Senior Manager, Merchandising - FTW Performance

at The North Face looks a little like this:

• You help shape the long-term vision and strategy for the Performance Footwear business, identifying opportunities to drive consumer relevance, brand elevation, and sustainable growth.
• You lead category-level consumer, marketplace, and competitive analysis to uncover emerging opportunities and translate insights into actionable product strategies.
• You partner closely with Brand Innovation, Design, and Development teams to influence future innovation pipelines and seasonal product direction.
• You own the product strategy and execution for the Performance Footwear category, including Trail Running, Hiking, and Mountaineering, ensuring a balanced product assortment that delivers against both consumer and business objectives.
• You oversee the creation of seasonal product briefs, providing clear direction on consumer needs, product positioning, pricing, and assortment architecture.
• You lead cross-functional product pods and drive key product decisions throughout the product creation process, including participation in development and factory visits.
• You are accountable for delivering category financial targets, including margin, productivity, and overall business performance.
• You drive global assortment plans and align category strategies with regional merchandising and financial objectives across key go-to-market milestones.
• You develop differentiated assortment and segmentation strategies across consumers, channels, tiers, and geographies to maximize growth opportunities.
• You collaborate closely with Planning, Brand Marketing, Sales, and Sourcing partners to ensure the category vision is successfully brought to life across wholesale, DTC, digital, and retail channels.
• You present category vision, product strategies, innovation priorities, and seasonal assortments to senior leadership and key external partners, inspiring confidence through deep expertise in the consumer, product, and marketplace.
• You lead and develop a team of merchandising professionals, fostering a high-performance culture focused on growth, collaboration, and accountability.

We all have unique skills that we bring to work and celebrate every day. For this role, there are foundational skills you'll need to succeed and excel. Additionally, while formal education in a related field is great to have, we are most interested in your merchandising expertise, leadership capabilities, and proven ability to drive product and business results. The foundational skills you will need in this position are:

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Merchandising, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of experience in merchandising, product management, or a related product creation function, preferably within the footwear industry.
• Strong experience leading technical footwear categories, preferably performance running, trail running, hiking, mountaineering, or outdoor footwear.
• Deep understanding of footwear product creation, including merchandising, design, development, sourcing, testing, and go-to-market execution.
• Proven success developing category strategies, product assortments, and line plans that drive business growth.
• Strong financial acumen, including experience managing margins, pricing architecture, and category profitability.
• Deep understanding of performance consumers, market trends, and competitive dynamics.
• Exceptional communication, presentation, and influencing skills, including experience presenting to senior leaders and external partners.
• Proven ability to lead and develop teams while building strong partnerships across global, cross-functional organizations.
• Strong analytical and strategic thinking capabilities with the ability to turn insights into action.
• High degree of agility, adaptability, and comfort operating in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
• Growth mindset with a passion for product, innovation, and consumer-led decision making.

There are also a few skills that are not required but preferred:

• Experience within the outdoor, performance, or premium footwear industry.
• Global merchandising experience across multiple regions and channels.
• Strong understanding of footwear innovation, materials, performance technologies, and testing processes.
• Experience building franchise strategies and managing large-volume product businesses.
• International work experience and understanding of diverse consumer and market needs.
• Passion for outdoor exploration, trail running, hiking, climbing, or mountain sports.