APMEA Retail Merchandise Planning Manager

Why join us?

Our purpose is to design for the good of humankind. It’s the ideal we strive toward each day in everything we do. Being a part of HermanMiller means being a part of something larger than your work team, or even your brand. We are redefining modern for the 21st century. And our success allows HermanMiller to support causes that align with our values, so we can build a more sustainable, equitable, and beautiful future for everyone.

Job summary

The APMEA Retail Merchandise Planning Manager is a newly created role to drive growth in Herman Miller’s retail business, focusing on the Asia Pacific region with potential to expand to the Middle East and Africa regions. Skilled in business analyses and inventory management, the role will collaborate closely with the APMEA retail business teams, Finance and Operations to drive both financial performance and operational efficiency. The ideal candidate is self-directed – able to operate independently and proactively – and innately possesses an innovative, “builder” mindset and skillset, as the role involves building, establishing and evolving processes and tools.

Specific responsibilities

• Merchandise Financial Planning: Partner with the three APMEA business leaders (managing the Stores, eCommerce and Wholesale channels, respectively) and Finance to define and meet financial goals. Specific activities include:

  • Generating preseason sales, margin and inventory targets on the product department level that reflect assortment and merchandising strategies and reconcile with higher level financials from Finance.

  • Reviewing business performance weekly and variances to target/forecasts, conducting analyses to understand underlying drivers and trends

  • Surfacing merchandising opportunities, such as changes to assortments, pricing/promotions and visual presentation, as well as inventory/supply chain opportunities, to drive sales and margin

  • Providing analyses to estimate the impact of promotions and other potential actions

  • Collaborating with cross functional partners to drive and support execution of actions

  • In season reforecasting of the sales, margin and inventory targets to reflect trends and changes

  • Presenting findings and facilitating discussion with the business teams and Finance partner/s in regular meetings

• Inventory Management: Own the productivity of inventory housed in the APMEA warehouses, minimizing inventory liability while supporting sales. Specific activities include:

  • Partnering with the business leaders to define and operationalize criteria to determine which items should be stocked in the warehouses versus made to order

  • Maintaining the appropriate level of inventory for each warehouse’s stocked items, forecasting sales and placing buys as needed

  • Partnering with Operations team/s to place buys and track status of inventory

  • Collaborating with Finance to define and maintain a receipt budget

  • Monitoring the level and composition of inventory in the warehouses, providing reporting and surfacing action when needed (e.g. clearance sales, inventory moves between warehouses)

  • Facilitating a monthly check-in with leadership (e.g. via an “Open to Buy” meeting) to share latest sales, margin and inventory forecasts and updates on the state of inventory and business

• Store Inventory Strategy and Execution: Partner with the APMEA stores team, Store Design, Merchandising and Operations teams to determine the assortment for each of the stores and execute accordingly. Specific activities include:

  • Providing analyses to help determine which items should be displayed in stores, and which, if any, should be stocked and sellable in stores

  • Working with Operations to procure inventory and send to stores; and then disposing of product that will no longer be on display/in stock in stores

Company requirements

Health & Safety; ensure that safe working practices are followed. Attend safety briefings, as requested. Take responsibility for your own, employees, contractors and visitor safety in accordance with The Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, and The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulation 1999.

Compliance; ensure compliance with business systems, processes, certification schemes, regulations and legislation relevant to the scope of your role. Support internal quality controls and audits to demonstrate compliance.

Job holder requirements

• 8+ years of business experience, including

  • 4+ years working in a Retail business (stores and eCommerce); experience with wholesale clients a plus

  • 4+ years in a role involving business analyses and forecasting, particularly on product level

  • 4+ years in a role involving inventory management, with deep understanding of relationship between inventory, sales and margin and wide experience in inventory management processes and tools

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience

• Data-driven mindset with a passion for leveraging data and analyses to discover opportunities and drive action

• Highly skilled in Excel and strong ability to learn analytical/reporting tools quickly. Prior experience with PowerBI and/or Tableau is a plus

• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal

• Desire and ability to work with business partners from a wide range of functions, levels and geographies

• Ability and propensity for process improvement, with passion and experience in surfacing process opportunities, designing process improvement solutions, securing buy in from stakeholders and rolling out

• Proactive and self-directed, with ability to work independently with limited manager support

• Must be fluent in English; ability to communicate in Japanese, Mandarin or Cantonese a plus

• Based in Tokyo but ability to periodically travel around Asia (particularly China and Hong Kong)

Company values

We are difference-makers - Our products and our approach to business make a difference in the lives of our customers, our neighbors, and people around the world.

We are all extraordinary - By celebrating what makes every individual unique and valuable, we help one another reach our fullest potential

We are better together - Our culture of accountability, inclusivity, and high-performance creates strong teams and unifies our family of brands

Who We Hire?

Simply put, we hire everyone. HermanMiller is comprised of people of all abilities, gender identities and expressions, ages, ethnicities, sexual orientations, veterans from every branch of military service, and more. Here, you can bring your whole self to work. We’re committed to equal opportunity employment, including veterans and people with disabilities.