Most companies claim to have the best people. We say to them, "Keep dreaming." Our people are second to none. They set us apart with their entrepreneurial spirit and ambition. They come to us from the likes of Amazon, Microsoft, Nordstrom, Starbucks and the sports world, bringing energy, bold ideas and a willingness to dive into the unfamiliar. It's our people that make BDA the top global Merchandise Agency to work for.
Location:
- This role is based in Woodinville, WA and requires you to work onsite 4 days per week, with 1 day remote.
- To be considered, you must live within commuting distance, as regular in-person collaboration is a key part of the role.
Sr Manager, Merchandising
Reports to: Director, Global Merchandising
About BDA
BDA brings the world’s biggest brands to life through promotional merchandise. Fortune 500 companies come to us to connect with their consumers on an emotional level. We create three-dimensional advertising that people invite into their homes, offices, cars, and classrooms allowing them to see, touch, and experience a brand in a way no other marketing can. We call it the Power of Merchandise.
Our culture is rooted in creativity, accountability, and collaboration. We take great pride in being a workplace that inspires teamwork and innovation while rewarding high achievement. With millions of branded items produced and delivered globally each year, BDA continues to set the standard for creativity, quality, and operational excellence in branded merchandise for the world’s most admired companies.
Position Summary
The Senior Manager, Merchandising is a key leader within BDA’s merchandising organization, responsible for leading and developing a team of merchandising professionals and driving merchandising strategy and execution across assigned clients and categories.
Reporting to the Director, Global Merchandising, this role provides day-to-day leadership for the merchandising team, setting priorities, establishing clear accountability, and ensuring the team delivers strong product strategies and assortments that meet client and business objectives. The Senior Manager works closely with New Business Development, Client Services, Design, Global Sourcing, Merchandise Planning, Purchasing, and Operations to connect client needs, product opportunities, financial performance, and execution.
This leader brings strong merchandising expertise and product knowledge to the business, using trends, client insights, and performance data to guide the team’s decisions, identify opportunities, and continuously improve merchandise programs. The Senior Manager also plays an active role with clients, participating in business reviews, product presentations, strategic discussions, and new-business opportunities while developing a high-performing merchandising team that can support BDA’s continued growth.
Key Responsibilities
Team Leadership & Development
- Lead, coach, and develop a team of merchandising professionals, creating clear expectations, accountability, and ownership across the team.
- Establish team priorities and ensure resources are aligned to the clients, programs, and opportunities with the greatest business impact.
- Provide ongoing coaching, feedback, and development to strengthen merchandising capabilities and build future leaders within the organization.
- Set goals and performance expectations and hold the team accountable for delivering against client, financial, and operational objectives.
- Ensure the team effectively manages multiple clients, programs, product launches, and competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
- Build a culture of collaboration, creativity, accountability, and continuous improvement.
- Partner with the Director, Global Merchandising on organizational structure, talent planning, capability development, and succession planning for the merchandising team.
- Identify opportunities to improve how the team works, including processes, tools, communication, and cross-functional ways of working.
Merchandising Strategy & Execution
- Lead the development and execution of merchandising strategies across assigned clients, programs, and product categories.
- Guide the team in building product assortments that reflect client brands, consumer needs, market trends, program objectives, and financial targets.
- Establish direction and priorities for seasonal, evergreen, event-driven, and client-specific merchandise programs.
- Review and challenge assortment strategies and product recommendations to ensure the right balance of creativity, brand relevance, financial performance, and execution.
- Identify opportunities to expand categories, improve product mix, introduce new products, and strengthen merchandise programs.
- Ensure merchandising strategies are effectively carried through from initial concept and product development to launch and ongoing program management.
- Partner with the Director, Global Merchandising to execute broader merchandising priorities and initiatives across the organization.
Client & Business Partnership
- Serve as a senior merchandising partner to NBD, Client Services, and key clients.
- Participate in client discovery sessions, strategic planning discussions, business reviews, product presentations, and new-business pitches.
- Guide the development of client product strategies, assortments, trend presentations, and category recommendations.
- Ensure the merchandising team understands each client's brand, consumer, business objectives, and program needs.
- Build strong relationships with client stakeholders and provide merchandising expertise and recommendations that strengthen BDA's partnerships.
- Partner with Client Services leadership to identify opportunities to grow existing programs and bring new ideas to clients.
- Support new-business opportunities by helping develop merchandising strategies and product solutions that differentiate BDA.
Product Performance & Financial Results
- Lead the merchandising team's review of sales, margin, inventory, sell-through, in-stock performance, and other key business measures.
- Use performance data, client insights, and market trends to identify opportunities and guide merchandising decisions.
- Ensure the team understands the financial impact of assortment, product, pricing, and inventory decisions.
- Identify opportunities to improve sales, margin, inventory productivity, and overall program performance.
- Partner with Merchandise Planning and Purchasing to align merchandising strategies with forecasts, inventory plans, replenishment strategies, and purchasing decisions.
- Lead regular business and assortment reviews to evaluate performance, identify risks, and establish actions.
- Escalate significant business risks and opportunities to the Director, Global Merchandising and appropriate cross-functional leaders.
- Ensure the team follows through on actions and recommendations identified through performance reviews.
Cross-Functional Leadership
- Build strong partnerships across NBD, Client Services, Design, Global Sourcing, Merchandise Planning, Purchasing, Operations, Logistics, and Compliance.
- Ensure merchandising priorities and product strategies are clearly communicated across functions.
