VP, Global Merchandising

Job Summary

The Vice President of Global Merchandising is a visionary leader who fuses creativity with commercial precision to craft KEEN’s global product expression. This role balances the art of storytelling with the science of business analytics, ensuring that KEEN’s global assortments are both emotionally resonant and financially sound. They drive the creation and adoption of newness, influence global and regional line builds, and act as a lead curator of fan-first innovation. With a sharp understanding of margin drivers, productivity levers, and trend cycles, this leader elevates KEEN’s merchandising strategies to meet future fans where they are.

Essential Functions

Description

• Owns and evolves KEEN’s Globally Aligned Price (GAP) framework to ensure consistent, fan-right pricing across all regions.
• Partners closely with Regional Merchandising, Planning, Finance, and the U.S. team to gather inputs, evaluate tradeoffs, and align on final pricing recommendations.
• Leads the U.S.-derived pricing analysis that establishes GAP benchmarks and guides downstream regional price alignment.
• Curates and influences global seasonal product lines through an artful balance of emotional brand resonance and margin contribution analysis.
• Champions fan-first thinking in seasonal segmentation plans, ensuring regional relevance while protecting global brand equity.
• Guides the flow and prioritization of newness, maximizing early adoption through trend forecasting, style benchmarking, and fan listening.
• Builds powerful, authentic product narratives that integrate with brand and seasonal marketing campaigns.
• Owns global margin architecture, ensuring margin targets are met by partnering closely with Finance, Demand Planning, and Product.
• Establishes and monitors SKU-level margin health dashboards, identifying SKU productivity boosters and margin improvement initiatives.
• Influences regional margin optimization strategies through storytelling value perception, not just discounting.
• Launches AI-powered pricing tools that drive both operational rigor and enhanced fan value delivery.
• Actively participates in regional seasonal reviews to shape and fine-tune local adaptations without compromising brand storytelling.
• Leads regional line reviews to ensure major newness, top volume drivers, and fan-first innovations are globally understood and championed.
• Drives SKU rationalization with a creative lens to ensure strong productivity metrics (SKU vitality rate target of 30%).
• Enhances inventory predictability through closer integration of fan insights, sell-in forecasts, and global merchandising analytics tools.
• Advances margin predictability through lifecycle management, driving in- season newness (target 15%) and SKU turnover improvement.
• Leadership and Team Development
  • Mentors a high-performing global merchandising team that blends artistry with analytical precision
  • Inspires a culture of creative risk-taking, operational discipline, and global alignment
  • Represents KEEN externally as a thought leader at key retail, innovation, and industry forums.
• Fan and Market Insights
  • Integrates qualitative insights (fan storytelling, cultural listening) and quantitative date (SKU turns, sell-thru analytics, regional vitality rates) into all major merchandising decisions/
  • Builds robust processes for continuous fan pulse-checks, rend reporting, and competitive benchmarking.
  • Leads global sustainability storytelling through product assortment, enhancing KEEN's leadership in regenerative footwear innovation.

Please note this job description is not designed to contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without cause.

Qualifications

Bachelor's Degree in Merchandising or related field required.

Minimum twelve (12) years of experience in merchandising, product creation, and/or retail.

Any equivalent combination of experience and education which clearly indicates the ability to perform the essential functions of the position may substitute on a year for year basis.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strong project management skills and experience managing cross functional internal and external teams.
• Strong knowledge of footwear landscape and consumer insights.
• Outstanding data analytics and articulation skills.
• Excellent presentation and communication skills with an ability to compel action at all levels of the organ