Senior Regional Merchandising Manager

Job Summary

The Senior Regional Merchandising Manager (Senior RMM) serves as a regional merchandising liaison and strategic connector between Operations leadership and Support Center teams. The role is responsible for synthesizing regional customer needs, store-level execution realities, competitive activity, and performance opportunities into structured recommendations, strategy frameworks, and decision-support materials for central review and prioritization. The Senior RMM leads cross-functional alignment across field leadership, merchants, category teams, space planning, finance, segmentation, supply chain, and supplier partners to support execution of centrally approved category, assortment, pricing, promotional, segmentation, display, and vendor strategies.

This role is based in our Deerfield, IL office and is on-site four days a week.

Job Responsibilities

• Develops strategy to drive regional assortment planning by understanding customer needs and current financial performance. Shares customer segment's data, insights and opportunities todevelop collaborative solutions with key stakeholders in Merchandising, Marketing, Supply Chainand Store Operations.
• Responsible for analyzing reports to identify regional category sales gaps (vs corporateperformance) and building regional plans to drive volume in these opportunistic categories. Serve asthe liaison between corporate and regional operations. Responsible for all local pricing and marketing as established by corporate guidance. Collaborates with Localization team to drivesynergies and create efficiencies.
• Accountability for regional subject matter expertise associated with each format. Ensures consistent and seamless merchandising execution within each format.
• Focuses significant time and effort developing programs and managing all aspects of regionalvendors including negotiation of all promotions and funding. Develops regional vendor budgettargets and service level expectations based on corporate growth targets.
• Obtains lowest cost ofgoods on all local products bought and sold into the region. May create advertising opportunities inthe region through negotiations with vendors. Engages with top eight national vendors on amonthly basis to drive DSD category sales year over year and to align with corporate growth plans.
• Works closely with Merchandising management and regional leadership in establishing goals and objectives for each region. Responsible for achieving the budgeted market sales and profit goals forfront end for the region. Provides business cases, reporting and score-carding to ensure decisions are fact-based for all regional activities. Executes national programs on a regional level.
• Serves as Operations/Local Merchandising's first point of contact for assigned categories. Categoryresponsibility may range from developing category strategy and managing category/region P&L toexecuting corporately developed plans.
• Score-carding regional program performance to determine viability for discontinuance or expansionfor key local items. Determines if regional items have net profitability and ROI. For items with national expansion or planogrammed opportunities, the Sr. RMM uses the scorecard process topresent recommendations to the Subject Matter Expert and Corporate category teams to be considered in accordance withreset/revision guidelines and timing.
• Responsible for negotiating with internal and external service providers (distributors) to secureresources and acceptable service level agreements. Manages opportunities where vendors are engaged for grand openings and closings.
• Assists Retail Pricing Coordinator to ensure effective management of regional vendors throughcatalog/pricing maintenance and the capture of all regional promotions and deals.
• Works closely with the business unit DMM's to communicate local mix and programs associated with driving sales in all markets. Manages regional pricing as applicable based on corporatecategory parameters and guardrails.
• Partners with various teams to ensure successful outcomes. Partners with Regional leadership todevelop and create regional Charitable Giving strategy. Partners with Supply Chain to plan, identify and correct inventory needs and opportunities. Responsible for maintaining an accurate recap of significant regional events which impact inventory needs. Partners and collaborates with regionalcross-functional team which includes Finance, Asset Protection, Human Resources, and Facilities Management to drive region sales and profitability.
• Drives regional assortment planning/buying and regional sales. Expands programs and refines themix to match the needs of the consumer.
• Coaches, mentors and develops pool of talent from the field to be knowledgeable in product mix,assortment profitability, advertising and selling to their regional customers.
• Performs competitive store visits to understanding assortment, pricing, promotional and vendoropportunities.
• Serves as Brand Ambassadors for the WAG brand, communicating brand standards to…