Senior Director, Vendor Partnerships & Merchandising (VETTE)

Location: New York, NY

About the role

VETTE is seeking a Senior Director of Merchandising & Vendor Partnerships to build and lead brand strategy across Vogue Shopping and VETTE creator storefronts — operating as a curated marketplace model. This role owns the full vendor relationship lifecycle: brand development and recruitment, assortment strategy, commercial negotiations, and ongoing performance management. The goal is a differentiated, editorially-grounded portfolio that converts at scale — one that reflects the authority of Vogue and the cultural relevance of the creators VETTE powers.

The right candidate brings deep relationships across global luxury, designer, and contemporary markets, a strong POV on emerging brands, and the commercial fluency to operate across two distinct surfaces: Vogue Shopping and creator-commerce storefronts. This is not a traditional buying role — it requires equal comfort with brand strategy, business development, and the infrastructure of modern multi-vendor commerce.

Responsibilities

• Portfolio Architecture & Vendor Strategy
  • Define and lead brand acquisition strategy across luxury, designer, contemporary, and discovery — with clear vendor selection criteria spanning assortment readiness, pricing, fulfillment capability, margin profile, and fashion authority
  • Build and continuously refine a brand matrix that balances emerging and established brands, price tier, category depth, and trend relevance across fashion, beauty, and lifestyle — structured to serve both editorial storytelling and creator commerce use cases
  • Develop and maintain brand and product toolkits that reduce friction between discovery and storefront activation, making it easy for editors and creators to shop, style, and publish
  • Own new-brand discovery; maintain first-mover advantage on emerging designers, secure exclusive products, and develop unique brand initiatives that fuel platform differentiation
  • Attend market appointments globally to review assortments, identify whitespace, and build partnerships that strengthen the platform's editorial and commercial position
  • Cultivate high-trust relationships with brand teams to ensure strong launches, consistent product flow, and competitive commercial terms
• Commercial Development & Vendor Performance
  • Lead commercial planning each season; develop strategy for the LRP with an active view on evolving business models and partnership structures
  • Negotiate full-funnel commercial terms in collaboration with Commerce Partnerships and Advertising — covering commission structures, exclusives, co-op marketing, launch windows, and marketing commitments
  • Own vendor performance across revenue, margin, sell-through, and conversion; develop strategies to drive revenue growth across the portfolio
  • Build the reporting infrastructure that enables editors and creators to self-serve performance insights and make real-time merchandising decisions — reducing dependency on centralized reporting and accelerating optimization cycles
• Visual Merchandising & Storefront Experience
  • Collaborate with Product and Technology to build the tools and back-end experiences that empower editors and creators to continuously optimize and self-service as best-in-class merchants — this is a platform build, not a traditional merchandising operation
  • Create and own the visual merchandising playbook across Vogue Shopping and VETTE creator storefronts — governing how products are surfaced to maximize discoverability, conversion, and AOV
  • Partner with creative, editorial, and product teams to ensure cohesive, brand-right execution across all surfaces
  • Establish ongoing optimization routines: implement tactics to lift funnel metrics (AOV, CVR, CTR, EPC) without compromising editorial integrity
• Cross-Functional & Platform Collaboration
  • Partner with Product and Technology to define the platform capabilities — onboarding flows, brand tooling, storefront infrastructure — that scale the editor and creator commerce model
  • Serve as the commerce voice in seasonal planning, ensuring assortment strategy is integrated across editorial, marketing, and creator programming from the outset
  • Work with finance and operations on planning inputs including open-to-buy, margin targets, and inventory flow where applicable
• Team Leadership
  • Build and lead a high-performing team across vendor partnerships, merchandising, and planning
  • Define what a platform-era merchandising team looks like — with capabilities spanning data, creator operations, and vendor management alongside traditional buying and planning skills
  • Establish clear processes, roles, and KPIs to support scalable growth in a startup environment
  • Foster a test-and-learn culture; serve as a senior voice in overall commerce strategy

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in merchandising, buying, or vendor partnerships within a multi-brand e-commerce retailer
• Deep network of relationships across emerging, contemporary, and luxury fashion brands (including European markets)
• Proven experience building and managing brand portfolios and assortment strategies at scale
• Strong expertise in both marketplace and inventory-based commerce models
• Experience leading merchandise planning and driving financial performance (revenue, margin, inventory turn)
• Demonstrated ability to identify and scale emerging brands
• Strong commercial acumen with a data-driven approach to decision-making
• Experience leading and developing teams in fast-paced, high-growth environments
• Comfortable operating in a startup or build-phase business

Pay

The expected base salary range for this position is $157,000 - $175,000. Salary offers are based on a wide range of factors including but not limited to relevant skills, training, experience, and education. In addition to salary and a generous employee benefits package, successful candidates may also be eligible to receive discretionary bonus compensation.