The Vice President, Strategy leads and consults on key initiatives and projects for the brand. This position leads the vision, strategic framework, and specific solutions required to deliver against identified or new consumer needs, specific business goals and business challenges for the company. These are achieved using a judicious balance of industry-leading data driven decision science and extensive qualitative research/understanding of historical and forecasted consumer, product, and macro trends.
This person is a leader who brings forward ideas and questions that challenge internal thinking and provides objective views of opportunities and risks. The Vice President, Strategy is a member of the Ariat leadership team and brings a track record of managing successful global initiatives and proven experience in strategic and business planning.
You'll Make a Difference By
Actively serves as a key member of the Ariat International Leadership team. Provides dynamic, visible and inspirational leadership to positively impact team results, execute initiatives and deliver strong business results.
Provides analytical problem solving and strategy development support to long-term business planning processes. Integrates plans and drives the development of the consolidated Ariat International strategy plan.
Works in partnership as a trusted thought leader with function leaders to inform and influence business strategies (e. g., pricing, brand architecture, segmentation, channels, new markets)
Oversees Ariat's ongoing strategic initiative portfolio and leads the strategy organization; works with initiative owners to provide updates to the management team as needed. Executes projects and/or discrete analyses and present findings and recommendations to senior leadership as requested.
Partners with functional leaders on strategic cross-functional initiatives designed to drive sales growth, margin improvement or expense optimization that support the delivery of brand and business goals.
Lead the decision science team and help develop the tools and analysis needed to support the strategic projects as well as day-to-day ongoing decision support for key commercial teams.
About You
15+ years of experience in Management Consulting, Strategic Planning, Business Development, Market Research, Investment Banking, Private Equity, or a related field. International experience preferred. Exposure to M&A and/or public company are a plus.
BA or BS degree in Marketing, Business, Merchandising or related field. MBA preferred.
Experience with the application of consumer insights in developing long-range brand business strategy considered a strong plus.
Deep knowledge of retail and/or wholesale in consumer products industry. Experience in footwear and/or apparel strongly preferred.
Experience leading projects teams of diverse and creative individuals; ability to lead change. Demonstrated ability to work with and inspire a broad range of individuals to work toward a common goal.
Must have a track record in re-establishing procedures, implementing key marketing and sales initiatives and executing processes.
Excellent communication and presentation skills, both written and verbal, including a strong ability to distill large financial and operational data sets to craft strategic narratives. Must be able to connect work to the "big picture" brand and business goals.
Strong judgment, problem-solving and analytical skills, including regression, statistical modeling and financial valuation.
Exceptional problem solving and analytical skills; ability to frame new, ambiguous and complex issues; able to generate insight through rigorous analysis.
Understanding of global lifestyle and lead markets' dynamics. Updated on current macroeconomic, consumer, competitor and customer trends.
Ability to cultivate and maintain positive, effective relationships with senior leadership and Board of Directors. Must be able to perform under pressure, short deadlines and in high visibility settings.
Strong influence skills and ability to work successfully with peers; a true team player.
Ability to effectively work cross-functionally at all levels of the organization and to manage and prioritize multiple tasks on very tight deadlines. Strong project management, strategic communication and collaboration/influencing skills.
Entrepreneurial orientation, client-service mentality and sensitivity in working across cultures are required.
Mergers and acquisition expertise including market research, prospect identification, due diligence, negotiation and post-merger/acquisition integration.
Advanced Excel modeling and PowerPoint are required. Extensive experience and understanding of databases, established analytical tools as well as emerging technologies such as AI.
Ability to travel globally.
About Ariat
Ariat is an innovative, outdoor global brand with roots in equestrian performance. We develop high-quality footwear and apparel for people who ride, work, and play outdoors, and care about performance, quality, comfort, and style.
The salary range for this position is $300,000 - $325,000 per year.
The salary is determined by the education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, and alignment with market data for geographic locations. Ariat in good faith believes that this posted compensation range is accurate for this role at this location at the time of this posting. This range may be modified in the future.
Ariat's holistic benefits package for full-time team members includes (but is not limited to):
Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance options
Expanded wellness and mental health benefits
Paid time off (PTO), paid holidays, and paid volunteer days
401(k) with company match
Bonus incentive plans
Team member discount on Ariat merchandise
Note: Availability of benefits may be subject to location & employment type and may have certain eligibility requirements. Ariat reserves the right to alter these benefits in whole or in part at any time without advance notice.
Please note that Ariat does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruiters or employment agencies. In the absence of a signed Agreement, Ariat will not consider or agree to payment of any referral compensation or recruiter/agency placement fee. In the event a recruiter or agency submits a resume or candidate without a previously signed Agreement, Ariat explicitly reserves the right to pursue and hire those candidate(s) without any financial obligation to the recruiter or agency. Any unsolicited resumes, including those submitted directly to hiring managers, are deemed to be the property of Ariat.