For nearly 25 years, Lids has been the leading headwear and sports apparel retailer in North America, selling officially licensed product from professional sports leagues and headwear from today's hottest athletic and fashion brands. We've done it through years of hard work, learning from our successes and failures, living at the intersection of fan and fashion, and staying true to our core values.
If you have a passion for sports, enjoy a fast-paced environment and ever-changing fashion trends, then perhaps this is the place for you. We're always looking for our next big playmaker, so if you're ready to lend your expertise to a like-minded company that's exciting, fun and shares your passions, we want to hear from you.
General Summary:
The Director of Allocation is responsible for leading the Allocation Team and oversees the management and evolution of the allocation process, creating and executing effective inventory deployment strategies, and managing inventory levels to support financial plans. This leader is a pivotal partner to Buying, Planning, Field Operations, and DC leadership. This position supervises several direct reports in addition to owning allocation strategies for all product categories and managing special projects. A dynamic problem-solver with effective communication skills, ability to influence others, and adapt quickly with competing priorities will be critical to delivering the company's inventory productivity objectives.
Principle Duties and Responsibilities
Develop and implement effective allocation strategies that align with organizational goals and objectives. Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies, adjusting as necessary.
Drive initiatives to maintain healthy in-stock levels on key items and effective management of inventory deployment (flow, weeks of supply, excess inventory).
Lead and mentor a team of Allocation Analysts to ensure business needs are met and the team is supported with continuous development opportunities.
Lead the evolution, testing, and validation of allocation/replenishment calculations and logic that improves inventory productivity and business results.
Develop, enhance, and manage analytics reporting to deliver actionable insights, drive key initiatives, and monitor KPI performance and trends.
Pursues increased systems/process efficiencies to drive toward automation.
Support team members and new hires with sharing of best practices, new tools and processes, systems, allocation logic, and ongoing training needs.
Collaborate with department leads to understand their business needs and priorities.
Partners with store operations to address inventory needs and concerns at the store, region, or district level.
Maintain and update training content for Allocation/Replenishment systems.
Serve as a primary point of contact between IT, Merchandising, Store Operations, and/or DC Operations teams.
Communicate effectively and persuasively with employees at all levels of the company.
Continued training & education of industry best practices, software capabilities, and other learning/development opportunities to foster growth, understanding, and effectiveness.
Support and adhere to all company policies, procedures, and guidelines.
Provide excellent customer service as outlined in the HW&L policy manual.
Other duties, special projects, and ad hoc requests as assigned.
Job Required Knowledge, Skills, and Education
Leadership: Demonstrated leadership ability, with experience leading and developing high-performing teams.
Analytic Skills: Strong analytical skills and the ability to interpret complex data to inform decision-making.
Strategic Mindset: Ability to think critically and creatively to solve problems.
Financial and Business Acumen: Ability to mine for data, transform data into meaningful insights, and effectively communicate content to individuals and groups.
Problem Solving & Decision Quality: Ability to use rigorous logic and methods to solve problems with effective solutions.
Relationship Management: Ability to build constructive and effective relationships with a broad and diverse group of business partners, both internally & externally.
Dealing with Paradox: Ability to balance conflicting & competing priorities. Delivering a set of options, detailing impacts for each while driving to a single recommendation.
Presentation Skills: Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively across departments and levels of the organization.
Influencing and Negotiation: Can present ideas and directions that lead others to action.
Planning and Priority Setting: Ability to set objectives/goals and organize work appropriately to meet and exceed goals.
Process Management: Can identify and articulate the processes necessary to get things done efficiently and align resources effectively to complete activities.
Systems and Tools Acumen: Advanced capabilities in Microsoft Excel, Power BI, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook. Must also have aptitude to learn technical applications quickly.
Risk Management: Anticipate risks and identifies contingency plans and processes to prevent disruptions when risks occur.
5-7 years of experience in inventory management, allocation, replenishment, merchandising, or related field.
Bachelor's Degree in Business, Finance, Marketing, Fashion Merchandising, or a related field is preferred.
Proven ability to perform independently with minimal supervision.
Strong follow-up skills including issues-tracking & resolution critical for success in this role.
Benefits, Perks & More!
Comprehensive benefits eligibility starting on first day of employment
401K with company match
PTO
Bonus eligibility
40% employee discount
Free on-site gym
Casual dress code
Career growth opportunities
Positive company culture centered around our core values of Leadership, Integrity, Dedication, & Service