VP of Merchandise Ops & Planning

Reporting to the Chief Merchant, the VP of Merchandising Ops and Planning leads enterprise merch ops, planning and allocation strategy to ensure the right product is in the right place at the right time across all channels. This role owns the planning, inventory management, allocation, and merchandising operations functions. This role leads a team in a strategic, data-driven, and operationally excellent manner.

This leader will drive inventory productivity, sales growth, gross margin performance, and operational scalability across stores and ecommerce while ensuring alignment with the company’s brand, customer, and growth objectives. The VP will oversee merchandise planning, allocation, replenishment, forecasting, merchandising analytics, and operational processes that support a dynamic omnichannel retail business. The ideal candidate combines strong retail financial acumen with deep merchandising partnership skills, systems expertise, and the ability to build high-performing teams in a fast-paced specialty retail environment.

The Planning & Allocation teams will report to this role, as well as the Merch Ops team.

• Support the “Cavender’s Culture” and drive our Mission, Vision, and Values.
• Lead the end-to-end merch ops, planning and allocation function across footwear and apparel, including seasonal, annual, and in-season planning.
• In partnership with Chief Merchant, own sales, margin, inventory, receipt, and open-to-buy plans by division, category, and channel.

• Develop and execute enterprise-wide merchandise planning and allocation strategies that optimize sales, inventory productivity, margin, and turn.
• Partner closely with Merchandising, Store Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, and ecommerce leadership to align inventory investments with business goals.
• Lead long-range planning, seasonal forecasting, assortment optimization, and open-to-buy management across all categories.
• Drive scalable operational processes and organizational capabilities to support continued company growth.

• Oversee merchandise financial planning, forecasting, and inventory management for stores and digital channels.
• Ensure disciplined inventory allocation and replenishment strategies that maximize sell-through and minimize markdown exposure.
• Analyze business trends, customer demand, and market conditions to recommend actionable strategies.
• Monitor key performance indicators including sales, margin, inventory turn, weeks of supply, in-stock position, and GMROI.
• Lead preseason and in-season planning processes with accountability for financial targets.
• Partner closely with the Chief Merchant and DMM/category leaders to support assortment strategies, line reviews, and in-season decisions.
• Direct allocation strategies to support store clustering, localization, seasonality, and omnichannel fulfillment needs.
• Optimize inventory flow across retail stores, distribution centers, and ecommerce channels.
• Partner with Supply Chain and Distribution teams to improve speed, accuracy, and inventory availability.
• Support new store openings, remodels, and expansion initiatives with effective inventory planning.
• Establish and maintain allocation and replenishment strategies that align with customer demand, store clusters, size curves, and new store growth.
• Lead merchandising operations processes, calendar management, data governance, and workflow optimization.
• Champion systems enhancements, reporting tools, and retail technology initiatives related to planning and allocation.
• Improve visibility and decision-making through analytics, dashboards, and performance reporting.
• Ensure operational consistency, process discipline, and cross-functional alignment across the merchandising organization.
• Build, mentor, and lead high-performing planning, allocation, and merchandising operations teams.
• Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Merchandising, Finance, Retail Management, or related field; MBA preferred.
• 12+ years of progressive retail leadership experience in…