional merchandise. Were making shopping for kids apparel convenient and fun this is the future of vertical commerce.

We are a New York City-based, venture-backed startup with extensive executive expertise. Join our creative and strategic team working to develop a scalable omni-channel system that powers a business with massive market opportunity. This team cultivates a culture of learning and continuous improvement by investing in automated testing, learning from real-world problems, and immediately adapting.

We value fun, simplicity, and teamwork.

**About the position:**

The Associate Planner & Merchandiser will support the VP of Merchandising and Planning and work closely with cross-functional team partners to assist in the creation and management of merchandise sales, gross margin and inventory plans for kids and baby across all our business channels: subscription, ecommerce and wholesale.

**Pre-Season planning**

* Actualize OTB forecast to inform inventory position for future buys

* Support is developing omni channel style count, size breaks, category & color recommendations for the design team at line plan building

* Pull subscription customer preference report for seasonal buys and make recommendations on adjustments if needed by partnering with design

* Develop subscription algorithm rules and active SKU list

* Maintain season-launch calendar

* Issue POs to vendors. Manage PO updates, process, and system.

* Set up and maintain assortment planner with all updates

* Set up and maintain marketing linesheet and coordinate shipment of marketing samples with vendors

* Maintain full ownership of online product catalog system including integrity of copy, price, product tags, categorization and image

**Reporting & Analysis**

* Develop seasonal hindsight reports to help plan for the following season

* Compile and analyze weekly sales and inventory reports across channels to identify opportunities & risk and recommend action steps

* Pull inventory report and identify in-season inventory risks

* Maintain on-order and receipt management from our Netsuite platform.

* Report and assess returns data and customer feedback

* Report on relevant analytical assignments as requested

**Inventory management**

* Report on available inventory for opportunistic wholesale orders, create wholesale linesheets and submit order request to warehouse

* Partner with VP to develop inventory displacement and exit strategies and maintain displacement linesheets

**What Were Looking For:**

* Excellent analytical and retail math skills

* Expert-level Excel skills

* Strong knowledge of assortment planning and inventory management

* Organized & resourceful doer with an ability to problem solve, balance multiple processes and work cross functionally

* Stellar attention to detail, understanding the importance of accuracy and thorough completion of tasks

* Flexible/adaptable to work in a highly collaborative start-up environment

* Excellent verbal and written communication skills

**Background and Experience:**

* 3+ years of merchandise planning experience, vertical retailer or wholesaler experience necessary

* Experience with an early to mid-stage start-up a bonus

* Bachelor's degree