Manager Merchandising Planning

Overview

The Manager Merchandising Planning will partner with Merchandising, Merch Planning, IT, and other key stakeholders to drive financial and strategic objectives of the organization through insights and reporting.

This will be a foundational role in the continual evolution of the Merchandising Planning, Pricing and Analytics function at Sprouts and requires collaboration and analytical leadership across multiple projects. This role will be expected to engage in sophisticated analyses including development of analytics for driving better decisions on buying, pricing, promotion effectiveness, revenue management, marketing, supply chain, and operations. The role is expected to provide timely, accurate and informative analytics used to assist management in making strategic decisions.

The candidate is expected to be proficient in advanced statistical methods and/or optimization techniques, data mining and simulation.

• Design and implement analytical tools and techniques for supporting merchandising, promotional planning and forecasting
• Think, act and communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical business partners to fully understand the analytic needs, devise approaches and implement solutions via appropriate models
• Generate, analyze and distribute key business reports; review weekly, monthly and quarterly results, and provide stakeholders with key findings and recommendations
• Develop prototypes and proofs of concept for analytical approaches to validate assumptions and expected outcomes
• Identify data and suitable test cases to prove the algorithms’ ability to handle boundary conditions, and for measuring accuracy and efficacy
• Understand complexities and intricacies of multiple departments & channels to ensure that proposed analytical approach works across the portfolio
• Develop and refine forecasting methodologies and operating mechanisms to continuously improve forecast accuracy
• Effectively present recommendations to colleagues for review and to all levels of the organization using various modes of communication/presentation
• In some cases, work with Product Management and IT teams to develop scalable solutions applying the analytics developed
• Serve as project lead for ad hoc projects by managing objectives, deliverables, and key milestones with minimal supervision
• Make sound decisions on routine matters and thrive in collaborative, constantly evolving environments.

• Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, Finance, Economics, Statistics, Accounting, or a related field is required. MBA Preferred.
• Minimum experience:
  
  5+ years designing analytics in retail/CPG/services industries
• Progressively increasing responsibility in analytical roles, merchandise planning, category management, or retail consulting (or related fields)
• Analytical mindset with detail orientation and entrepreneurial work ethic – in short, a “general athlete”
• Proven ability to execute with speed and a high degree of accuracy in a proof of concept environment
• Comfortable manipulating large amounts of data and problem-solving, generating impactful recommendations – bringing insights to action
• Highly adept in various systems, including superior Excel and PowerPoint skills
• Strong in SQL and MS Excel; familiarity with databases such as MS SQL Server, Oracle etc.
• Strong mathematical background and hands‑on experience in conducting statistical analysis, development of quantitative models and machine learning algorithms, and/or optimization routines
• Proven ability in applying theoretical knowledge to practical applications, data analysis, algorithmic prototyping, and data visualization
• Demonstrated skill with root cause analysis; able to spot when something isn’t quite right and audit with…