Buyer - Intimates, Swim, Athleisure

Location: Los Angeles, near the Arts District Schedule: Hybrid, Tuesday through Thursday in office Reports To: Director, Merchandising Position Overview The Buyer, Intimates, Swim & Athleisure will be responsible for developing, executing, and communicating an assortment architecture that speaks to the client’s customer through relevant trends, compelling product, and exceptional price value. This role is integral to driving sales and profit plan performance and requires a highly collaborative individual who thrives in a fast-paced, agile, and cross-functional environment. The Buyer will help bring the creative vision of the company to life through impeccable product execution and will partner with the Director of Merchandising and Chief Merchandising Officer to concept key drops across their categories. This is a product-development-intensive role requiring strong communication skills, proven vendor management experience, and a strong understanding of the development process across intimates, swim, and athleisure. Key Responsibilities The Buyer will be responsible for developing a commercially sound product strategy and assortment plan that represents the tastes and needs of the client’s customer. Maintain expert knowledge of the client’s customer, competitor activity, current trends, and the broader fashion zeitgeist. Partner directly with vendors on product development to support a strategic exclusive assortment while also buying from vendor in-line assortments. Manage a product-development-intensive process requiring a keen eye for detail, strong communication skills, agility across multiple parallel workstreams, and flawless concept-to-market execution. Develop and execute merchandise assortment plans that support financial, merchandising, and marketing objectives across seasonal product concepts, key items, promotional strategies, and assortment mix. Establish product- and category-level pricing recommendations and strategies aligned with financial plans. Deliver against Open-to-Buy (OTB) goals, including sales, inventory, cost, SKU, and margin objectives. Proactively schedule vendor appointments to identify and fill assortment gaps. Business Performance & In-Season Management Lead business recaps, performance analysis, and forward-looking action plans. Recommend styles for markdowns. Analyze and manage in-season performance while maintaining a strong pulse on customer needs and emerging trends. Read and react to weekly business performance and use learnings to inform in-season and future-season actions, strategies, assortments, and chase opportunities. Drive actions including reorders, assortment cancellations, edits, discounts, swaps, and adds, including related vendor negotiations. Conduct post-season hindsight analysis to identify hits and misses and use those learnings to build future-season strategy. Partner with Site Merchandising to determine featured categories and products that support sales and inventory initiatives. Continuously identify opportunities to improve the assortment and customer experience. Cross-Functional Collaboration Positively influence cross-functional teams to achieve category goals through clear and effective communication. Communicate key ideas, priorities, and business updates during weekly, monthly, and quarterly meetings. Collaborate effectively across teams to advance company objectives and ensure successful product execution. Build and maintain strong, positive vendor relationships. Actively source and propose new vendors, when applicable, to executive leadership to fill assortment voids and keep product capabilities innovative and on trend. Lead vendor negotiations across product quality, purchase quantities, landed cost, delivery, and RTVs while maintaining strong vendor relationships. Proactively schedule vendor appointments to fill assortment gaps and ensure OTB targets are met through alignment on pre-season strategy. Educate vendors on company processes to drive efficient appointments and order-writing processes. Manage vendor details and product-development timelines to ensure categories launch appropriately and on agreed-upon target dates. Team Leadership & Operational Excellence Lead and develop junior buying team members by effectively communicating priorities and ensuring workflow management delivers against deadlines. Maintain operational excellence with a strong focus on delivering assortments on time. Complete all necessary workstreams and proactively troubleshoot issues as they arise. Travel as needed. Qualifications & Core Competencies Deep experience in women's apparel with a proven track record of delivering against company KPIs, specifically in several of the following categories: intimate apparel, sleep and lounge, activewear, athleisure, swim, and cover-ups. Strong understanding of and passion for the client’s customer and how to best serve her. High taste level and broad market and fashion knowledge, with the ability to translate trends into commercially viable revenue streams. Strong communication and negotiation skills, both verbal and written. Proven vendor management experience and an understanding of the product development process. Excellent analytical, time-management, and organizational skills with meticulous attention to detail. Demonstrated high degree of personal and professional integrity. Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, agile environment with shifting priorities. Ability to manage detailed vendor and product-development workstreams while ensuring categories launch on time. Ability to collaborate effectively across different teams to advance company objectives. Excellent problem-solving skills and willingness to think outside the box to resolve issues. Strong analytical skills and demonstrated proficiency working with large data sets. Comfortable working with large data sets and systems such as NetSuite and Shopify. Ability to read, write, speak, and understand English fluently and communicate verbally and in writing at a professional level. Demonstrated knowledge and proficiency with Microsoft Office, especially Excel, as well as Mac and Google products. Knowledge of standard applications including Slack, Office365, Chrome, and similar platforms. Education & Experience Bachelor's Degree in a related field or equivalent work experience. 4–6+ years of experience in retail/ecommerce merchandising and buying. Previous experience managing an Assistant or Associate. Works in an indoor office or home-office environment with temperature control. Ability to sit for long periods, with intermittent standing and walking. Uses standard office equipment including computer, mouse, keyboard, and printer. Occasionally lifts up to 20 pounds and may be required to manage hung samples. Schedule & Hours This is a full-time position with a hybrid schedule requiring three days in office per week, Tuesday through Thursday, in the Los Angeles area near the Arts District. California Privacy Notice. You can use WorkGrades to collect and manage your references for free and share them with us or anyone else you choose by visiting workgrades.com/home/candidate . Candidates with references are always preferred by our clients. 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