The Job The International Merchandise Manager leads a merchant team responsible for Ace International's assortment strategy, development, and execution across specific categories. They aim to achieve success in wholesale and retail metrics like sales, gross profit, and margin rate for international retailers and franchisees, serving both B2C and B2B customers. Additionally, the role includes leadership within a peer team, contributing to organizational structure, personnel management, strategy formulation, goal setting, and execution planning. The oversight of the International Merchandise Manager team is the core of driving alignment and disciplined execution of the company's promise to deliver regionally relevant, high quality, differentiated, assortments to Ace International retailers and franchisees across the world. The International Merchandise Manager: * leads within the organization by applying a thorough understanding of his/her commercial region, the competitive landscape, consumer demands, and industry trends. * directs the omni-channel product strategy for a group of categories at Ace International, aiming to maximize top-line sales and bottom-line profitability. This involves creating opportunities for international retailers and greenfield franchisees to enhance profits by reducing costs, increasing sales, and offering consumer-relevant, differentiated assortments. * collaborates cross-functionally to strategically capitalize on regional opportunities, delivering tailored assortments for various types of retailers globally. What you'll do: Strategy and Assortment Planning * Interpret Ace International strategies to align with departmental strategic direction as it relates to inventory management of warehouse, overstock and seasonal SKUs, trend and industry relevant seasonal and/or core product assortments; profitable convenience, core and super planograms; and marketing initiatives. * Lead the strategic planning process to grow respective categories in terms of sales and gross profit, as well as common strategies around shared initiatives to drive improvement within the enterprise. * Oversight of all category metrics including sales plan, product GMROI, vendor supply chain goals, SKU optimization and inventory management * Present 3-year strategies to officer team with departmental alignment and execute to plan. * Oversee shifts in priorities throughout the year to report progress and shifts in execution. * Oversee category growth plan with new, innovative, exclusive assortments and vendor partnerships for Ace International. * Lead highly complex assortment and initiative development and execution (Level 3 POG) requiring cross-functional support. Team and Cross-Functional Leadership * Participate in overall leadership of merchandising team, assisting in setting annual goals, growth plans and execution via alignment with cross-functional areas of the company. Manage key vendor relationships and assigned growth projects. * Continue to administer platforms to support process change/improvement and streamline organizational, system inefficiencies. * Demonstrate leadership across the organization via strong cross-functional relationships with key business partners and teams, including, AGD, ACE domestic, category management, supply chain, marketing, sales and retail operations. * Continually administer platforms to support process change/improvement and streamline organizational and system inefficiencies. Team Building and Development * Responsible for attracting and retaining best in class talent for the merchandising department. Facilitate/engage teams with leadership and business skills training, mentor future leaders and continually coach for excellence. * Communicating roles and responsibilities, establishing goals, prioritizing workload, conducting talent reviews and support development. Regional insights, Retailer Relationships and Communication * Leads a deep understanding of commercial regional, the competitive landscape, consumer, and regional trends. * Visit international retailers and targeted retail store visits to build trust and rapport with sales team and key stores to review alignment and opportunities in respective categories. * Oversee team execution within all retailer touchpoints. Financial Performance * Achieve yearly financial plans through oversight of strategic planning, reduction in cost negotiations, increased retailer adoption and enterprise channel extensions (AIH, and Greenfield). * Manage financial metric planning and grow overall team wholesale product gross profit income while maintaining pricing/conditions. * Manage and grow team vendors Allowance agreements. * Manage team marketing fund to fund category growth initiatives. Category Reviews * Oversee team category selection and goals for assortments (both B2B and B2C) via performance analysis and assessments of financial analysis, marketplace, consumer, and Ace retailer positioning. * Leads negotiations with vendors to unlock distribution rights and lift existing restrictions for AHI retailers and Greenfield franchisees. * Provide insights to deliver regionally relevant AHI assortments, for all categories. * Provide oversight and mentoring to merchants through cross-functional review objective development, review plan, vendor engagement, negotiation, and assortment build. * Build with merchant execution targets and action plans with leadership alignment. Promotional Planning * Work cross functionally to build the annual promotional strategy. * Collectively plan with team vendor promotional targets and vendor negotiation. * Oversee group promotional schedule of advertised categories/items across all mediums. Convention Planning * Oversee team planning and execution of all vendors show programs. * Lead retailer and cross-functional updates for team including sales meetings, retailer updates during the show. What you will need: Competencies: Ace Merchandise Manager Competencies * Product passion - Natural and fanatical curiosity around product and retail marketplace, demonstrated and put into action. * Strategic thinking - Ability to manage from big picture position to create a strategy through planning, problem solving and understanding of business needs. Facilitates conversations with others to better understand and determined root cause of problem. * Results-oriented - Ability to drive results and empower others to make decisions, take appropriate risk, and drive bottom-line results. Owns failures and positively uses them for future planning. * Leadership - Ability to guide and support the performance and development of others to produce other leaders. Communicates information that addresses other's concerns and issues and looks for win-win solutions. Creates opportunities for others to develop. * Negotiation skills - Superior negotiation skills with proven results leveraging company scale, business drivers and strategies. * Communication - Ability to plan, assemble and present with excellence strategy, execution, and updates to leadership, across the organization, vendors, and retailers. * Problem Solving - Facilitates conversations with others to better understand and determine root cause of problem, ultimately guiding towards a solution. * Performance management - Demonstrates knowledge and skills to meet future business needs. Experience and Technical Requirements: * Bachelor's Degree preferred (Merchandising or Business degrees a plus) OR comparable work experience. * 10+ years of business experience * 5+ years managing product categories. * Strong strategic thinking and leadership skills. * A track record of leading and directing teams is critical. * Excellent problem-solving skills require. * Excellent interpersonal skills require. * Strong financial and business acumen * Demonstrate strong decision-making skills. * Highly creative, flexible, and adaptable with good follow-through * Proven ability to multi-task projects and meet deadlines. * Excellent verbal and written communication skills * Proficient in Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel, Access, Power Point * Ability to travel 35%. Compensation Details: $132000 - 168000 Why should you join our team? We live our values - W.E.L.I.G.H.T (Winning, Excellence, Love, Integrity, Gratitude, Humility, and Teamwork). Gratitude. Humility. Love. You don't often see values like these in most corporate statements, but Ace is different. These things are important to us. They represent our commitment to the company, our employees, to Ace retailers and to the Ace brand. In addition to providing our employees a great culture, Ace also offers competitive benefits* that address life's necessities and perks, many of which expand and improve year after year, including: * Incentive opportunities, based on role/grade level (rapid company growth over the past 5 years resulted in incentives being paid out at an average of 122% of your target opportunity!) * Generous 401(k) retirement savings plan with a fully vested matching contribution the first year in addition to quarterly contributions and annual discretionary contribution (once eligibility requirements have been met). Over the past 5 years, company contributions (matching, quarterly & discretionary) for fully eligible employees have averaged 9.6% of total eligible compensation * Comprehensive health coverage (medical, dental, vision and disability - up to 26 weeks short-term disability and long-term disability) & life insurance benefits for you and your dependents * 21 days of vacation immediately available (prorated in the first year) and up to 6 paid holidays depending on the month of hire * Company Car, phone and fuel card are provided for field-based positions * Your career at Ace is more than just a job. It's a chance to be part of something meaningful. We help locally-owned businesses thrive and make an impact in their communities - and we support our employees in doing the same by offering an annual Ace Cares Week, 20 hours off work per year to volunteer at an organization of your choice, opportunities to help Children's Miracle Network Hospitals and the Ace Helpful Fund through the Ace Foundation * Ace invests in every employee we hire, with a key focus on development and coaching. We offer on-site classes, facilitator-led courses, and a generous tuition assistance program, plus a performance management approach that goes beyond the typical annual review * We know the work environment matters. That's why Ace holds frequent campus events like Employee Appreciation Week, vendor demos, cookouts, and merchandise sales * We bring them to you! Services such as mobile spas, auto maintenance, car wash and detailing, dry cleaning, dentists, eye doctors, flu shots, recycling and more! * Employee discounts on Ace merchandise (including top brands like Weber, Traeger, Yeti, Craftsman, DeWalt and more), travel, fitness, computers and thousands more * Birth/Adoption bonding paid time off * Adoption cost reimbursement * Employee Assistance Program (EAP) - access to free visits to therapists and lawyers, guidance on financial matters, elder and childcare, and assistance with tickets to entertainment events * Identity theft protection * Benefits are provided in compliance with applicable policies. Want to be notified when new jobs are posted? Follow the link below to create an account and set up custom job alerts: Create Job Alert We want to hear from you! When most people think of career opportunities with Ace Hardware, they often think of the helpful cashiers and sales associates at their local store. However, have you also considered the people behind the scenes who select, promote, ship and process the invoices for more than 75,000 products? Maybe you haven't, but we'd like you to. Because together we help our customers take care of their homes. Come find out why a career with the Ace Hardware Corporation is one of America's best kept secrets. Equal Opportunity Employer Ace Hardware Corporation is committed to a policy of promoting equal employment opportunities. The company recognizes the importance of diversity and leveraging the skills and talents of all people to the mutual advantage of each individual and the organization. The company is committed to the prevention of employment discrimination related to race, religion, color, sex (including sexual harassment), gender identity, national origin, age, marital status, disability and military or veteran status, sexual orientation or any other action covered by federal or applicable state/local laws. Disclaimer The pay range for this position starts as listed in the job posting, but could be higher based on education and experience. Please note, compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each opening. We take into consideration the minimum requirements outlined in the job description, such as an individual's education, training and experience, the position's work location, required travel (if any), and external market conditions when determining the final salary for potential new hires. Be aware that salary estimates published via alternate online job boards may not be a true representation of the actual pay range offered for this position. Please refer to the Ace position description for the accurate starting pay range information and feel free to discuss this with a Talent Acquisition professional if you are chosen to move forward with an interview. This written "Position Description" is not intended to cover all aspects of the position listed. It is meant to cover the basic/general essential job functions of a particular position. Ace Hardware Corporation reserves the right to change job duties, including essential job functions, according to business necessity. Want to be notified when new jobs are posted? Follow the link below to create an account and set up custom job alerts: Create Job Alert