Retail Merchandising and Planning Strategy Manager

Retail Merchandising and Planning Strategy Manager

Accenture's Retail Merchandising and Planning practice helps the world's leading retailers reinvent how they buy, plan, allocate, and manage product across the value chain. We work at the intersection of merchandising strategy, planning process design, and AI-enabled decision making, helping clients across apparel, hardlines, grocery, and specialty retail modernize their operating models and improve performance in demand forecasting, assortment planning, and inventory productivity.

You Are

A retail merchandising and planning professional who combines solid functional expertise with strong project leadership. You've spent your career close to the buy, whether in category management, merchandise financial planning, assortment, allocation, replenishment, or demand/supply planning, and you understand how these functions connect end-to-end. You translate that expertise into operating model recommendations, process improvements, and capability roadmaps clients can execute against. You are accountable to realizing value, and you have experience rolling up your sleeves to ensure high adoption of new processes and systems. You're equally comfortable leading a workstream, developing junior team members, and engaging with client stakeholders day to day.

The Work

As a Manager, you will lead key workstreams and projects within larger transformation engagements for retail clients, working closely with client stakeholders and Accenture leadership to shape recommendations, drive execution, and activate results.

Engagement Leadership

• Lead a workstream or project within a broader transformation program
• Coordinate delivery within your workstream, partnering with adjacent process, data/technology, and change management teams as needed
• Maintain day-to-day client relationships within your scope and escalate issues to engagement leadership as needed
• Ensure workstream quality and timeliness

Merchandising & Planning Transformation

• Support assessments of current-state merchandising, planning, and inventory management capabilities against industry-leading practices
• Contribute to future-state operating model design spanning category management, merchandise financial planning, assortment planning, allocation, replenishment, demand planning, and supply planning
• Develop components of capability strategies, transformation roadmaps, and value cases that quantify the impact of change
• Apply sub-industry nuance across apparel, hardlines, and/or grocery to tailor recommendations to client-specific dynamics

AI & Technology Enablement

• Bring current knowledge of AI, analytics, and emerging planning technologies to identify where they can solve merchandising and planning business problems
• Support clients in evaluating planning platforms and AI-enabled decision-making tools as part of broader transformation
• Contribute to the design and delivery of GenAI- and agentic-enabled planning capabilities where applicable to client roadmaps

Business Development & Practice Growth

• Contribute to proposal development, solutioning, and the broader business development cycle for consulting engagements
• Support the growth of the Retail Merchandising and Planning practice through asset development and community engagement
• Coach, mentor, and develop junior team members

Basic Qualifications:

• 5 years of relevant professional experience with demonstrated expertise in one or more of the following domains: Category Management, Merchandise Financial Planning (MFP), Assortment Planning, Allocation, Replenishment, Demand Planning, or Supply Planning
• Minimum of 2 years of experience in professional services at a consulting firm (or equivalent internal consulting experience)
• Bachelor's degree

Preferred Qualifications:

• Ability to lead large, transformational programs with multiple workstreams and stakeholders
• Strong client management skills, including with senior stakeholders
• Ability to coach, mentor, and develop junior team members
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Strong problem-solving ability and sound business judgment
• Comfort operating in ambiguous, fast-moving situations
• Ability to resolve issues and manage risk proactively
• Ability to manage and prioritize multiple workstreams in a dynamic environment
• Familiarity with the operational nuances of one or more retail sub-industries, including apparel, hardlines, or grocery
• Experience designing or supporting operating model design, process reinvention, capability assessments, roadmaps, and value case development
• Experience solutioning approaches to client problems and supporting the business development/proposal cycle
• Working knowledge of current trends in technology, analytics, and AI, and how they apply to merchandising and planning business problems
• Prior industry experience in Buying, Planning, or Product Development
• Hands-on experience leveraging AI tools such as Claude, ChatGPT, Copilot, or Gemini in a professional environment
• Familiarity with leading planning platforms such as o9, Blue Yonder, Anaplan, Oracle, or RELEX
• MBA or equivalent advanced degree