Merchandise Planner

About the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy. The Museum lives in two iconic sites in New York City—The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters. Millions of people also take part in The Met experience online.

Since its founding in 1870, The Met has always aspired to be more than a treasury of rare and beautiful objects. We are committed to fostering a collaborative and respectful work environment with a staff as diverse as the audiences we engage. Our staff members are art lovers who are passionate about working toward a common goal: creating the most dynamic and inspiring art museum in the world.

At The Met, every staff member – from security officers to researchers to scientists and beyond – lives by our core values of respect, inclusivity, collaboration, excellence, and integrity. 

Respect: Engage one another with collegiality, empathy, and kindness, always.

Inclusivity: Ensure that all are and feel welcome and valued.

Collaboration: Reach across boundaries to exchange ideas and work together toward our shared mission.

Excellence: Lead the cultural world in quality and expertise—and inspire curiosity and creativity.

Integrity: Hold ourselves to the highest moral standards, admit when we fall short, and then evolve. 

GENERAL STATEMENT OF RESPONSIBILITIES & DUTIES:

As the Merchandise Planner, you will analyze, maintain and coordinate the monthly, quarterly and annual merchandise assortment financial plans. You will partner with merchandise product managers to appropriately plan their assortment to effectively, buy, margin, sell and liquidate products. You will analyze selling histories and productivity to recommend assortment architectures for both new products as well as seasonal and evergreen products. You will collaborate across the Retail department to effectively communicate merchandise planning.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES & DUTIES:

• Develop and fine-tune assortment financial plans at a department, sub-department, and channel level that support the overall department strategy as well as the annualized Retail financial plan

• Perform analysis of product reorders to ensure they align with strategic assortment planning.

• Develop product life cycle plans from introduction to sell-through and liquidation.

• Collaborate and strategize  with Senior Product Managers to ensure monthly, quarterly, and annual revenue and gross margin targets are achieved for their respective areas

• Responsible for the financial planning of Textiles, Personal Accessories (Annual volume of $8M)

• Responsible for the Reordering of core products within individual departments

• Create buy plan and strategies for core, fashion, seasonal, special exhibition , and collaborations products that support the overall department goals

• Aid in the creation of seasonal SKU Targets and ensure that these targets support the overall financial plan

• Establish markdown cadences for individual product areas that support the overall strategy of the business

• Communicate with all areas of merchandising  (Product Development, Assortment Planning , Web, Catalog, Wholesale, Retail, Visual, Finance and Accounts Payable )

• Track, monitor , and report out on financial performance during key process meetings, as well as key strategy meetings

• Participate and lead weekly business discussions with the cross functional team

• Generate and assist in the analysis of the business

REQUIREMENTS & QUALIFICATIONS:

• B.A. required with some knowledge of art history preferred

• Computer literacy required, including Microsoft Office

• 2-5 years of experience working in product merchandising and/or sales analysis

• Prefer prior Merchandise/Classification Planning experience ( Ant USA Preferred)

• Require proficiency with numbers and Excel spreadsheets, strong attention to detail, high degree of accuracy with ability to prioritize and to work under pressure to meet deadlines

• Require excellent communication skills (both written and verbal) and process orientation

• Self-motivated, strong organizational skills, flexibility,  and a proven track record finding solutions to problems

• A Strong understanding of business acumen required

• Prior managerial experience preferred, strong team player with strong project skills

COMPENSATION RANGE:

• Pay Range: $85,000.00 - $95,000.00 / Annually