lululemon Senior Technology Director - Merchandise Planning

Description & Requirements

who we are

lululemon is an innovative performance apparel company for yoga, running, training, and other athletic pursuits. Setting the bar in technical fabrics and functional design, we create transformational products and experiences that support people in moving, growing, connecting, and being well. We owe our success to our innovative product, emphasis on stores, commitment to our people, and the incredible connections we make in every community we're in. As a company, we focus on creating positive change to build a healthier, thriving future. In particular, that includes creating an equitable, inclusive and growth-focused environment for our people.

About this team

Global Product Technology (GPT) delivers the platforms and capabilities that power lululemon's product lifecycle - from 2D/3D design and development to merchandising, sourcing, assortment planning, master data management, and go to market. We partner closely with design, technical development, merchandising, sourcing, and planning functions to accelerate speed to market and elevate quality through PLM modernization, digital product creation, data and integration platforms, assortment planning, size planning, master data management, analytics, decision-making solutions, and AI assisted workflows.

The role

We're seeking a Senior Director Technology to define and execute a multi year technology strategy that transforms how lululemon merchandises, plans, and deliver products to our guests. This leader will modernize the merchandise planning and allocations suite of solutions and related integration stacks, scale our capabilities to enable assortment planning, space planning, size planning, and embed AI-driven automation to compress planning cycles and unlock better business decision-making through both historical and forward looking insights. You will lead a global, multi disciplinary engineering organization across North America and India, stewarding platforms, products, and vendor ecosystems that serve our merchants and planners end to end.

The ideal candidate will have a history of demonstrated results leading large, cross-functional, and global teams to accomplish transformational initiatives across functional/matrixed organizations. They must thrive in fast-paced environments, be able to manage through ambiguity and complexity, commission charters and empower teams to create and simplify processes, and simultaneously support a growing global organization. This role requires excellent communication, organizational skills, and the ability to drive ideas from concept to execution. Maturity, curiosity, creative problem solving, and team leadership are all essential for success in this role.

Key responsibilities:

• Collaborate with internal stakeholders, drive change initiatives, and foster a culture of continuous improvement to keep pace with the organization's growth strategy.
• Manage resources, oversee financial interests, and implement essential policies, practices, and processes.
• Evident leadership skills, a proven track record of building strong teams, setting high performance standards, challenging people to excel and eliciting their sustained high performance.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills is essential.
• Drive world-class engineering solutions that are reliable, observable, secure, compliant, and highly available.
• Blend deep technical expertise with visionary leadership, to guide a globally dispersed engineering team that drives platform and solution modernization with advanced AI capabilities such as LLMs, vector retrieval, computer vision, and intelligent agents.
• You will partner with AI/ML and Data COE to drive the design and implementation of scalable, secure, and responsible AI/ML enabled systems that bridge merchandising, and planning - ensuring technology accelerates decisions-making.
• Translate lululemon's merchandising and planning vision into a multi-year solution realization strategy.
• Leverage AI and ML solutions to drive measurable impact across planning capabilities that include attributes generation, demand forecasting, allocation optimization, store clustering, etc.
• Translate complex AI/ML architectures into clear narratives for executive stakeholders.
• Champion transparency, inclusion, and ethics as core enablers of innovation.
• Develop future-ready leaders capable of balancing technical depth and business acumen to drive meaningful growth.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, or related field.
• 5+ years of engineering leadership and delivery experience.
  
• 5+ years in retail, merchandise planning and allocations, or related field is a bonus.
  
• Demonstrated experience in managing large budgets.
  
• Demonstrated experience translating business strategy into technology and engineering roadmaps.
  
• Demonstrated experience in data-heavy planning systems such as Anaplan, Oracle RPAS, etc.
  
• Expert proficiency in programming languages (eg: Python, Java), and relevant libraries/frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn, etc.).
  
• Good understanding of machine learning, NLP, computer vision, and generative AI techniques.
  
• Able to produce documentation such as narratives and root cause analysis providing actionable insights.
  
• Hands on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), and MLOps tools.
  
• Strong knowledge of data engineering concepts and big data.
  
• Continuous learning mindset that stays on the leading edge of applied ML, LLM's and NLP advancements.
  
• Exceptional communication and storytelling skills for executive audiences.
  
• Master's in computer science, applied mathematics, statistics is a bonus.
  

must haves

• Acknowledge the presence of choice in every moment and take personal responsibility for your life.
• Possess an entrepreneurial spirit and continuously innovate to achieve great results.
• Communicate with honesty and kindness and create the space for others to do the same.
• Lead with courage, knowing the possibility of greatness is bigger than the fear of failure.
• Foster connection by putting people first and building trusting relationships.
• Integrate fun and joy as a way of being and working, aka doesn't take yourself too seriously.

additional notes

Applicants must be authorized to work for ANY employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa at this time for this role.

compensation and benefits package

lululemon's compensation offerings are grounded in a pay-for-performance philosophy that recognizes exceptional individual and team performance. The typical hiring range for this position is from $223,100 - $292,800annually; the base pay offered is based on market location and may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and internal equity. As part of our total rewards offering, permanent employees in this position may be eligible for our competitive annual bonus program and equity offerings, subject to program eligibility requirements.  

At lululemon, investing in our people is a top priority. We believe that when life works, work works. We strive to be the place where inclusive leaders come to develop and enable all to be well. Recognizing our teams for their performance and dedication, other components of our total rewards offerings include support of career development, wellbeing, and personal growth:

• Extended health and dental benefits, and mental health plans
• Paid time off
• Savings and retirement plan matching
• Generous employee discount
• Fitness & yoga classes
• Parenthood top-up
• Extensive catalog of development course offerings
• People networks, mentorship programs, and leadership series (to name a few)

Note: The incentive programs, benefits, and perks have certain eligibility requirements. The Company reserves the right to alter these incentive programs, benefits, and perks in whole or in part at any time without advance notice.

workplace arrangement

Hybrid

In-person collaboration and connection is important to our culture. Work is performed onsite, minimum 4 days per week.

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