General Manager / Director of Women’s Mercandising
We are seeking a General Manager / Director of Women’s Merchandising to join the Orvis Team. This role can be local to Southern Vermont or remote with an expectation of travel to Southern Vermont 6 times a year for our Design Development Review cadence, as well as 2-3 additional domestic trips per year.
As the GM, you will play a pivotal role in leading our apparel transformation. You will be responsible for breakthrough Women’s omni-channel assortment strategy, managing two direct reports. You will be the key business driver and decision maker cross functionally – working with your Integrated Marketing partner to drive contribution margin for the Women’s Business Unit. As a key cross-functional leader, you will be vital in keeping our customer at the center of our decisions, ensuring that we have the right assortment in the right place at the right time to fulfill their wants and needs, and ensuring we have the best and most profitable strategy while authentically representing the Orvis brand.
For more than 165 years the Orvis name has stood for outdoor traditions, quality, and customer satisfaction. At Orvis, we do not sell what we, ourselves, would not be proud to own or give as a gift. Our associates deserve to be proud of our service and our products, and we rely on every associate to apply our “pride of ownership” credo to drive our quality. “Good enough” is not our standard. We need to strive for perfection in our products and customer service, to propel our growth and the pride that will fuel our team.
Position Interfaces:
This position reports to our Chief Product Officer and is the lead owner and decision maker for the Women’s business at the company. This role partners very closely with our Planning, Design, Product Development, Tech Design, Sourcing, Marketing and Creative teams.
Responsibilities:
- Serve as the key decision maker for these functions, always leading with the strategy as the guide.
- Create and lead a customer-obsessed Merchandising team culture rooted in data.
- Lead the Women’s Business Unit cross functional team, building a key partnership with your Integrated Marketing partner to drive the Women’s business. Responsible as the lead decision maker in our GM structure with full responsibility for Women’s contribution margin.
- Lead with strategic discipline, ensuring that all decisions (including those throughout the Design Development Review process) are directly linked back to our Seasonal Assortment Strategy including driving our key metrics. Lead the merchandising team to come prepared for key milestones, using the preparation to drive their impact.
- Develop seasonal and annual assortment strategies in line with the brand product strategy, influenced by hindsight data, customer insights, market needs, and inspiration from Design’s trend & concept.
- Co-author long-range product roadmap, guiding material and style expansion, managing product lifecycles, and briefing in innovative, new product launches.
- Create relationships across business lines in Men’s, Fish, Hunt and Dog to ensure we deliver a One Orvis experience for our customers.
- Partner with Planning, Allocation and Integrated Marketing team on in-season drive.
- Lead Merchandising team to craft and maintain the line plan that meets or exceeds category sales and profit targets. Partner with Sourcing, Product Development and Planning teams to ensure target IMU is achieved.
- With your Integrated Marketing partner, collaborate with Marketing & Creative to ensure marketing strategy will drive the financial results needed to drive the Women’s business. Ensure big ideas and key items are elevated and supported across all selling channels.
- Prioritize product features & benefits messaging in partnership with Integrated Marketing partner to enable authentic apparel storytelling. Build tools & share seasonal product knowledge for web, catalog, store, customer service, and wholesale teams.
- Partner with Planning to drive the pricing and promotional strategy for Women's.
- Monitor the outdoor and outdoor lifestyle competitive marketplace and leverage key insights into assortment development.
- Coach your team, provide consistent and candid feedback to ensure great partnership and collaboration with cross functional partners. Guide team to have effective communication and influence to deliver inspired, unique, customer-centric assortments.
Competencies and Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree in business, merchandising or related field.
- 12+ years of Apparel Merchandising experience, including Women’s experience, with a proven track record of helping to create a positive, supportive and inspiring work environment for both Merchandising and cross functional partners. GM experience a plus.
- Passion for outdoor activities, and an understanding and respect for the Orvis brand and heritage, including our key sports of Fly Fishing and Wing Shooting.
- Deep understanding of trends and competitors in the Outdoor and Outdoor Lifestyle Market. Has an eye for relevant trends that align with the brand aesthetic and are commercially viable.
- Proven track record of successful multi-channel merchandising strategy development and implementation, building best-in-class assortments.
- Strong analytical skills, with the ability to synthesize data and chart an appropriate action plan and/or implement into a long-range strategy.
- Experience driving investment strategy in partnership with Planning, and a proven record of hitting sales growth and profit targets.
- Strong and supportive communication skills to debate and commit with Design, Product Development, and Planning partners.
- Effective communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate across department and partner in problem solving.
- Excellent leadership, collaboration and coaching skills. Ability to inspire, support, coach, teach and direct team – and the ability to know which is needed in each situation. Empathetic, supportive and direct leadership style.
- Strategic minded, with strong executional abilities.
- Strong presentation skills.
- Strong organizational, prioritization and time management skills with exceptional attention to detail.
Orvis Company associates take pride in our world-class service and products, treating customers, vendor partners, and each other with integrity and mutual respect. We work in a supportive, team-oriented environment, focusing on performance, continuous improvement, and exceeding our customers’ expectations – both internal and external. The Orvis Company and our associates are committed to giving back to our communities and protecting nature.
About Orvis:
In 1856, Charles Orvis founded the Orvis Company in Manchester, Vermont, offering the finest fly-fishing equipment, and priding himself on customer satisfaction and service. Today, along with our world famous fly-fishing gear, Orvis offers distinctive clothing, home furnishings, gifts, and dog products. Each item is rooted in our heritage of authenticity and the outdoors, and is backed with a no-questions-asked guarantee. With our flagship retail store located in the same Vermont village as the original store since 1856, we offer experience and knowledge that no other retail company can. Each day we strive to apply what we know and learn to bring our customers even better service and products tomorrow.
Orvis is headquartered in beautiful Southwestern Vermont with major operations in Roanoke, Virginia and the U.K. We firmly believe that the only way for Orvis to achieve its vision to be the most respected lifestyle brand in America, is to have a company culture that is supportive and inspiring to the individuals that will get us there.
Orvis offers competitive compensation commensurate with scope of responsibilities and experience required; plus a comprehensive benefits package including medical/dental/vision coverage, life insurance, 401K, generous associate discounts, and other excellent benefits.
To access our California Applicant Privacy Notice, follow this link: https://www.orvis.com/california-applicant-notice.html
To learn more and connect with Orvis, please visit us online www.orvis.com.