Director Merchandising

Company Description

We’re Reitmans Canada Limited. We’ve been part of the fabric of Canada’s fashion landscape since 1926, and today, we’re elevating our iconic brands – Reitmans, RW&CO, and PENN. Penningtons – more than ever before.

Our vision is to empower Canadians to live confidently, and our mission is to create collections of uncompromising style and quality for all.

With close to 400 stores nationwide and collections designed right here at home, in Canada, we offer an exceptional customer experience. What drives us? A clear vision, unwavering commitment to our customers, and the passion of our thousands of employees across the country.

Job Description

POSITION OVERVIEW

The Director of Merchandising is the architect of the Brand's customer offer and commercial product strategy. This role defines how each collection becomes an irresistible, relevant, and profitable assortment for the customer—delivering the right product, in the right place, at the right price, and at the right time.

As a strategic partner to Design, Planning, Product Development, Sourcing, Marketing, and Supply Chain, the Director of Merchandising ensures merchandising is more than a buying function—it is a customer-centric driver of growth. This leader shapes the commercial product strategy, manages assortment and inventory risk, improves inventory productivity, and enables sustainable business performance while delivering an exceptional customer experience.

The Director of Merchandising builds and leads a high-performing merchandising organization that combines customer obsession, commercial rigor, analytical thinking, agility, and cross-functional influence to achieve the brand's financial and strategic objectives.

Qualifications

What sets us apart

Responsibilities

Create the Best Customer Offer

• Lead the overall assortment strategy by defining the merchandising framework, including assortment architecture, key items, pricing strategy, category roles, volume strategy, and product lifecycle management.
• Partner closely with Design to translate seasonal collections into a cohesive, customer-focused assortment with clear wardrobe solutions, strong fashion authority, and identifiable growth opportunities.
• Own the final buy by optimizing assortment breadth, depth, pricing architecture, quantities, and category balance to maximize customer appeal and financial performance.
• Leverage customer insights, historical performance, trend analysis, and scenario planning to build bottom-up sales plans, commercial strategies, and assortment recommendations.
• Continuously refine assortments by incorporating market intelligence, competitive analysis, customer feedback, lifecycle performance, and channel insights to ensure relevance and differentiation.

Drive Profitable and Sustainable Business Growth

• Develop and execute merchandising strategies that drive revenue growth, improve gross margin, and strengthen the brand's competitive position.
• Monitor key performance indicators including sales, sell-through, margin, inventory productivity, pricing, and promotional effectiveness to proactively identify risks and opportunities.
• Partner with Planning and Allocation to optimize buys, initial allocations, replenishment strategies, inventory flow, and stock freshness based on customer demand and business performance.
• Manage Open-to-Buy, inventory exposure, markdown strategies, and lifecycle planning to balance commercial opportunities while minimizing risk and improving long-term profitability.
• Champion data-driven decision-making and continuously identify opportunities to improve assortment productivity and customer satisfaction.

Lead the Merchandising Organization

• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing merchandising team by establishing clear priorities,…