For Nike merchants, everything begins and ends with the consumer. We are looking for a consumerist with an affinity for product who enjoys the energy of moving at the pace of retail and our consumer. A successful Merchant will contribute to an inclusive, positive, and progressive team dynamic. At Nike, it’s about each person bringing skills and passion to a challenging and constantly evolving game.

We’re looking for a Senior Merchant, Marketplace Performance Authenticators Apparel North America. You will be responsible for managing a growing and profitable business in North America.  You will lead and own a business for a diverse portfolio of key growth accounts for our Sport Authenticators channel including Scheels, Academy, Running Specialty and Soccer Specialty. This will include both Performance and Lifestyle product across all Fields of Play and consumers to build and sell in consumer-focused assortments. This roles require ability to partner with key x-functionally (Planning, Consumer Merchandising, Marketing and Sales) to ensure consumer-focused merchandising strategy tailored to key account. Having a strategic vision, strong communication skills to influence a point of view, marketplace & consumer knowledge, and the ability to span multiple seasons will be critical for this role to create impact, fuel healthy growth, and drive results in this key account. Building trust, relationships and a strong team culture while leading with courage through ambiguity will be critical to success in this role.

WHO YOU WILL WORK WITH 

You will work closely with fellow merchants and cross-functional teams within the Marketplace partner team inclusive of, Planning, Sales, and Brand Marketing along with the Sport Authenticators team. You will also work with Consumer Merchants. Unique to this merchandising role, you will also work back with external partner buying and executive teams to land the seasonal assortment vision.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR 

This candidate should possess an understanding of the Nike consumer and marketplace landscapes. The candidate should possess solid retail acumen and analytical skills, and an understanding of retail environments.

At times working autonomously, agile, and solution-oriented, this role is responsible for driving the consumer product offering across the different key merchandising dimensions. They will also influence the product assortment for their respective Marketplace partner while focusing on end-in-mind, as well as focusing on multi-season management of Nike’s most innovative and iconic franchises!

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field or equivalent combination of education, experience and training.

• 4+ years’ experience in Footwear, Apparel, Equipment, or relevant consumer product merchandising, product creation and/or retail in a vertical, multi-brand or digital environment.

• Strong command of common retail and/or digital metrics such as sell-through, margin, full price realization, weeks of supply, etc.

• Proven ability to translate consumer, sales, trend, and marketplace insights into in-season and long-term breakthrough strategies.

• Preparing seasonal tools to equip your marketplace partners with an understanding of seasonal priorities.

• Experience developing strong working relationships with teammates and cross-functional partners.

• Great teammate and contributor, with an attitude and excitement to learn new things.

• Strong communication skills and comfort navigating a cross-functional matrix with an emphasis on influencing skills.

• Attention to detail, understanding the importance of consistency.

WHAT YOU WILL WORK ON 

You will adapt and create consumer-centric assortment plans with an understanding of the full marketplace while delivering for a specific consumer and blending fact-based and intuitive inputs.

You will participate in seasonal reviews & assortment building and represent the voice of key marketplace partners.

You will balance multiple seasons. Your insights will contribute to future season plans and adoption by supporting Consumer Merchandising. You will manage your areas of assortment planning in depth during the seasonal process and gather consumer trends and marketplace insights from in-market seasons.

Key Accountabilities include:

• Drive seasonal integration strategies with Marketing, Partner Group and Consumer Merch to deliver against seasonal priorities.

• Delivers a seamless, premium, and effective consumer journey across all doors.

• Partners with Consumer Merch and Integrated account team to ensure the assortment strategy aligns to the consumer demand.

Key Deliverables include:

• Setting seasonal assortment strategy aligned to seasonality and flow of the specific Consumer objectives.

• Alignment with Marketing to ensure launches and edited offers align with key consumer events and strategic product intent.

• Working with cross functional teams to continue to drive business specific assortment strategy across multiple seasons.