VP, Divisional Merchandise Manager; DMM

The Divisional Merchandise Manager is responsible for leading the merchandising strategy, business performance, vendor strategy, assortment direction, and team development for an assigned division.

This role owns the division’s product point of view and is accountable, with Planning & Allocation, for delivering sales, gross margin dollars, inventory productivity, turn, SKU productivity, and clean inventory exits.

The DMM must be customer-focused, product-obsessed, financially disciplined, and willing to move with speed. The role requires strong judgment around assortment architecture, vendor partnerships, pricing, promotions, inventory investment, and store execution.

The DMM is expected to modernize Big 5’s merchandising approach by building focused assortments, planning each Zone to its standard store footprint, improving product value, strengthening vendor relationships, and making the store easier for customers to shop.

• Own the overall business performance for the assigned division.
• Deliver sales, gross margin dollars, gross margin rate, inventory productivity, turn, sell-through, and markdown objectives.
• Partner with Planning & Allocation to build financial plans, manage open-to-buy, evaluate inventory risk, and drive disciplined inventory decisions.
• Identify business risks and opportunities early and translate them into clear actions.
• Lead regular business reviews with clear diagnosis, recommended actions, owners, and follow-through.
• Ensure category strategies connect to customer need, product value, sales potential, GM $ opportunity, inventory investment, replenishment logic, and exit strategy.
• Build the division’s assortment strategy across categories, classifications, vendors, price points, and store clusters.
• Plan each Zone and category to its defined square footage in the average store, balancing customer choice, inventory depth, presentation needs, and productivity.
• Develop clear Good / Better / Best architecture where appropriate.
• Improve assortment focus by reducing duplication, exiting low-productivity SKUs, and investing more deeply in the products that matter most.
• Use sales per square foot, GM dollars per square foot, inventory per square foot, and turn to identify where space should expand, contract, or be reallocated.
• Ensure assortments are customer-right, activity-right, store-right, and market-right.
• Maintain a strong point of view on product quality, durability, value, features, benefits, and competitive alternatives.
• Identify new products, brands, categories, and test opportunities that can improve customer relevance and business performance.
• Spend time in stores to understand customer behavior, store execution, product presentation, and assortment gaps.
• Lead vendor strategy for the assigned division in partnership with Vendor Strategy & Partnerships.
• Strengthen vendor relationships to improve product access, profitability, funding, terms, marketing support, exclusivity, and growth opportunities.
• Ensure vendor meetings are strategic and focused on customer, product, distribution, marketing and growth opportunities.
• Evaluate vendor productivity and make clear decisions on where to grow, maintain, reduce, or exit.
• Push vendors for better product value, stronger storytelling, improved availability, and more meaningful support.
• Own pricing and promotional recommendations for the division in partnership with Planning, Marketing, and Finance.
• Ensure pricing reflects customer value, competitive context, product quality, margin expectations, and brand strategy.
• Reduce reliance on unproductive promotional habits where they do not create sustainable business value.
• Partner with Planning on markdown strategy, exit timing, and inventory risk mitigation.
• Improve promotional discipline by connecting offers to customer need, inventory position, margin impact, and business objective.
• Lead, coach, and develop Buyers and supporting merchandising roles.
• Raise the team’s product knowledge, business ownership, vendor management, and decision quality.
• Build a culture of accountability, speed, curiosity, and disciplined follow-through.
• Ensure Buyers understand their business…