Head – Buying

Job Description

This position is responsible for leading the planning and selection of merchandise across categories, ensuring alignment with customer demand, brand positioning, and financial targets. The role oversees all buying activities, manages supplier relationships, and drives margin and sell-through performance while guiding a team of buyers to achieve business objectives.

Key Responsibility:

• Define and execute the overall buying strategy in alignment with brand vision, customer expectations, and business objectives.
• Lead the development of seasonal assortment plans, ensuring a balanced product mix that supports sales growth, margin targets, and brand positioning.
• Build and manage the critical path for seasonal collections, aligning with marketing and visual merchandising for key product launches.
• Drive Open-to-Buy (OTB) planning in collaboration with planning teams, ensuring stock levels are optimized across all sales channels.
• Evaluate global and regional market trends, customer behavior, and competitor activities to drive assortment innovation and identify new category opportunities.
• Oversee all vendor negotiations on pricing, terms, lead times, freight, and marketing support, ensuring optimal commercial outcomes and alignment with company policies.
• Guide the sourcing strategy for each season, ensuring timely delivery and quality compliance, and identifying cost-saving opportunities through alternate vendor sourcing.
• Lead the buying calendar and ensure timely execution of product selection, sampling, approvals, and order placement.
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams including Planning, Marketing, Visual Merchandising, and Operations to ensure end-to-end execution of the merchandise strategy.
• Review weekly and seasonal performance reports (by style, category, region) and take data-driven decisions to improve in-season performance and sell-through.
• Oversee range reviews, customer focus groups, competitor benchmarking, and retail audits to support informed decision-making.
• Manage the team of category buyers and assistants, providing clear direction, coaching, and development opportunities to build a high-performance culture.
• Ensure adherence to brand guidelines for product aesthetics, pricing architecture, and store presentation.
• Represent the buying function in executive and brand strategy meetings, providing insights and recommendations based on market trends and business performance.

Desired Experience:

• 12–15 years of experience in retail buying, including 5+ years in a senior leadership role.
• Proven expertise in assortment planning, vendor negotiations, and sourcing.
• Strong analytical and commercial skills with multi-brand retail experience.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Fashion Merchandising, or a related field.