Director of Merchandising

Support Office
6752 Shady Oak Road
Eden Prairie, MN 55344, USA

Support Office
6752 Shady Oak Road
Eden Prairie, MN 55344, USA

The Director of Merchandising owns the end-to-end sourcing and buying strategy — from vendor identification and negotiation through assortment planning, pricing, and inventory performance. This role sits at the intersection of supply, demand, and margin: you help decide what we buy, who we buy it from, what we pay, and how much we carry.

This is a full-time, in-office, player-coach leadership role reporting to the VP of Purchasing. You will manage and develop a team of buying and sourcing professionals, own the category budget and annual plan, build the analytics and KPI framework the team is measured against, and lead cross-functional projects from scope through launch.

The right person is equally comfortable building a cost model in a spreadsheet, negotiating annual terms across the table, running a weekly performance review with a direct report, and presenting a budget variance to the executive team.

Come work with us, not for us!

2nd Swing is a one of a kind, forward thinking, customer-centric golf retail company. Our employees are highly-valued, while working hard in a positive and supportive culture. At 2nd Swing you will find:

• Vast Exposure to the Golf Industry
• A Commitment to Total Well-Being
• Opportunities to Discover Your Fit and Make an Impact
• A Collaborative and Flexible Environment

Responsibilities:

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of buying and sourcing professionals
• Establish the team's KPI framework — set targets, define measurement methodology, and build the scorecards and dashboards that make performance visible

Budget, Planning & Analytics

• Own the annual category budget — revenue, gross margin, inventory investment, and cost-savings targets — and manage performance against it throughout the year
• Build andmaintainthe open-to-buy plan by category, aligned to sales forecasts and financial targets; reforecast monthly and quarterly as demand, supply, and cost conditions shift
• Design andmaintainthe reporting infrastructure the team runs on: category dashboards, vendor scorecards, sell-through and margin reporting, and cost-savings tracking
• Translate analysis into recommendations —identify the trend,sizethe opportunity or risk, and bring a decision-ready point of view to leadership
• Identify, negotiate, and onboard new suppliers;maintaina diversified vendor base that balances cost, quality, lead time, and risk
• Monitor supplier performance against scorecard metrics (fill rate, on-time delivery, defect rate, chargebacks) and drive corrective action where needed
• Proactively manage supply risk — single-source exposure, tariff and duty changes, capacity constraints, and lead-time volatility
• Develop assortment strategy: good/better/best structure, price-point architecture, breadth vs. depth, and exclusive or private-label opportunities
• Set pricing, markdown, and clearance strategy with Finance and Merchandising, and execute cost-savings initiatives against target
• Analyze sell-through, attach rates, and category trends to inform reorders, expansions, and discontinuations; partner with Merchandising and Marketing on launches and promotional calendars
• Manage inventory to balance in-stock service targets against carrying cost and aged-inventory exposure; partner with Distribution and Store Operations on allocation, replenishment, and new-store opening buys

Process & Project Execution

• Break complex initiatives into work streams with named owners, dependencies, and milestone dates; elevate blockers before they become delays
• Drive process improvement across the buying function — reduce manual work, tighten cycle times, improve PO accuracy, lead-time reliability, and data integrity at the source
• Id…