Assistant Buyer, Women's Designer

Saks Global is the largest multi-brand luxury retailer in the world, comprising Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman and Saks OFF 5TH. Powered by talented colleagues, we are redefining luxury shopping by offering each customer a personalized experience across our store network and e-commerce platforms.

About the role

As the Assistant Buyer, you are a motivated individual who will participate in vendor selections and partnerships. You will assist in monitoring inventory productivity, analyzing vendor profitability, providing data for price changes, and entering price changes online.

Responsibilities

• Order Management
  • Liaise with Buyers, Associate Buyers, and brand partners to gather and confirm order details (e.g., item details, shipping details, delivery schedules, order prioritization), manage updates to buy sheets, and resolve discrepancies.
  • Oversee offshore Merchandise Assistants’ creation and transmission of purchase orders to brand partners, ensuring timely delivery and accuracy of order details, managing communication, and resolving or escalating issues.
  • Provide allocation direction to the Planning Allocation team and help manage allocations for high-touch categories such as Designer.
  • Manage communication of receipt flow changes to the offshore team and ensure POs are maintained for accurate ship windows, order quantities, and on-order visibility.
• Market Preparation
  • Prepare Buyers for Market by working with Planners to provide insights on historical performance (e.g., best and worst sellers by door), emerging trends, and customer preferences.
  • Coordinate market appointments and periodically attend NY market.
  • Support Buyer in style-out sessions, including coordinating logistics and preparing insights to support assortment presentation.
  • Initiate the development of strategic product assortments to drive sales and brand growth.
• Bottoms-Up In-Season Analysis
  • Act as primary point of contact for execution questions and feedback from brand partners, visual merchandising, site merchandising, stores, digital, marketing (including promos), and planning (including pricing).
  • Constantly review business performance in collaboration with Assistant Planners, communicating bottoms-up style insights to Buyers and recommending in-season actions (e.g., requesting vendor ATS on sold-out items).
  • Help prepare for monthly OTB (Open-to-Buy) meetings.
  • Manage markdown cadence and oversee offshore execution of price changes, RTVs, etc., resolving escalated issues.
  • Collaborate with the offshore reporting team to generate custom Buying reports, maintain structural changes to views, and ensure timely delivery.

Requirements

• Manages ambiguity well, is a self-starter, and thrives in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong accountability, ability to multitask, and prioritize independently.
• Generates a variety of approaches to problem-solving quickly, including new and novel ideas.
• Strong interpersonal skills; direct yet diplomatic, and able to gain trust quickly.
• Consistently exceeds goals and drives positive outcomes in a large, complex organization.
• Open to new perspectives and willing to adapt to evolving business needs.
• Strong knowledge of retail math concepts, including markup, margin planning, open-to-buy, and inventory productivity measures (WOS, T/O, GMROI).
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Proficient in MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and Google Workspace (Sheets, Docs, Slides).
• Familiarity with systems such as RFS, AMS, PCW, and NuOrder.
• 1–2 years of experience as an Assistant Buyer, preferably in a major department store.

Benefits

• Opportunity to work in a dynamic, fast-paced environment at a growing and transforming company.
• Exposure to rewarding career advancement opportunities across the largest multi-brand luxury retailer.
• Comprehensive benefits package for eligible full-time employees, including:
  • Medical, vision, and dental insurance.
  • 401(k) retirement plan.
  • Basic and supplemental life insurance.
  • Disability insurance.
  • Variety of additional voluntary benefits (e.g., critical illness, hospital, and accident insurance).
• Employee discount.

Pay

Compensation for this role varies by geographic location. The listed range reflects multiple markets, including higher-cost areas. Actual starting pay will be determined based on work location, experience, and other job-related factors.