VP, Merchandising & Brand Management

About the Role

Ashley Digital is the direct-to-consumer arm of Ashley Furniture Industries, operating a portfolio of category-leading sleep and home brands — Nectar, DreamCloud, Awara, Siena, and Newton Baby. The VP, Merchandising & Brand Management is the single owner of what we sell, how it's positioned, and how it's priced across the portfolio. This leader unifies merchandising strategy and cross-functional execution with product marketing, pricing & promotion, and new product development under one accountable function.

This is a build role. The organization exists in pieces today; the mandate is to consolidate it into a disciplined, analytics-driven merchandising engine that can scale across a multi-brand, multi-category portfolio and deepen the product pipeline. To be considered for this remote opportunity, you must reside and be authorized to work within the United States.

Scope of Ownership

• Merchandising (category-led): Mattress, Bedroom Furniture, Accessories, Kids & Baby — assortment architecture, SKU productivity, line planning, and lifecycle management; product content and catalog quality across all brand sites and marketplaces
• Pricing & Promotion: Portfolio pricing strategy, promotional calendar, and margin governance; competitive price intelligence and elasticity-based decisioning
• Product Marketing: Collaborate with Product Marketing on brand and product positioning, value proposition, and claims architecture; lead go-to-market planning and on-site merchandising strategy, partnering with Digital Product to improve discovery, conversion, attachment, and profitable sales mix
• New Product Development / Pipeline: Multi-year product roadmap by brand and category; partnership with internal teams on cost, sourcing, and manufacturing feasibility; stage-gate process from concept through launch and post-launch review
• Brand General Management: Define Brand management ownership and cross-functional touchpoints to drive clarity in ownership and accountability; establish governance framework for brand P&L inputs — revenue, contribution margin, assortment, and promotional plan

Key Responsibilities

• Build and lead the function: Establish operating cadence (line reviews, pricing councils, launch readiness, quarterly assortment reviews); define clear decision rights across brand GMs (P&L), category merchants (assortment and merchandising execution), and Digital Product (digital experience, capabilities, and experimentation), aligning on shared commercial priorities
• Own portfolio merchandising and margin: Set assortment and pricing strategy by brand and category against revenue and contribution-margin targets; rationalize the catalog (eliminate unproductive SKUs, close assortment gaps, manage good-better-best architecture across brands to minimize internal cannibalization); partner with Finance on transfer-cost economics with AFI and on promo ROI
• Drive the physical product pipeline: Own the physical product roadmap for new launches, refreshes, and category extensions (e.g., bedroom furniture, accessories adjacent to the sleep core); run launches end-to-end with Creative, Marketing, Technology, and Operations — from specification through site launch and sell-through; bring a rigorous test-and-learn discipline to product decisions (pre-launch demand signals, post-launch cohort performance)
• Make merchandising data-driven: Partner with Data to build the merchandising analytics stack (SKU-level margin, attach rates, price elasticity, content performance, return and warranty signals); own the quality and completeness of product content and catalog data; partner with Digital Product to improve their impact on discovery, conversion, and downstream operations; translate customer and competitive insight into assortment and positioning decisions
• Lead cross-functionally: Represent merchandising and brand in planning, forecasting, and capital decisions; act as the primary counterpart to AFI product, sourcing, and manufacturing leadership for non-mattress categories; partner with Marketing (acquisition/retention), Creative Brand, CX, and Operations to ensure the product story is consistent from ad to unboxing

What Success Looks Like (First 12–18 Months)

• Unified merchandising, product marketing, pricing, and NPD organization in place with clear ownership and cadence
• Plan and execute a cohesive Brand GM structure for all current and contemplated future brands
• Portfolio pricing and promotion strategy that improves contribution margin without sacrificing share
• Documented multi-year physical product and assortment roadmap with validated economics; first pipeline launches shipped on plan
• Merchandising analytics in production and used in weekly decision-making
• Measurable improvement in catalog quality, on-site conversion, and SKU productivity

Skills & Qualifications

Required

• 12+ years in ecommerce / DTC merchandising, category management, or product merchandising, with 5+ years leading multi-level teams
• Experience in home, furniture, sleep, or adjacent considered-purchase categories
• Track record building or scaling a merchandising function — process, systems, and team — not just running one
• Deep fluency in merchandising analytics: SKU economics, pricing and promo measurement, catalog and content performance
• Demonstrated P&L or margin ownership and comfort partnering with Finance
• Experience with product content / catalog operations at scale (PIM, taxonomy, attribute governance, marketplace syndication)

Preferred

• Multi-brand portfolio experience with distinct brand positioning and price tiers
• Exposure to new product development and working with manufacturing or sourcing partners
• Experience in a high-growth or transformation environment; comfortable with ambiguity and building from partial structures
• Familiarity with agentic/AI-driven commerce and structured product data as a competitive lever

Benefits

• Competitive Salary
• Health, Vision & Dental Insurance
• 401K
• Generous Paid Time Off plus company holidays
• Wellness benefits
• Generous Communications Allowance
• Awesome product discount and company swag

Benefits are reviewed regularly and may be updated from time to time.

Pay

The salary for this position is $180,000 - $225,000. Compensation considers a wide range of factors including background, skills, qualifications, experience, geographic location, and other non-discriminatory factors. This role might be eligible for discretionary bonuses or commission payments.

Location & Work Arrangement

Remote position — must reside and be authorized to work within the United States. Ashley Digital is headquartered in Tampa, FL with offices in Tel Aviv. The company currently employs residents in over 30 US states and 3 countries. If hired, you may be restricted to working from the state or country in which you currently reside, unless the relocation destination is one in which the company already operates and no other restrictions apply. Relocation requests post-hire may be denied for any reason.