Original listing text, shown exactly as published by the company.
What You'll Do
Category Strategy & Market Leadership
- Define and execute a multi-year strategy across ski, snowboard, and backcountry hardgoods
- Leverage deep knowledge of the global vendor and brand landscape to identify opportunities and emerging trends
- Translate regional customer needs (e.g., East vs. West mountains) into differentiated 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 inventory turns and minimize risk, partnering 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 meetings, regular business reviews, and new product evaluations
- Lead business development initiatives with vendors to unlock exclusive and differentiated opportunities
- Create SMUs and exclusive assortments that set Backcountry apart from competitors
- Maintain a strong pulse on competitive positioning and evolving brand strategies
Retail & Customer Experience
- Champion the end-to-end customer journey across digital and retail touchpoints
- Partner with cross-functional teams to build and scale demo fleet and seasonal rental programs
- Ensure seamless integration of hardgoods with accessories, travel gear, and adjacent categories
Cross-Functional Partnerships
- Partner with Inventory Planning to align open-to-buy, manage receipt flow, and optimize in-season reorder and markdown decisions
- 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 the team accountable for results
- 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 assortment 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 programs
- Experience developing SMUs, exclusives, and differentiated assortment programs with key vendors
- Strong track record of building strategic brand partnerships and long-term vendor relationships
- Understanding of adjacent categories including snow accessories, travel, and gear ecosystems
- Proven ability to influence the full customer journey and drive metrics such as UPT and conversion
- Experience leading and developing high-performing merchandising teams
- Demonstrated ability to work cross-functionally with Inventory Planning, Finance, and Digital to align assortment decisions with OTB, margin targets, and digital performance
- Deep familiarity with ski industry vendor dating programs and time-sensitive off-price buying windows
- Analytical fluency with sell-through analysis, conversion metrics, and demand forecasting to drive data-informed buy decisions
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience managing ski or snow hardgoods at a multi-channel retailer with both digital and physical store presence
- Established relationships with major ski and snowboard hardgoods brands (e.g., Salomon, Atomic, K2, Burton, Black Diamond)
- Experience scaling demo fleet or rental programs across multiple locations or seasons
- Familiarity with e-commerce merchandising tools, digital conversion analysis, and on-site product presentation
- Previous experience developing or managing SMU programs at volume with national or global brands
