What are the responsibilities and job description for the Director of Inventory Planning & Allocation - Commercial position at SBH Fashion?
Job Title: Director of Inventory Planning & Allocation - Commercial
Position Overview
We are seeking a Director of Inventory Planning & Allocation to lead inventory strategy for the commercial business, encompassing wholesale accounts and company-operated retail stores.
This leader will own demand forecasting, inventory planning, allocation, and replenishment across the wholesale and retail channels. The role will work closely with an e-commerce planning counterpart to ensure inventory is appropriately balanced across the full business.
The ideal candidate brings deep inventory-planning expertise within home goods, retail, or a related multi-category consumer business. This person will combine strong analytical skills with commercial judgment to maximize sales, improve inventory productivity, and support profitable growth.
Key Responsibilities
Commercial Inventory Planning
Position Overview
We are seeking a Director of Inventory Planning & Allocation to lead inventory strategy for the commercial business, encompassing wholesale accounts and company-operated retail stores.
This leader will own demand forecasting, inventory planning, allocation, and replenishment across the wholesale and retail channels. The role will work closely with an e-commerce planning counterpart to ensure inventory is appropriately balanced across the full business.
The ideal candidate brings deep inventory-planning expertise within home goods, retail, or a related multi-category consumer business. This person will combine strong analytical skills with commercial judgment to maximize sales, improve inventory productivity, and support profitable growth.
Key Responsibilities
Commercial Inventory Planning
- Own inventory planning and forecasting for the wholesale and retail channels.
- Develop annual and seasonal inventory plans aligned with sales, margin, and growth objectives.
- Translate commercial forecasts into inventory requirements by channel, account, store, region, category, and SKU.
- Manage open-to-buy plans and recommend inventory investments based on demand, lead times, product performance, and financial targets.
- Monitor sales, sell-through, weeks of supply, inventory turnover, stock-to-sales ratios, back orders, and other key performance indicators.
- Identify inventory risks and opportunities and recommend actions to maximize revenue while reducing excess and obsolete inventory.
- Lead in-season reforecasting and scenario planning in response to changing demand.
- Direct allocation and replenishment strategies across retail stores and wholesale accounts.
- Ensure products are available in the appropriate locations and quantities based on demand, account requirements, store profiles, and regional trends.
- Establish allocation parameters, safety-stock levels, reorder points, and replenishment standards.
- Manage initial allocations, ongoing replenishment, inventory transfers, and end-of-season inventory consolidation.
- Develop strategies for products with varying life cycles, including core, seasonal, limited-edition, and discontinued merchandise.
- Account for the longer lead times, storage requirements, pack sizes, and logistical complexities associated with home goods.
- Partner with Sales and Retail teams to address stock imbalances, fulfillment risks, and evolving customer needs.
- Serve as the primary inventory-planning partner to the wholesale and retail leadership teams.
- Collaborate closely with the e-commerce planning counterpart to align forecasts and inventory strategies across channels.
- Establish clear processes for shared inventory, channel prioritization, and inventory rebalancing.
- Ensure cross-channel decisions support company-wide sales, margin, service-level, and inventory objectives.
- Partner with Merchandising, Wholesale Sales, Retail, Finance, Supply Chain, Sourcing, Operations, and Logistics on seasonal and long-range plans.
- Incorporate production timelines, vendor capacity, freight considerations, warehouse constraints, and product lead times into inventory decisions.
- Support assortment planning, new-product launches, new-store openings, and wholesale account expansion.
- Deliver clear reporting, insights, and recommendations to senior leadership.
- Improve forecasting methodologies, planning tools, reporting, and inventory-management processes.
- Build and develop a high-performing inventory planning and allocation function.
- Extensive experience in inventory planning, allocation, merchandise planning, demand planning, or a related function.
- Experience within home goods, furniture, lifestyle, retail, or another multi-category consumer business strongly preferred.
- Demonstrated experience managing inventory for wholesale and retail channels.
- Strong knowledge of demand forecasting, open-to-buy planning, allocation, replenishment, and in-season inventory management.
- Experience planning products with long or variable lead times and complex supply-chain requirements.
- Strong financial and analytical capabilities, with the ability to turn data into actionable commercial decisions.
- Advanced Excel skills and experience with ERP, merchandise-planning, allocation, and business-intelligence systems.
- Excellent communication, presentation, and cross-functional leadership skills.
- Proven ability to balance strategic planning with detailed execution in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
Salary : $170,000 - $190,000