Career Opportunity
Global Capability Lead, Buying and Planning, Integrated Business Planning Transformation
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Company Description
At Ralph Lauren, we unite and inspire the communities within our company as well as those in which we serve by amplifying voices and perspectives to create a culture of belonging, ensuring inclusion, and fairness for all. We foster a culture of inclusion through: Talent, Education & Communication, Employee Groups and Celebration.
Position Overview
Ralph Lauren (RL) has embarked on our next generation transformation focused on accelerating our strategy. This enterprise-wide transformation includes governance, implementation, and consolidation into a single global Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), enhanced logistics automation across our warehouse management system (WMS), and enhanced connectivity across all planning functions through process and technology improvements to support integrated business planning (IBP). These initiatives will enable a fundamental transformation in our end-to-end processes as we become a more global DTC-oriented company, and greater efficiencies across demand planning, inventory buying, allocation and more.
The objective of the IBP Program is to transform planning through connectivity, automation and predictive analytics. Reporting to the Head of Integrated Business Planning Transformation, the successful candidate will provide oversight and deep expertise to build and develop the retail merchandising, buying and planning capabilities over a multi-year horizon. The Global Capability Lead will safeguard globally aligned processes, tools and systems to ensure program objectives and business outcomes are achieved.
Essential Duties & Responsibilities
- Leverage extensive experience in retail merchandising, buying and planning to provide strategic thought partnership and challenge existing business processes to standardize and harmonize across regions
- Regular presentation on progress and outcomes to senior leadership and key stakeholders
- Drive adoption of future state global processes, tools and ways of working
- Facilitation of discussions with Global Design Council on key design deviations and align on key decisions
- Collaboration with IBP Program Leadership Team on program governance, consisting of identifying risks, issues and escalation
- Accountability for ensuring testing, training, and hyper care support with support for various project team members
- Collaboration with Value Realization Partner to define, track and monitor key success measure/KPIs; ultimate accountability to ensure value realization for the capability
- Act as liaison between ERP Program Initiation team and IBP program team to identify program integration points
- Continuously drive and prioritize improvements and optimize upgrades/innovations post go-live
- Partner with Change Lead to elevate skills to 2030 level via training
Experience, Skills, and Knowledge
- Bachelor’s degree in business, Management, or related field; MBA preferred
- Minimum 8+ years of experience with a proven track record in related role
- Extensive experience in capability development or related areas
- Demonstrated ability to confidently build relationships and influence senior executives
- The ideal candidate is pragmatic, a problem solver, thrives under pressure, and excels at multitasking. Has the ability to make decisive and timely decisions while acting with authority
- Strong strategic vision but is also comfortable taking a hands-on approach to achieve results
- Proven track record of driving organizational change
- Experience within a vertically integrated retail environment; fashion apparel experience is highly desirable
- Experience with merchandise planning software desired
- Working understanding of merchandising planning industry best practices, supply chain operations, store operations
- Exceptional written and oral communication skills. Must be adept at translating complex concepts into actionable plans
- Skilled in partnering across teams and functions to drive project initiatives to completion
- Strong analytical skills: Leverages data to make strategic decisions
- Must be based in NY or Geneva
