Original listing text, shown exactly as published by the company.
About the Role
As our Divisional Merchandise Manager, Ski & Snow Hardgoods, you will own the full commercial strategy for one of Backcountry's highest-profile and most technically complex categories. This role exists to deepen our authority in the snow sports market — setting the assortment vision, managing key vendor relationships, and ensuring every buying decision drives margin, sell-through, and customer loyalty across both digital and retail channels.
You will lead a team of buyers and work cross-functionally with Inventory Planning, Finance, Marketing, and Digital to translate a deep understanding of the global snow market into a winning assortment strategy. Success at 6–12 months looks like a rationalized, tiered assortment with measurable improvements in sell-through and gross margin, stronger exclusive and SMU programs with key vendors, and a team that is operating with clarity and accountability.
This is a lean team. You will own a lot, move fast, and make decisions with full end-to-end responsibility.
What You'll Do
Category Strategy & Market Leadership
- Define and execute a multi-year strategy across ski, snowboard, and backcountry hardgoods
- Leverage a strong understanding of the global vendor and brand landscape to identify opportunities and trends
- Translate regional customer needs (e.g., East vs. West mountains) into assortment strategies
- Drive top-line growth, gross margin, sell-through rate, and inventory productivity in partnership with Inventory Planning and Finance
Assortment & Lifecycle Management
- Build tiered assortments that serve multiple customer segments across price points and expertise levels
- Curate a balanced mix of full-price, off-price, and closeout product to maximize lifecycle value
- Lead end-of-season closeout buying strategies to optimize turns and minimize risk; partner with Inventory Planning and Finance to align on OTB, receipt timing, and payment structure
- Ensure assortments drive units per transaction (UPT) through thoughtful cross-category integration
Vendor Strategy & Differentiation
- Develop and deepen strategic partnerships with key ski and snow brands through on-site vendor meetings, business reviews, and product testing
- Lead business development initiatives with vendors to unlock exclusive opportunities
- Create SMUs and exclusive assortments that differentiate Backcountry from competitors
- Maintain a strong pulse on competitive positioning and brand strategies
Retail & Customer Experience
- Champion the end-to-end customer journey across digital and retail touchpoints
- Partner with teams to build and scale demo fleet and seasonal rental programs
- Ensure seamless integration of hardgoods with accessories, travel gear, and related categories
Cross-Functional Partnerships
- Partner closely with Inventory Planning to align open-to-buy, manage receipt flow, and optimize in-season reorder and markdown decisions across a highly seasonal business
- Collaborate with Finance, Marketing, and Digital/UX teams to align category investments with financial targets, campaign timing, and on-site merchandising execution
- Leverage sell-through data, digital conversion metrics, and customer demand signals to inform assortment decisions, identify risk, and surface opportunities in real time
Team Leadership
- Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing merchandising team
- Establish clear goals aligned to business outcomes and hold teams accountable
- Foster a culture of ownership, innovation, and continuous improvement
Required Qualifications
- Deep expertise in ski and snowboard hardgoods, with a strong point of view on product and trends
- Strong understanding of the global snow market, vendor landscape, and brand ecosystem
- Proven ability to translate regional nuances (East vs. West, Resort vs. Backcountry) into winning strategies
- Extensive experience managing highly seasonal businesses, including lifecycle and inventory planning
- Demonstrated success building assortments across multiple price tiers and customer expertise levels
- Experience across full-price, off-price, and closeout channels, with a focus on end-of-season optimization
- Background in retail service models, including demo fleets and rental strategies
- Experience developing SMUs, exclusives, and differentiated assortment programs
- Strong track record of building strategic brand partnerships and vendor relationships
- Understanding of adjacent categories including snow accessories, travel, and gear ecosystems
- Proven ability to influence the full customer journey and drive metrics like UPT and conversion
- Experience leading and developing high-performing merchandising teams
- Demonstrated ability to work cross-functionally with Inventory Planning, Finance, and Digital teams to align assortment decisions with OTB, margin targets, and digital performance
- Deep familiarity with ski industry vendor dating programs and off-price buying windows, including time-sensitive endof-season closeout commitments
- Analytical fluency with sell-through analysis, conversion metrics, and demand forecasting to drive confident, datainformed buy decisions
