{"id":1338876,"url":"https://alion.io/job/new-balance-merchandising-planner","title":"Merchandising Planner","company":{"id":1761527,"name":"New Balance","domain":"newbalance.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/newbalance-com","size_band":"501-1000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":95,"open_postings":3,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":83,"computed_at":"2026-10-25T05:49:26Z"}},"role":"Operations","role_family":"Operations","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Seoul, South Korea"],"countries":["KR"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":53000,"max_usd":122000,"period":"year","method":"global_role_cell_scaled_by_country","sample_n":4596},"experience_years_min":8,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Microsoft Office","optional":false},{"name":"Outlook","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-20T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-08-20","last_verified_at":"2026-10-23T08:20:12Z","board_verified":false,"closed_at":null,"days_open":67,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":67},"description":"Who We Are:\nSince 1906, New Balance has empowered people through sport and craftsmanship to create positive change in communities around the world. We innovate fearlessly, guided by our core values and driven by the belief that conventions were meant to be challenged. We foster a culture in which every associate feels welcomed and respected, where leaders and creatives are inspired to shape the world of tomorrow by taking bold action today.\nPOSITION SUMMARY\nThe Merchandising Planner is responsible for developing and managing merchandise financial plans to drive profitable growth across all channels. This role leads demand forecasting, assortment investment planning, initial margin and profitability planning, and inventory forecasting while ensuring alignment between financial targets and merchandising strategies.\nThe position partners closely with Merchandising, Buying, Retail, E-commerce, Supply Chain, and Finance teams to deliver data-driven insights, improve forecast accuracy, enhance planning visibility, and support informed business decision-making.\nKEY RESPONSIBILITIES\nMerchandise Financial Planning & Demand Forecasting\nDevelop annual, seasonal, monthly, and weekly merchandise financial plans.\nOwn sales and assortment investment forecasts across channels and categories.\nDevelop and manage demand forecasts by product line and category, leveraging historical performance, market trends, and merchandising drivers to align sales plans, inventory investments, and merchandise strategies.\nConduct monthly and in-season reforecasting to identify risks and opportunities within sales and demand projections.\nSupport budget planning and financial target setting across functions.\nMonitor forecast performance against actual results and identify key demand drivers, risks, and opportunities to continuously improve forecast accuracy.\nPerform post-season forecast reviews to evaluate forecasting effectiveness and incorporate learnings into future planning cycles.\nAssortment Investment Planning & Reconciliation\nSupport seasonal sales target reconciliation by aligning top-down financial targets with bottom-up assortment and demand plans.\nPartner with Merchandising and Buying teams to align assortment investments with commercial objectives.\nConsolidate cross-channel assortment plans into a unified seasonal investment framework.\nReconcile demand forecasts with assortment and investment plans at product line and category level.\nValidate assortment plans against sales forecasts using key merchandising metrics including SKU count, unit demand, ASP (Average Selling Price), and AUR (Average Unit Retail).\nConduct gap analysis between demand forecasts, assortment strategies, and investment plans.\nIdentify planning gaps and provide recommendations to improve assortment productivity and investment efficiency.\nMonitor assortment productivity throughout the season and highlight risks and opportunities versus plan.\nConduct post-season reviews to evaluate assortment productivity, buy efficiency, and forecast accuracy, incorporating learnings into future planning cycles.\nPlanning Governance & Continuous Improvement\nSupport seasonal sales target reconciliation by aligning top-down financial targets with bottom-up assortment and demand plans.\nPartner with Merchandising and Buying teams to align assortment investments with commercial objectives.\nConsolidate cross-channel assortment plans into a unified seasonal investment framework.\nReconcile demand forecasts with assortment and investment plans at product line and category level.\nValidate assortment plans against sales forecasts using key merchandising metrics including SKU count, unit demand, ASP (Average Selling Price), and AUR (Average Unit Retail).\nConduct gap analysis between demand forecasts, assortment strategies, and investment plans.\nIdentify planning gaps and provide recommendations to improve assortment productivity and investment efficiency.\nMonitor assortment productivity throughout the season and highlight risks and opportunities versus plan.\nConduct post-season reviews to evaluate assortment productivity, buy efficiency, and forecast accuracy, incorporating learnings into future planning cycles.\nAPAC & Cross-Functional Collaboration\nPartner closely with Merchandising, Commercial, Supply Chain, Finance and Channel teams to support successful execution of seasonal plans.\nAct as the primary contact for consolidating and communicating Korea demand inputs across all channels to APAC Planning teams.\nPrepare and communicate consolidated Korea demand updates, planning inputs and seasonal assumptions to APAC stakeholders.\nMaintain planning documents, reporting and demand submissions in accordance with regional planning timelines and milestones.\nProactively communicate significant changes in Korea demand outlook, opportunities and risks to relevant stakeholders.\nSupport cross-functional discussions to ensure demand plans are aligned with business priorities, product strategies and seasonal objectives.\nREQUIREMENTS FOR SUCCESS\nMinimum 8-10 years of experience in Merchandise Planning, Assortment Planning, Business Planning, Buying, Demand Planning or related retail planning functions.\nRelevant experience within sporting goods, footwear, fashion or retail industries preferred.\nUnderstanding of assortment planning, inventory management and market demand planning processes.\nStrong analytical skills with the ability to interpret sales, inventory and product performance data.\nProven ability to translate business objectives into actionable assortment and volume plans.\nExperience working in a multi-channel retail environment.\nStrong communication and stakeholder management skills.\nWritten and verbal communication skills in both Korean and English.\nProficient in Microsoft Office Suite, especially Excel, along with Tableau or other reporting and planning tools.\nHighly organized with strong attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.\nPERSONAL ATTRIBUTES\nCollaborative\nCommercial minded\nData-oriented\nDetail-oriented\nProactive\nStrategic thinker\nStrong communicator\nProblem solver\nResults-driven\nAdaptable and resilient\nADDITIONAL INFORMATION\nLocation: Seoul Anguk, Korea / Department: Merchandising / Reports to: Merchandising Planning Manager\n-\nEqual Opportunity Employer:\nNew Balance is committed to equality of opportunity for all current and prospective associates regardless of age, disability, race, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership and gender reassignment. We are an equal opportunity employer and support a culture of diversity and inclusion.\nIf you have not already done so, please let us know if you require any support so we can make the right adjustments and considerations should they be required.","description_format":"text","description_chars":6852,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":8,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[{"language":"Korean","level":"All levels","optional":false}]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Consumer Goods","Sportswear & Activewear"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-27T15:14:10Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":50,"band":"ok","label":"Likely open","p_open":1,"p_active":0.827,"p_room":0.6,"age_days":66,"expected_fill_days":83,"reasons":["conf:45","win:late","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-25T05:49:26Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/new-balance-merchandising-planner","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/new-balance-merchandising-planner.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-26T01:07:41Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":1470,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-27T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":1761527},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=1761527"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fnew-balance-merchandising-planner"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fnew-balance-merchandising-planner"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fnew-balance-merchandising-planner"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/new-balance-merchandising-planner\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fnew-balance-merchandising-planner"}]}