- Partner with Global Sourcing on product capabilities, vendor opportunities, costing, lead times, quality, and production considerations.
- Partner with Design to ensure product collections and presentations effectively bring client brands and campaigns to life.
- Work closely with Merchandise Planning and Purchasing to align assortment decisions with demand, inventory, and purchasing strategies.
- Partner with Operations and Logistics to identify and resolve issues that could impact product availability, timing, quality, or client commitments.
- Help resolve cross-functional issues and establish clear ownership when decisions or actions span multiple teams.
- Represent the merchandising team in cross-functional meetings and initiatives as needed.
Trends, Product & Innovation
- Ensure the merchandising team maintains a strong understanding of retail, consumer, apparel, lifestyle, cultural, and promotional merchandise trends.
- Identify emerging categories, products, materials, decoration techniques, and market opportunities relevant to BDA clients.
- Guide the team in translating trends into relevant product ideas and client opportunities.
- Partner with Design and Global Sourcing to bring new products, capabilities, and ideas into BDA's merchandise offering.
- Maintain strong knowledge of the competitive landscape and identify opportunities for BDA to differentiate its product solutions.
- Attend tradeshows, vendor meetings, market visits, showrooms, and other opportunities to identify and showcase new products and trends.
- Encourage the team to continuously bring forward new ideas and challenge existing assortments and approaches.
Qualifications & Experience
- Bachelor's degree in Merchandising, Business, Marketing, Design, or related field preferred.
- 7+ years of progressive experience in merchandising, product development, category management, retail, consumer goods, or promotional merchandise.
- 3+ years of experience leading and developing people and teams.
- Demonstrated experience leading merchandising strategies, product assortments, and category initiatives.
- Strong understanding of product development, sourcing, merchandise planning, purchasing, inventory management, and production timelines.
- Experience using sales, margin, inventory, and product performance data to drive decisions and actions.
- Demonstrated ability to lead through others, establish priorities, and hold teams accountable for results.
- Strong client-facing and presentation skills with experience presenting strategies and recommendations to senior stakeholders.
- Proven ability to build strong cross-functional relationships and influence across multiple teams.
- Strong organizational, communication, problem-solving, and decision-making skills.
- Experience working in a fast-paced environment managing multiple clients, programs, and priorities.
- Experience with merchandising, planning, ERP, PLM, or related systems preferred.
- Experience in branded merchandise, retail, consumer products, apparel, lifestyle products, or a related industry strongly preferred.
Key Leadership Competencies
People Leadership: Builds strong teams, sets clear expectations, provides meaningful feedback, develops talent, and creates accountability for results.
Merchandising Leadership: Brings strong product instincts, category knowledge, and merchandising expertise and uses that knowledge to guide the team and improve client programs.
Client Partnership: Understands client brands and business objectives and helps the team translate them into strong merchandise strategies and solutions.
Business & Financial Acumen: Understands how merchandising decisions impact revenue, margin, inventory, and overall program performance.
Collaboration & Influence: Builds effective partnerships across functions and brings teams together around shared priorities and outcomes.
Decision Making: Uses data, experience, and judgment to make decisions, establish priorities, and move work forward.
Execution & Accountability: Creates clarity around ownership and expectations and ensures commitments are delivered.
Change Leadership: Helps teams adapt to growth, changing priorities, new processes, and evolving client needs.
Position Details
Budget Accountability: Full accountability for merchandising budgets, COGS, and category-level margin management. Partners with Finance and Operations to ensure accurate forecasting and profitability tracking.
Reports: 2-4 directs
Travel Requirements: 10-15% travel for client meetings, business reviews, new-business pitches, tradeshows, and vendor visits.
Work Schedule & Location: Based at BDA Headquarters (Woodinville, WA) with flexibility in accordance with company policy. Global collaboration will require occasional early morning or evening meetings to align with time zones.
Why Join BDA
This is a rare opportunity to shape the sourcing backbone of a global company on track to reach $1B in revenue. You will be joining a culture that values creativity, operational excellence, and bold leadership all while driving the innovation, partnerships, and performance that define the Power of Merchandise.
Our Core Values:
- BDA is a Team and a Family
- Always Strive to Be The Best
- Entrepreneurial Spirit
- Tigger Attitude
- Work Hard, Play Hard
- Make It Happen the Best Way
- Total Client Affinity & Advocacy
Want to learn more? So much to explore
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We are pleased to share the base salary range for this position is $145,000 to $155,000 with additional yearly bonus incentives. If you are hired at BDA, your compensation will be determined based on factors that may include geographic location, skills, education, and experience. In addition to these factors, we believe in the importance of pay equity and consider internal equity of our current team members as a part of any offer. In the spirit of pay transparency, the range listed is the full base salary range for the role and hiring at the top of the range would not be typical, in order to allow for future salary growth. The range listed is just one component of BDA’s total compensation and rewards programs, which includes: robust PTO; vacation, a paid volunteer day, holidays and summer Fridays, Benefits; medical, dental, vision, life, and AD&D insurance, 401k; tuition reimbursement, mental health and financial wellness programs and professional development opportunities including tuition reimbursement. Certain revenue-generating positions may be eligible for incentive compensation.
BDA is more than a workplace - it’s a family. For more than four decades we’ve promoted a vibrant and welcoming culture that not only accepts but demands you to be different. The quirky, the bold, the creative and the unique make up the foundation of a company that the most iconic brands in the world look to help tell their story through the power of merchandise.
BDA Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.
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