This role contributes to REI’s success by leading a team responsible for the development of multi-year, product-driven go-to-customer (GTC) strategies and associated operationalization plans and support. Working closely with the Merchandising Leadership Team, this role will develop durable GTC frameworks and operating principles designed to facilitate revenue-generating, product-led initiatives across the enterprise. An essential responsibility of this role and the team they lead will be to ensure product and assortment strategy integrity is upheld through repeated annual and seasonal business rhythms as well as within “sprint” and nuanced workstreams.

The Director, GTC & Omnichannel Strategy will collaborate with cross-functional leaders across the co-op including and especially those in Marketing and Retail to ensure the product and assortment strategies and desired learnings are understood, prioritized and ranked, and developed in ways that enable meaningful and aligned action within functional working teams. The strategies this leader and their team develops and the program management they enact will drive profitable sales, market share and customer growth, and operational improvements. Models and acts in accordance with REI’s guiding values and mission.

• Leads and develops a team of high-performing program managers and process-and-initiatives analysts that develop GTC and omnichannel product and assortment strategies and lead and manage the related project execution.
• Acting as a nexus point within the Merchandising organization and across key partnering divisions, centralizes intake of product and assortment strategies and consolidates disparate approaches and hypotheses into a connected, customer-focused omnichannel strategy. Leads team through development of implementation and project management support plans.
• Co-leads assortment “regional relevance” strategy in partnership with Product & Assortment Analytics Team. Ensures regional insights and voice-of-employee and related processes and communications are upheld and enhanced where necessary.
• Supports the development of the Merchandising Product Playground, bringing seasonal assortment strategies and GTC experiences to life through “mock store” activations. Leads the manager and team accountable for this work through the conceptualization of the in-store customer experience and related sample coordination operations and logistics.
• Demonstrates a product-led and customer-centric approach to understanding and translating business opportunities to stakeholders and executive leadership.
• Practices advanced strategic and operational thinking and coaches and directs teams to develop strategies and plans through the synthesization of quantitative and qualitative data and market, retail, and customer trends.
• Develops and implements strategic frameworks and roadmaps that enhance the GTC plans and omnichannel activities occurring across the enterprise in support of the Merchandising organization.
• Collaborates with Merchandising, Marketing, and Retail to ensure cohesive and effective product, brand, and activity positioning is enacted across relevant channels and is aligned with strategic initiatives and targeted customer segments.
• Develops and implements operational ways of working that simplify and enhance functional team processes.
• Works closely with Merchandising leaders and colleagues to co-author strategic product and assortment GTC and omnichannel business plans that are integrated across the enterprise and used to guide investments.
• Orients toward and supports organizational processes and practices, identifying opportunities to influence change that promotes meaningful business planning evolution,
• Demonstrates and provides thought leadership through an agile mindset and way of working. Leads and supports Merchandising and cross-functional teams through adoption of new GTC and omnichannel integration frameworks and subsequent processes.
• Contributes to design and implementation of product and assortment-driven test frameworks. Gains alignment with key stakeholders and works collaboratively to summarize and disseminate findings to internal Merchandising and cross-functional teams.
• Exhibits curiosity and open-mindedness, frequently looking for strategy and operations-related best practices and examples of innovation both inside and outside the organization.
• Acts as a key leader within the Merchandising Leadership Team, promoting and guiding the integration of durable GTC and omnichannel strategy frameworks and related accountability commitments.

Qualifications

• 10+ years professional experience in retail and/or merchandising with a proven track record of success building organizational strategies and operations plans.
• 5+ years management experience and demonstrated success leading GTM/GTC and/or omnichannel operations and strategy team(s) 
• Experience and deep understanding of merchandising, marketing, stores, assortment planning, supply chain, and multi-channel retail operations
• Demonstrated success in GTM-driven environments and experience building strategies and plans within and in support of
• Proven track record of distilling and synthesizing data and customer, market, and competitor trends into business plans and tactics
• Demonstrated financial acumen through successful consumption and support of business, investment, and budget plans and margin and profit targets.
• Excellent verbal, interpersonal and written communication skills. Ability to synthesize findings into essential takeaways and communicate effectively to senior leaders. Strong collaboration, communication and presentation skills to effectively drive vision and strategy; builds constructive organizational relationships. 
• Extensive direct or collaborative experience and knowledge of marketing, communication and sales channel tools and messaging to drive brand awareness, sales and profitability.
• Passion and talent for pushing boundaries; challenges the status quo; identifies and capitalizes on key opportunities and risks; effectively plans, executes and leads change.
• Able to balance divisional and co-op needs and priorities in decision-making; makes decisions in a manner consistent with REI’s values and ethics.
• Builds capacity of individuals and teams through effective employee development, involvement, communication, and supervision efforts; creates a strong, mutually supportive work spirit and culture where people can do their best.
• Establishes trust and inspires others.
• Makes effective organization and people decisions in a manner consistent with REI's values and ethics