Director, Branded Merchandise

About the role

We are seeking a strategic, high-energy, and hands-on Director of Branded Merchandise to lead and evolve our promotional products division.

Responsibilities

• Manage and mentor a 5-person team overseeing production coordinators and account managers.
• Build a culture of accountability, collaboration, proactive thinking, and continuous learning.
• Evolve the team from a primarily execution-focused model into a more consultative, strategically minded client partner organization.
• Lead hiring, onboarding, training, performance management, and team development efforts while creating operational structure and consistency across the department.
• Partner closely with Sales, Account Management, Production, and Leadership teams to elevate client relationships beyond transactional order fulfillment.
• Help teams uncover growth opportunities through:
• stronger discovery and intake conversations
• proactive account planning
• more thoughtful recommendation development
• improved client communication
• trend-forward idea generation
• stronger understanding of client goals, audience personas, event objectives, and ROI
• Support retention and expansion of key enterprise accounts through white-glove service, proactive communication, operational excellence, and innovative thinking.
• Serve as the NetSuite “Power User” for the department while helping evaluate and improve broader project management workflows, operational visibility, and cross-functional communication processes.
• Create scalable operational systems that improve:
• project visibility
• accountability
• timeline management
• workflow consistency
• proactive client service
• communication between sales, account management, production, fulfillment, and warehouse teams
• Lead ongoing updates and optimization efforts across NetSuite, Sage, Canva, company store platforms, SOPs, and internal workflow documentation.
• Personally lead production and strategic oversight on high-stakes, complex, or enterprise-level client programs. Act as the escalation point and problem solver for difficult orders, logistics challenges, damaged goods issues, complex decorating questions, or operational risks.
• Ensure projects are executed with a high-touch, white-glove level of service and attention to detail.
• Own the “Company Store” lifecycle. Determine the best e-commerce platforms, curate product assortments that feel elevated and trend-aware, and manage ongoing product refreshes to keep stores engaging and aligned with client brands.
• Move beyond transactional “promo products” by helping create more ownable, retail-inspired branded merchandise experiences.
• Actively manage and expand vendor relationships, negotiate program pricing to improve margins, and collaborate with teams to standardize sourcing strategies where appropriate.
• Attend trade shows, vendor showcases, webinars, and industry events to stay ahead of:
• consumer trends
• retail behavior
• sustainable sourcing
• decoration innovation
• fulfillment strategies
• experiential gifting trends
• premium packaging and unboxing experiences
• Bring those insights back into the organization through internal inspiration sessions, vendor presentations, trend reporting, and team education.
• Conduct forecasting, budgeting, margin reviews, and operational planning to support departmental growth goals and profitability targets.
• Help identify opportunities to improve operational efficiency, strengthen margins, and grow existing client relationships through more strategic account development and proactive merchandising recommendations.

Qualifications

• 5-10 years of leadership experience in branded merchandise, promotional products, experiential gifting
• Proven success managing high-volume branded merchandise operations and enterprise-level client relationships
• Demonstrated ability to lead operational change, improve workflows, and build scalable processes while maintaining high-touch client service
• Strong consultative and strategic client leadership skills with the ability to guide teams beyond transactional product sourcing into more insight-driven recommendation selling
• Deep understanding of decoration methods, branded merchandise production, fulfillment, warehousing, and premium unboxing experiences
• Advanced experience with ERP systems (NetSuite strongly preferred) and industry tools such as Sage/ESP
• Experience managing e-commerce/company store platforms including Shopify, OMG, and custom ordering systems
• Strong understanding of audience behavior, retail trends, merchandising strategy, and consumer-driven product curation
• Able to balance operational discipline with creative problem-solving and proactive client leadership
• Excellent communication, leadership, organizational, and cross-functional collaboration skills