Allocator, Women's Polo PRO

About the role

Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE:RL) is a global leader in the design, marketing and distribution of premium lifestyle products in five categories: apparel, accessories, home, fragrances, and hospitality. For more than 50 years, Ralph Lauren's reputation and distinctive image have been consistently developed across an expanding number of products, brands and international markets. The Company's brand names, which include Ralph Lauren, Ralph Lauren Collection, Ralph Lauren Purple Label, Polo Ralph Lauren, Double RL, Lauren Ralph Lauren, Polo Ralph Lauren Children, Chaps, among others, constitute one of the world's most widely recognized families of consumer brands. At Ralph Lauren, we unite and inspire the communities within our company as well as those in which we serve by amplifying voices and perspectives to create a culture of belonging, ensuring inclusion, and fairness for all. We foster a culture of inclusion through: Talent, Education & Communication, Employee Groups and Celebration.

The Allocator will manage all aspects of allocation of product and retail analysis. This role is responsible for executing initial allocations and replenishment of stock to stores, ensuring allocation and distribution plans support the financial objectives of the total division. The Allocator also provides data analysis and insights to the Planning team, including allocation analysis (weeks of supply, service levels, etc.), sales to stock analysis, and overall reporting.

Responsibilities

• Prepare and analyze business reviews; support planning teams with store, product and size analysis.
• Participate in super season buy reviews, hindsights, in‑season performance and go‑forward strategies.
• Partner with Buying and Planning teams to formulate and implement strategies to drive sales.
• Drive financial success of a product group by leveraging forecast capabilities in the allocation tool to ensure appropriate inventory is allocated to stores to meet or exceed sales, gross profit, and inventory turn goals.
• Analyze, track and monitor Distribution Center (DC) and store available inventory for the product group, maximizing WOS, sales‑to‑stock ratios, turn and sell‑through.
• Execute the release of initial product distributions and in‑season replenishment to stores.
• Monitor sales, sell‑through and WOS to ensure full size availability of best sellers in stores.
• Partner with cross‑functional teams to ensure timely and accurate execution of new store openings.
• Prepare Unit Distribution Flow (UDF) by partnering with Control Tower to provide weekly/monthly/year views for finance, DC operations and store operations scheduling inbound.
• Review weekly to ensure on target to achieve forecast; conduct forecast analysis and review.
• Develop and implement allocation strategies for seasonal product and peak selling periods that support style selling trends and optimize available inventory.
• Recommend store distribution based on APS and WOS; collaborate to determine minimum/maximum quantities for lower volume stores (preseason/in‑season).
• Analyze and recap style/color/size selling trends across store attribute filters (destination, climate, alpha, district) pre‑ and post‑season.
• Generate store reports weekly and monthly (including in‑stock report, key item recaps, etc.) and make recommendations based on analysis.
• Create appropriate size breaks by product category to support selling.
• Ensure the financial success of one or more departments by meeting or exceeding sales, gross margin, GMROI and inventory turn goals.
• Utilize current systems to monitor basic and fashion allocations to support financial goals.
• Monitor allocations to the Unit Distribution Forecast (UDF) provided to ensure no substantial variances to initial forecast while partnering with Control Tower.
• Effectively communicate outages in inventory within the fleet as well as the status of inventory within the distribution center.
• Effectively communicate the intended allocation strategy.
• Develop and maintain effective working relationships within cross‑functional teams (stores, buying, planning, marketing, visual, etc.).
• Communicate initial release and replenishment strategies within cross‑functional team.
• Participate in cross‑functional meetings, contributing input on distribution and/or trading strategies.
• Compose and deliver key trading messages to the wider business.
• Manage communication regarding inventory/replenishment.
• Visit stores to gain insight into performance and availability.

Qualifications

• Preferred but not required – experience using IA and JDA Allocation Systems, Global and Retail Insight, Island Pacific, Relate, GFE+, GBIS – Global reporting tool.

Skills

• Proficient in retail math.
• Strong organizational skills; detail‑