Overview
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.
Duties and Responsibilities
Overview
- 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.
Strategic Leadership
- 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.
Planning & Inventory Management
- 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.
Allocation & Omnichannel Execution
- 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.
Merchandising Operations & Systems
- 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.
Team Leadership & Development
- Build, mentor, and lead high-performing planning, allocation, and merchandising operations teams.
- Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.
- Develop organizational talent and succession plans for critical leadership roles.
- Serve as a key executive leader contributing to company-wide strategy and performance initiatives.
Qualifications and Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Business, Merchandising, Finance, Retail Management, or related field; MBA preferred.
- 12+ years of progressive retail leadership experience in merchandise planning, allocation, inventory management, or merchandising operations.
- Significant experience within specialty retail, apparel, footwear, western/lifestyle, or related consumer retail sectors preferred.
- Proven success leading planning and allocation functions within a large-scale, multi-unit retail organization ($500M+ preferred).
- Strong financial acumen with expertise in forecasting, inventory productivity, and retail metrics.
- Deep understanding of omnichannel retail operations and inventory optimization strategies.
- Familiarity with forecasting, AI-driven inventory planning, and advanced retail analytics tools.
- Experience leading large teams and developing organizational capabilities in high-growth environments.
- Strong analytical, strategic thinking, and problem-solving capabilities.
- Demonstrated ability to influence executive leadership and cross-functional partners.
- Advanced knowledge of retail planning systems, allocation tools, and merchandising analytics platforms.
- Experience supporting rapid store growth, new store openings, or remodels.
- Excellent communication, leadership, and organizational skills.
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial, and customer-focused retail environment.
Preferred Skills
- Proven track record of driving process improvement and operational scalability.
- Experience leading organizational transformation or system modernization initiatives.
- Familiarity with retail planning and allocation systems and strong partnership with IT and Analytics teams.
Cavender’s is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, military status, national origin, sex, ancestry, age, sexual orientation, pregnancy, disability, genetic information, or any other personal characteristic protected under federal, state, or local law.
Cavender’s will provide reasonable accommodations for persons with a disability upon request. If you have a disability and need assistance completing the application, please call Customer Service at (888) 361 – 2555 or visit your nearest Cavender’s store.
Equal Opportunity Employer
This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws. For further information, please review the Know Your Rights (https://www.eeoc.gov/poster) notice from the Department of Labor.
