Manager, Gross Margin Analytics

Education - It's in Our DNAAt Barnes & Noble Education (“BNED”) and across our family of brands, 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 Manager, Gross Margin Analytics to join our FP&A team and play a critical role in understanding and driving gross margin performance across Barnes & Noble Education and its family of brands. This role owns gross margin analysis, reporting, budgeting, and forecasting, translating complex financial and operational data into clear, actionable insights that inform business decisions and improve performance.

The Manager partners closely with Finance and business leaders to identify key trends, risks, and opportunities, ensure the accuracy and integrity of margin-related financial information, and provide strategic and analytical support across COGS, Stock Ledger, and internal and external margin reporting.

How You'll Make an Impact Own monthly gross margin reporting and analysis across BNED and its family of brands, providing clear commentary on performance and identifying key drivers, trends, risks, and opportunities relative to budget, forecast, and prior year.

Develop the detailed Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) budget, including store-, division-, product category-, and monthly-level assumptions, partnering with Merchandising and other business partners to gather, challenge, and validate key inputs.

Develop quarterly gross margin projections, incorporating actual performance, current trends, and evolving business assumptions, and clearly communicate changes, risks, and opportunities to the outlook.

Support the accuracy and integrity of gross margin results during the monthly close process by validating gross margin, inventory, COGS, and related financial data and researching and resolving significant variances or discrepancies.

Serve as the FP&A subject-matter expert for gross margin, including internal and external margin definitions, methodologies, calculations, and performance, and provide guidance and analysis on margin-related questions.

Develop and maintain expertise in the Stock Ledger and its role in calculating inventory and gross margin, using that knowledge to support financial analysis, investigate issues, and improve understanding of margin performance.

Prepare and communicate gross margin analysis for audiences across the organization, including the Board of Directors, senior leadership, field management, and store management, tailoring the level of detail and commentary to the audience.

Provide detailed COGS, pricing, and margin analytics for key areas of the business, including Logo Products and First Day Complete, identifying performance drivers and supporting business decisions.

Drive continuous improvement in gross margin reporting, forecasting, budgeting, and analytical processes, identifying opportunities to improve accuracy, efficiency, consistency, and the quality of financial insights.

Drive continuous improvement in gross margin reporting, forecasting, budgeting, and analytical processes, including the application of AI-enabled tools and automation, to improve accuracy, efficiency, consistency, and the quality of financial insights.

Additional responsibilities as required.

What You'll Need to Succeed Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Business, or a related field required; MBA preferred.
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