Merchandising Manager- Footwear (Retail / Product Merchandising)

Brickred Systems is hiring a Lead Merchant -Running Footwear (APLA) for a global leader in the sportswear industry.

This role focuses on consumer-driven assortment planning, seasonal merchandising strategies, and marketplace insights within the running footwear category.

This is an excellent opportunity for merchandising professionals with footwear industry experience and strong retail analytics capabilities who thrive in a fast-paced, consumer-focused environment.

We are seeking a Lead Merchant for Running Footwear within the APLA (Asia Pacific & Latin America) business who combines strong consumer obsession with a passion for product and retail.

This role requires someone who thrives in a fast-paced retail environment, demonstrates strong analytical and merchandising capabilities, and can translate consumer insights, marketplace trends, and business performance metrics into impactful assortment strategies.

The ideal candidate will contribute to an inclusive, positive, and collaborative team culture while driving product strategies that deliver exceptional consumer experiences across the marketplace.

Who You Will Work With:

In this role, you will collaborate closely with a wide range of cross-functional partners including:

• Geo and Global Merchandising teams
• Planning and Marketplace Merchandising partners
• Brand Marketing
• Finance and Operations
• Insights & Analytics teams

You will leverage quantitative and qualitative business reporting, including metrics related to sales performance, inventory health, and consumer behavior, to inform product decisions and seasonal strategies.

Who We Are Looking For:

• Looking for a consumer-focused merchant with deep product affinity and strong retail acumen.
• The ideal candidate understands the consumer, the global marketplace landscape, and the dynamics of retail environments.
• This individual must be agile, solution-oriented, and comfortable operating autonomously while influencing across a cross-functional matrix.
• The role requires a strong ability to drive product strategies end-to-end from consumer insights to marketplace adoption while managing multi-season merchandising plans.

Required Tools & Technical Skills:

• MMX (Merchandising Management systems).
• AV (Assortment Visualization) tools.
• Microsoft Excel.
• Microsoft PowerPoint.

Key Responsibilities:

Consumer-Driven Assortment Planning

• Build consumer-centric assortment plans informed by marketplace insights and data-driven analysis.
• Balance quantitative insights with intuition to develop compelling product offerings

Seasonal Merchandising Strategy.

• Participate in seasonal reviews and assortment planning in partnership with account-focused marketplace merchants.
• Prepare seasonal tools and presentations that help marketplace partners understand product priorities.

Multi-Season Product Management

• Manage multiple seasons simultaneously, balancing current in-market performance with future planning cycles.
• Provide insights that inform future product strategies and line planning.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with Marketplace and Territory Merchandising teams to gather insights and align strategies.
• Collaborate with Global Merchandising teams upstream to influence future product lines.

Marketplace & Consumer Insights

• Analyze consumer behavior, retail performance, and marketplace trends.
• Translate insights into in-season adjustments and long-term strategic initiatives.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and experience.

5+ years of experience in:

• Footwear, apparel, or equipment merchandising
• Product creation or retail merchandising
• Consumer product environments (vertical brand, multi-brand, or digital retail)

Strong understanding of retail and digital performance metrics including:

• Sell-through
• Margin
• Full-price realization
• Weeks of supply

About BrickRed Systems:

BrickRed Systems is a global leader in next-generation technology, consulting, and business process service companies. We enable clients to navigate their digital transformation.

BrickRed Systems delivers a range of consulting services to our clients across multiple industries around the world. Our practices employ highly skilled and experienced individuals with a client-centric passion for innovation and delivery excellence. With ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certification and over a decade of experience in managing the systems and workings of global enterprises, we harness the power of cognitive computing hyper-automation, robotics, cloud, analytics, and emerging technologies to help our clients adapt to the digital world and make them successful. Our always-on learning agenda drives their continuous improvement through building and transferring digital skills, expertise, and ideas from our innovation ecosystem.