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Position Summary
The Senior Planner owns sales, margin, and inventory forecasting for a high-complexity department in an omni-channel environment, incorporating top-down, bottoms-up, and demand planning discipline. This role is a leader on the Planning team — providing peer support and, depending on category complexity, formally developing one or more direct-reports — while working closely with cross-functional Merchandising and Allocation partners to create alignment through detailed analysis and recommendations. The Senior Planner is capable of extending scope across multiple categories or a broader division as business needs evolve, and demonstrates strong executive presence, regularly presenting forecasts, business reviews, and strategic recommendations directly to senior leadership.
Responsibilities
- Planning Strategy & Ownership — Own and lead the end-to-end pre-season and in-season planning strategy — sales, margin, inventory, and OTB — for an assigned department across brick-and-mortar and digital/DTC channels, setting financial targets by department/category and recalibrating forecasts with cross-functional and field partners in line with the P&L calendar. Scope may extend across multiple categories or a broader division based on business complexity.
- Rolling 18-Month Planning — Maintain a rolling 18-month financial plan (sales, margin, and inventory) that ladders up to divisional budgets and Merchant strategy, in addition to seasonal and in-season planning.
- Weekly Business Review, Reporting & Reconciliation — Conduct weekly reviews of the business, proactively highlighting both positive and negative trends; generate regular reports and analysis for senior management; and partner with Finance to reconcile actuals to plan on a monthly/quarterly cadence.
- Team Leadership & Development — Act as both a hands-on contributor and a coach, mentoring Associate Planners & Planners and, where the role carries direct reports, formally managing their performance and growth — providing training, career development, and talent-retention support.
- Cross-Functional Pod Leadership — Lead the financial plan and inventory strategy for the category within a cross-functional pod, creating and maintaining alignment among peers on Merchandising and Allocation teams on forecast changes and inventory strategies, and serving as the primary planning point of contact.
- Assortment & Buy Development — Determine style-color and depth targets by attribute and store group, managing SKU/style-intensive and location-intensive assortments, and creating the buy aligned to Merchant strategies and priorities — accounting for variations in demand by store volume and regional preferences.
- Executive Strategic Prescence— Create and communicate financial business impacts, and present business reviews, forecasts, and recommendations clearly and concisely to Executive management.
- Inventory, OTB & Margin Management — Manage the open-to-buy budget to ensure inventory investment funds sales and margin plans, and lead markdown and end-of-life strategy — including pricing and liquidation decisions for discontinued or non-go-forward product — partnering with Allocation/Replenishment to optimize inventory turnover.
- Scenario Planning & Risk Mitigation — Conduct scenario and sensitivity analysis to stress-test plans against demand volatility, competitive activity, and supply disruption, building contingency recommendations to protect the business.
- Strategic & Financial Leadership — Demonstrate command of key financial performance indicators for the business, proactively identifying, evaluating, and communicating risks and opportunities to senior planning leadership, and contributing to quarterly and rolling 18-month financial strategy for the assigned department(s).
- Process Improvement, Systems & Automation — Drive continuous improvement across the planning organization, serving as a subject-matter expert/power user of planning systems and partnering on enhancements and testing, while leveraging automation and AI-enabled tools to streamline redundant reporting tasks and improve forecasting accuracy.
- Market Awareness & Adaptability — Maintain a deep understanding of industry trends and the competitive landscape, corporate awareness, adaptability, adjusting plans quickly in response to emerging trends or unexpected events to maximize opportunities and mitigate risk.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Retail Merchandising, or a related field; MBA a plus.
- 5+ years of progressive experience in retail planning, merchandise planning, or demand forecasting — consistent with Manager-level experience benchmarks in the retail industry.
- Demonstrated ability to own and deliver results for a large, complex, multi-category business, with strong command of retail math (OTB, GMROI, turn, sell-through).
- Proven executive presence, with a track record building and presenting business cases and strategic recommendations directly to senior leadership.
- Systems & Tools — Advanced Excel skills, including automation (macros/VBA, Power Query) to streamline reporting and analytics; proficiency with AI-enabled tools to drive efficiency in redundant tasks and enhance data visualization; expert-level PowerPoint skills for building polished, executive-ready decks; experience with planning/ERP systems (e.g., o9, Blue Yonder/JDA, Oracle Retail, SAP) a plus.
- Experience mentoring, coaching, or directly managing junior planners, with the ability to operate as both a hands-on contributor and a people leader (“player-coach”).
- Excellent communication and influencing skills, with the ability to build consensus across cross-functional pod partners and executive stakeholders.
- Ability to manage multiple categories and priorities — including expanded scope across a broader division as needed — and lead through ambiguity in a fast-paced, matrixed environment.
- High attention to detail balanced with strategic, big-picture thinking; sound retail industry knowledge and understanding of customer behavior.
- Must be Philadelphia-based or willing to relocate
Explore our benefits site to discover all the perks and support we offer! From health coverage to financial and personal wellness, we've got you covered—check it out today! benefits.fivebelow.com/public/welcome
Five Below is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other factor protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws.
Five Below is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation because of a disability for any part of the employment process, please submit a request and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information. crewservices.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
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