Commercial Planning & Promotions Manager

Title: Commercial Planning & Promotions Manager Location: Sacramento, CA preferred; open to candidates based elsewhere in California Reports to: Chief Brand and Marketing Officer Department: Marketing Key Partners: Product, Retail, Finance Compensation range: $90,000.00 - $125,000.00 per year DOE Status: Exempt About The Role The Commercial Planning & Promotions Manager is the operational backbone of embarc's commercial engine. This role owns the annual, quarterly, and monthly promotional calendar across all stores. It aligns promotions, seasonal campaigns, product launches, and store activations with sales priorities, from planning and discount builds to QA, store communications, and digital deployment, in close partnership with our brands. Working at the center of multiple teams, this seat keeps the calendar balanced, holds every team to its commitments, and makes sure stores have what they need to deliver a seamless customer experience. Then they close the loop. They report on how each promotion performed and use what they learn to shape what we run next. This is a hands-on role, equal parts strategy and execution. You'll help decide what we run and why, then make it happen: brief creative, deploy assets, check discount builds, and update the site yourself when needed. What You'll Own The Calendar Own one master plan covering fleetwide campaigns and location-specific variationsLock all promotion details before any build or creative work beginsSpot gaps, overloads, and conflicts across categories, brands, and storesRun the weekly Commercial Planning meeting: set the agenda, surface risks and decisions, and own the follow-ups Promotional Strategy Define offers, timing, objectives, and investment with Product, Marketing, Retail, and FinanceDesign promotions with clear jobs, like driving traffic, growing basket size, or bringing back lapsed customers, and match each offer to its goalPartner with the Brand Partnerships & Assortment Manager to shape the promo mix with brandsPartner with the Product team to weigh discount depth against margin and customer valueBrief the CRM team on every promotion, so the right offer reaches the right customers on time Execution & Process Own every promotion from planning through post-mortem, including the pieces other teams deliverBrief the designer on every promotion, collect final assets, and deploy them to stores, the website, and in-store screensBrief discount programming and verify every build in POS and online before launchUpdate the website with banners, landing pages, and promo details for every campaignReconcile inventory, pricing, marketing, and ops inputs before launchMake the go/no-go call. Nothing goes live until QA is complete.Partner with Retail Ops to confirm every store is launch-ready: assets live, promoted product stocked and visibleOwn the weekly store communication standardManage discount use and spend against plan across all storesBuild repeatable promotional playbooks for new store openings, new markets, competitive responses, and seasonal moments Performance & Insight Report on what promotions did: sales, margin, traffic, AOV, new vs. returning customers, store-level executionDeliver promo performance recaps to brandsDesign simple store-specific tests and read the results honestlyTurn results into recommendations for the next cycle, and flag what isn't working What Success Looks Like The calendar is full, balanced, and locked weeks outEvery promotion gets a post-mortem, and the next calendar reflects what we learnedEvery promotion launches correctly, with zero preventable errorsProduct, Marketing, and Retail work from one plan, and handoffs happen without escalationNo team is blocked by missing information, and stores get answers fastPromotions measurably drive traffic and grow basket size without eroding marginPlaybooks exist for new store openings, new markets, competitive pressure, and seasonal moments, so we respond from a plan instead of from scratchNo chasing. Leadership hears about problems from this role first, with a fix attached. Qualifications Required 4+ years in multi-location retail promotions, commercial planning, or merchandising operationsA track record of owning a promotional calendarA working knowledge of promo economics: discount depth, margin impact, acquisition vs. retentionFluent in Excel, dashboards, and AI tools. You automate the busywork and go from data to decision to action.Strong communication and writing skillsExperience leading people, whether direct reports, contractors, or cross-functional teamsYou've built or fixed a process that other teams adopted, not just followed oneHands-on with retail and e-commerce tools. You can build, publish, and fix things yourself, not just assign them. Preferred Cannabis, grocery, convenience, or specialty retail experienceExperience with brand co-funded promotions and chargebacks TOOLS & PLATFORMS Treez: POS and discount managementBudflow: website/app banner scheduling and product contentSeed: in-store TV content managementZipline: retail team communicationsAsana: task assignment and cross-functional project trackingMicrosoft Teams: internal and partner communicationFigma: creative asset review and QA (not design)