Sr. Merchandise Manager

Education - It's in Our DNA

At Barnes & Noble Education (“BNED”) we are dedicated to making tomorrow a better, more inclusive, and smarter world by servicing all who work in education. As a leading solutions provider for the education industry, we are committed to driving affordability, accessibility, and achievement at hundreds of academic institutions nationwide by ensuring millions of students are equipped for success in the classroom and beyond.

Together, our teams work to elevate lives through education.

To support this mission, we are seeking a Sr. Merchandise Manager to provide strategic leadership across assigned merchandise categories. This role is responsible for developing and executing merchandising strategies that drive sales growth, profitability, inventory productivity, and customer engagement across Barnes & Noble Education's retail channels. The Sr. Merchandise Manager owns the end-to-end merchandise lifecycle, including category strategy, financial planning, assortment development, vendor partnerships, pricing, promotional planning, and execution.

Leading a team of Buyers and Assistant Buyers, this individual collaborates cross-functionally to deliver customer-centric assortments that align with business objectives while achieving key financial, operational, and customer experience goals.

• Own the overall business strategy and financial performance for assigned merchandise categories, ensuring the achievement of sales, gross margin, markdown, inventory productivity, and profitability objectives.
• Develop and execute merchandise strategies, seasonal assortments, pricing, promotional, and go-to-market plans that align with customer needs, market trends, and company priorities.
• Lead the development of assortments across channels, store formats, geographic regions, customer segments, and price tiers to maximize customer engagement and business performance.
• Analyze customer insights, sales trends, competitive activity, and market intelligence to identify opportunities, anticipate demand, and make informed merchandising decisions.
• Partner with Merchandise Planning to develop seasonal financial plans, forecasts, inventory strategies, and in-season action plans that optimize sales, margin, inventory productivity, and inventory turnover.
• Drive disciplined inventory management through effective assortment planning, pricing strategies, promotional activity, markdown optimization, and exit strategies.
• Monitor business performance and proactively adjust merchandising strategies to capitalize on opportunities, mitigate risk, and achieve financial objectives.
• Develop and maintain strategic vendor partnerships, sourcing innovative products while negotiating commercial agreements that maximize value and support long-term business growth.
• Ensure vendor accountability through effective performance management, compliance, and collaborative problem-solving.
• Lead key merchandising milestones, including hindsight reviews, assortment presentations, line reviews, seasonal product launches, and marketing collaboration meetings.
• Partner with Marketing, Digital Commerce, Store Operations, Finance, Pricing, Inventory Management, and other cross-functional teams to ensure successful execution of merchandising strategies and promotional initiatives.
• Collaborate with store leadership to support new products, seasonal programs, special events, and localized merchandising opportunities that enhance the customer experience.
• Champion continuous improvement by identifying opportunities to enhance merchandising processes, operational efficiency, communication, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Lead the resolution of operational challenges impacting merchandise execution, product availability, pricing, marketing initiatives, digital channels, and store performance.
• Lead, coach, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of Buyers and Assistant Buyers by establishing clear expectations, providing ongoing feedback, and fostering professional growth.
• Build organizational capability through succession planning, talent development, knowledge sharing, and a culture of accountability, collaboration, and…