Title: Director of Merchandising
Reports To: SVP Merchandising and Planning
About A.L.C.
A.L.C. was founded in 2008 by sought-after celebrity stylist Andrea Lieberman to address a multi-generational need for accessible, high-quality capsule wardrobing. The Los Angeles-based, women-led brand hails from New York, making it fluent in fast-paced living with a confident, laid-back attitude. Since its inception, A.L.C. has established a unique proposition as a design-led organization offering considered classics with a modern twist, empowering women to enhance their personal style. Innovative use of textures, unique silhouettes with bold details, and a modern take on timeless tailoring, are just a few of the elements that define the brand every season. Each collection is built on a foundation of exclusive fabrications, best-in-class construction, and thoughtful creative collaborations.
Position Overview: The Senior Director of Merchandising reports to the Senior Vice President of Merchandising & Planning and leads enterprise merchandising strategy across ALC’s multi-channel business, including Wholesale, Retail, and Ecommerce. This role owns seasonal line architecture, category strategy, assortment planning, and merchandising-driven go-to-market execution, translating creative vision into commercially successful, brand-right assortments.
The ideal candidate brings exceptional product taste, strong merchandising judgment, and the ability to operate at the intersection of Design, Buying, and Planning within a fast-growing, design-led and data-informed fashion brand.
Responsibilities:
Merchandising & Assortment Strategy
• Lead seasonal and annual merchandising strategy across all channels, including line architecture, category growth plans, SKU count, and pricing architecture.
• Translate creative vision into disciplined, customer-centric assortments that drive growth, margin, and inventory productivity.
• Ensure consistency of assortment strategy across channels while supporting channel-specific needs.
• Establish and scale clear merchandising-led go-to-market processes and disciplines, improving seasonal execution, cross-functional alignment, and speed to market.
• Partner closely with Planning to align merchandising strategy with forecasts, inventory plans, and Open-to-Buy.
Design Partnership
• Collaborate with design team and Chief Creative Officer as merchandising partner in seasonal process.
• Provide clear, data-informed input throughout development on category performance, pricing, depth, and line balance.
• Partner early with Design and Product Development on line architecture, SKU count, cost targets, and delivery flow.
• Ensure disciplined line editing while protecting brand integrity and creative intent.
Merchandising Go-To-Market
• Lead merchandising-driven go-to-market execution across all channels.
• Own merchandising GTM calendars, milestones, and deliverables in partnership with Planning, Buying, Marketing, and Production.
• Ensure alignment between assortment priorities, buying decisions, pricing, inventory flow, and launch timing.
Cross-Functional Partnership
• Partner closely with the Director of DTC Buying to ensure channel buys align with enterprise merchandising strategy.
• Align with Wholesale leadership on category strategy, pricing architecture, and inventory exposure.
• Work closely with Vice President of Planning and planning team on seasonal financial plans and OTB.
Leadership & Team Development
• Lead and develop the merchandising team, setting clear expectations and performance standards.
• Build strong merchandising fundamentals, analytical rigor, and brand sensibility across the team.
• Contribute to strengthening merchandising and go-to-market capabilities as the business scales.
Qualifications:
• 10+ years of merchandising experience within premium or luxury apparel brands.
• Exceptional fashion taste and product sensibility, with a proven ability to curate brand-right assortments in a design-driven and data informed environment.
• Hands-on experience with line planning, assortment strategy, and merchandising-led go-to-market execution.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to translate data into clear merchandising decisions.
• Proven experience establishing and scaling merchandising-led go-to-market processes and operating disciplines, bringing structure, clarity, and accountability to seasonal execution.
• Proven ability to partner effectively with Design, Buying, and Planning teams.
• Experienced people leader with strong communication skills and sound commercial judgment.