Senior Merchant, 3rd Party & Collaborations

Description Your Role: The Senior Merchant, 3rd Party & Collaborations supports the AVP in building the strategy and execution of Victoria’s Secret 3rd Party Wholesale and Collaborations categories. This role calls for through comprehensive management of existing third-party brands as well as the successful recruitment & onboarding of new brands, and oversees merchandising strategy and execution of product collaborations with external brands. The Senior Merchant demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of the connection between financial strategies and related merchandise objectives. Utilizing their financial acumen and understanding of the customer, the Senior Merchant is the subject matter expert in areas including wholesale brand management, assortment and pricing architecture, seasonal open to buy, new brand on‑boarding, and vertical merchandising product development processes. The position collaborates directly with various cross‑functional teams including but not limited to digital merchandising, brand marketing, merchandise planning, store operations, and visual merchandising, to ensure execution of the accurate brand vision and category goals. In this function, the Senior Merchant also helps identify potential brand collaborators, manages product strategy and execution, and facilitates brand‑to‑brand communication. The Senior Merchant must possess strong executive‑facing skills as they are ultimately representing the Victoria’s Secret brand to external parties. The Senior Merchant supports the Leader in prioritizing workload and plays a supportive role in training merchandising talent within the company. Your Impact: Leadership Lead and demonstrate strong cross‑functional and external brand partnerships with clear and accurate communication Lead and influence solutions‑based thinking, conflict resolution and productive dialogue in cross‑functional and external brand meetings Demonstrate ability to layer strategic thinking and business ownership on top of business execution Relationship building by demonstrating corporate culture & values of diversity, equity, inclusivity, open‑mindedness, collaboration, and positive intent Lead and demonstrate company values of Love the Customer, Passion with Purpose, Better Together, DEI is Everything Consistently react with urgency while comprehending overall strategy Customer Consistently demonstrate an ability to turn customer insight into actionable recommendations as it relates to assortment strategy Translate and apply customer and competitive patterning insights into actions that will drive the business and assortment forward Remain curious about the customer to better understand their current demands and seek to learn more through store travel and taking on the customer lens Partner across merchandising categories to connect dots on larger, total brand trends and patterns Understand the customer’s lifestyle by staying on top of trends, social media, and pop culture as it specifically relates to the customer, in stores or wherever they are Drive customer insight strategy via the internal teams and external focus groups Engage in competitive patterning to understand market trends, emerging brands, and to identify new product category opportunities for the third‑party marketplace. Be the voice of the customer throughout new brand launches, partnering closely with digital and customer analytics team to understand all aspects of a launch: digital engagement with new creative content, revenue/demand drivers, how the customer is discovering these launches on VS website. Product Responsible for executing the seasonal financial plan into a product assortment while preserving brand position and brand image Continues to refine product offering based on market trends, customer appetite, and broader VS‑brand goals, while working outside of internal PDP calendar deliverables Consistently demonstrate an ability to turn product insight into actionable recommendations as it relates to assortment strategy Accountable for key meeting prep with style & color ranking, deck preparation, and ad‑hoc requests and analysis, always staying agile and flexible Responsible for ongoing trend analysis and reporting, inclusive of competitive landscape & competitive patterning Drive development of a testing agenda to identify and unlock future growth opportunities Drive the communication of product detail to cross‑functional partners. Support key meetings through deck preparation and completion of ad‑hoc requests, always staying agile and flexible. Strategy Align seasonal strategy and action plan for all third‑party brands; influence growth/maintain/decline for each brand and category Deliver comprehensive analysis of third‑party business every Monday and provide recommendations to optimize sales and inventory turn Partner with Leader on overarching collaborations strategy and influence partner recommendations, assortment strategies, and brand synergy rationale Gain alignment from merchant leaders and influence overarching takeaways for Monday Merchant Meetings and promotional recommendations for Tuesday Alignment Meetings. Actively advocate for digital and social marketing support for third party. Utilize knowledge of assortment, inventory ownership, and upcoming launches to influence inclusion of third‑party products in marketing messages Communicate frequently with external brand partners regarding upcoming assortments, hits and misses within each brand’s business, reorder opportunities, and inventory optimization strategies. Coordinate, schedule, and attend seasonal market appointments and trade shows as necessary to support multiple wholesale market calendars across intimates, apparel, and swim Financial Develop the line plan for ongoing/anchor third party brands, including volume, margin, style/choice count, and category penetration consistent with financial goals. Possess financial accountability for category sales, growth, and margin. Ensure price-value relationship is in line with customer expectation Understand product trends and historical data at the category level to manage in‑season opportunities Understand and leverage historical data to ensure business is compared appropriately to last year. Develop and leverage attributes of a successful new brand launch and make recommendations accordingly for continuity or exit. Analyze, interpret and report financial results on a weekly basis to influence business strategy. Be the expert of store/regional performance by analyzing size and market trends and making appropriate recommendations. Negotiate financial terms with wholesale partners, including margin agreements and shipping terms, as well as understand and support royalty negotiations with potential collaborative partners Collaboration Establish and maintain strong partnerships by building rapport and communicating effectively with cross‑functional partners & third‑party brand partners Function as point of contact with all brand partners, establishing and maintaining effective channel of communication Possess category/business knowledge to gain internal buy‑in. Plan and lead cross functional team meetings and calls Consistently demonstrate open mindedness and free thinking when problem solving. Regularly share customer insights and business recommendations in cross functional forums as well as with brand partners, as appropriate. 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