Head of Merchandising

Key Responsibilities

• Mercandising & Product Strategy
• Lead the overall merchandising strategy across footwear, apparel, and related lifestyle categories, including product planning, assortment structure, seasonal flow, pricing architecture, and category expansion.
• Develop clear product roadmaps and collection strategies based on customer insights, market trends, brand positioning, sales performance, and profitability goals.
• Optimize SKU mix, product value strategy, inventory planning, and launch rhythm to improve conversion, sell-through, margin, and overall business performance.
• Support new portfolio and category opportunities, including third-party brand partnerships, private-label collaborations, men’s category expansion, bundling programs, and wholesale channels.
• Design & Cross-Functional Collaboration
• Oversee and guide the design direction to ensure product concepts, trend direction, and design output align with JustFab’s brand identity and commercial objectives.
• Partner closely with design, buying, planning, marketing, operations, and external partners to connect product strategy with execution from concept to launch.
• Translate business goals, customer needs, and market opportunities into clear merchandising and design direction for cross-functional teams.
• U.S.–China Team Alignment
• Serve as a key bridge between the U.S. business team and China-based product, merchandising, and supply chain teams.
• Work closely with third-party partners, including Lavinia, to align China-side product development, U.S. market needs, and overall brand positioning.
• Establish shared KPIs, product review routines, data frameworks, and communication processes to improve collaboration and execution efficiency across regions.
• Team Management
• Manage, mentor, and integrate merchandising, design, and related product team members.
• Build a clear and efficient product workflow that connects merchandising, design, buying, and planning into one consistent process.
• Drive team accountability, collaboration, and execution to support JustFab’s main business priorities and long-term growth.
• Business Growth & Profitability
• Partner with senior leadership on merchandising, brand, category, and growth decisions.
• Support JustFab’s multi-brand and cross-channel business strategy, including DTC, membership, marketplace, wholesale, and third-party brand integration.
• Protect profitability through thoughtful assortment planning, pricing decisions, inventory discipline, and tariff-sensitive product strategies.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in merchandising, product strategy, design leadership, buying, or category management within fashion, footwear, apparel, or consumer lifestyle brands.
• Strong experience in footwear and/or apparel merchandising is highly preferred.
• Proven ability to lead product strategy across multiple categories, brands, or sales channels.
• Strong understanding of assortment planning, pricing architecture, seasonal product flow, trend direction, SKU management, inventory strategy, and margin performance.
• Experience working closely with design teams and translating business strategy into clear product and design direction.
• Strong cross-functional leadership skills with the ability to collaborate with buying, planning, design, sourcing, supply chain, marketing, and executive teams.
• Experience working with global teams, especially U.S.–China collaboration, is highly preferred.
• Strong business acumen with the ability to balance brand positioning, customer experience, profitability, and operational execution.
• Excellent communication, leadership, team management, and stakeholder management skills.
• Fresh in English; Mandarin Chinese is a strong advantage.
• Bachelor’s degree in Fashion Merchandising, Business, Design, Marketing, or a related field preferred.
• Ideal candidate brings foundational AI literacy, including experience using generative AI tools, and a proactive mindset to experiment with new technologies to drive productivity and innovation.