Senior Manager - Vendor Management - eCommerce

Job Purpose :

The Senior Manager, Vendor Manager will be responsible for managing the overall category, and working with a high performing Vendor management and Instock management teams. Within this role the individual will own the Retail P&L and will be responsible for leading and developing a high performing team, setting strategy for your category to drive profitable growth, creating strong partnerships with vendors, exploring new and emerging business models, running day-to-day operations, and delivering innovation to improve the customer experience.

We are seeking a seasoned business leader with a broad skill set which demonstrates analytical horsepower, excellent business judgment, strong vendor management and negotiations skills, deep curiosity to uncover how things work.

Roles and Responsibilities :

Senior Manager, Vendor Managers are responsible for managing inputs, category financials, promotion management, auditing and analysis, vendor escalations and concise communications

i. Establishes Pricing, Selection and Convenience goals for the category that deliver long-term positive results; develops processes to audit team inputs

ii. Owns Retail P&L for category and focuses on strategy for scalable revenue and margin improvement and balances portfolio to manage goals for multiple product groups

iii. Aligns strategy for promotional plans, sets vision for category promotions, and audits to ensure quality customer experience

iv. Audits team's work periodically and directs team to perform deep-dive analysis on problems

v. Represents category in executive Level meetings, responds concisely to executive call outs Demonstrates autonomy and judgment in making decisions

Senior Manager, Vendor Managers are responsible for growing selection, improving terms and cost structures, building long-term relationships with vendors for the sub categories assigned

i. Sets direction and aligns the team to drive category selection and growth strategies

ii. Drives strategic negotiations that impact multiple categories or product lines

iii. Partners with category leader to define negotiation strategies that support long-term relationships

iv. Champions new initiatives to drive adoption across categories and business units

Senior Manager, Vendor Managers are expected to demonstrate customer and category knowledge, be an advocate for a quality customer experience, and understand the competition and industry

i. Creates and maintains a strong customer obsession and innovation culture within the department

ii. Ensures teams prioritize quality customer experience through application of - working backwards- concepts

iii. Removes roadblocks and holds team accountable for correcting customer pain point

iv. Benchmarks against competition, assessing our performance against theirs, identifies improvement areas and directs team to close gaps

Senior Manager, Vendor Managers are responsible for long term growth opportunities and risk identification, planning, communication and partnering with internal teams

i. Sets strategic direction for the department that optimizes for long term success

ii. Creates and communicates long term plans including forecasting and resource planning or allocation

iii. Validates growth opportunities for the category

Senior Manager, Vendor Managers are expected to demonstrate a deep understanding of Retail tools and become advocates for tool enhancements

i. Coaches and Empowers team to identify and automate product lifecycle changes that scale to all retail categories

ii. Ensures results drive improvements across multiple categories or organizations

iii. Effectively negotiates projects and agendas across a broad range of cross-functional teams

Senior Manager, Vendor Mangers are responsible for attracting talent and making the right hiring decision, setting goals and resource planning for the team

i. Demonstrates ability to attract senior talent and multiple functions from inside and outside of company

ii. Facilitates understanding of broader organizational tenets and strategic goals for department

iii. Recognizes trends for larger-scale development needs within and across teams and builds plans to develop skills

iv. Audits department goals to ensure alignment with broader organizational goals; demonstrates accountability for department performance against goals

v. Develops and communicates department vision that supports the broader organizational vision

vi. Influences business strategy with senior leaders

Job Specifications :

Education : MBA

Relevant Experience :

- 10+ years of experience doing one of several roles: quantitative/financial analysis, retail buying, retail planning & allocation, product/project management, pricing, marketing or e-commerce.

- Proven Negotiation Skills

- Proven experience leading teams & cross-functional projects

- Influencing abilities and vendor management experience

- Ability to think and react in a high-energy, fast-paced environment

- Ability to operate simultaneously and effectively in both tactical and strategic modes

- A willingness to roll up sleeves to get things done

- The position requires an individual who can work autonomously in a demanding and often ambiguous environment, with strong attention to detail and effective prioritization