Merchandising Planning Director

Job Title: Merchandising Planning Director

Location: London

Reporting To: CFO

Who we are

At Monica Vinader, we’re on a mission to prove that buying better, wearing longer and doing better don’t have to be mutually exclusive. From our commitment to making the most sustainable jewellery we can using precious materials, to the timeless style and endless versatility of our pieces, we are driven to making everyday fine jewellery accessible and affordable.

And don’t just take our word for it, we are proud to be recognised in the industry through our recent awards, proving we are leading the way in sustainable jewellery:

• Responsible Business of the Year, 2025, Positive Luxury

• Best Sustainable Watch/Jewellery Brand, 2024, Country and Town House

• Top 50 Inspiring Workplaces (UK and NI), 2024, Inspiring Workplaces

We are digital first, omni-channel, customer obsessed, female led and inclusive, focused on creating meaningful relationships with our community, who we owe our success to. We are looking for someone special to join our team to help us make luxury something we can all enjoy everyday.

Where we need your help

We have all the makings of an iconic brand - beautiful products that are timeless and designed to last, service that exceeds our customers expectations, a passionate founder that cares deeply about doing what is right and a loyal and growing community who advocate for us. The Merchandising Planning Director role is an exciting opportunity to help the company grow sales and profit by optimising its inventory management

What you’ll do

Inventory and Demand Planning

• Lead the inventory team to ensure they work with the commercial and NPD teams to convert the business plans into an accurate demand plan.

• Manage the buyplan to optimise inventory levels and availability across web, stores and wholesale accounts

• Ensure inventory levels are coordinated to manage to supplier capacity constraints

• Optimise retail allocation process to ensure optimum availability in stores

• Track and monitor availability and stock targets, reporting on performance and identifying opportunities

• Best practice approach to ensure teams invest their time in the most effective way including strong collaboration with commercial, finance and brand teams

• Ensure strong audit processes are in place across all areas

• Drive automation of manual tasks to free up time for value added activities

Assortment planning and promotions/ pricing

• Liaise with NPD on assortment planning across channels, understanding trends across channels and opportunities to drive profit growth

• Work with the retail and growth teams to manage key promotions to optimise for markdowns and profit growth

Sales and Operational Planning

• Oversee our S&OP process, guiding the company to the right end to end process.

• Manage from the top line strategy of the S&OP down to the detail of meeting schedules, agendas, key information, how-to guides for each sector.Reinforce this by monitoring, feeding back and implementing corrective action to the end-to-end process

Operational Planning

• Ensure our physical distribution, systems and logistics setup can meet the needs of our future scale

• Implement continuous improvement and operational excellence processes to enable future efficiencies, scale and budget savings

• Develop a deep familiarity for how our operations across inbound, outbound and customer care work, so that you’re able to audit performance and create a focus on the KPIs that matter within the team

• Ensure we are delivering to our high customer experience expectations while keeping a strong grip on cost

• Ensure we have clear oversight and plans in place to effectively scale operational resources for both seasonal peaks and long term planning (People/Space/Materials)

Leadership & Management

• Lead the Inventory Management function, ensuring they have the best talent and develop expertise alongside the ability to thrive in a fast paced, entrepreneurial environment

• Use strong data analysis and reporting to drive action. Show and foster in others a strong bias to action and effective escalation with respect to the identification and resolution of issues

• Motivate teams to meet business priorities by championing the values of the brand. Put in place a communication, engagement and welfare plan that ensures the team are well informed, listened to and happy.

• Coach and develop your direct reports to deliver their role to the best of their ability

• Maintain a foundational understanding of company policies that affect your team, including any team members in other territories or business divisions, and ensure those policies are applied fairly and consistently

• Recognise and celebrate successes

• Manage your team’s performance, attendance and any incidents that arise

• Support your team in prioritising their wellbeing, providing guidance on workflow management and prioritisation to enable work/life balance

• Lead by example, showcasing the MV behaviours, competencies and values

• Empower your team to make decisions, providing guidance and support and identifying the learning opportunity from our ‘test and learn’ behaviour

• Collaborate with the People & Culture team for advice on complex or sensitive matters

What you’ll bring

Connect & Empower

• Coaches & Develops Others: Experience in championing a culture of continuous learning and talent development across a function, including developing successors and organisational bench strength

Drive & Deliver

• Focuses on the Right Thing: Proven ability to align business resources to high-impact, cross-functional priorities and drive Company-wide clarity on what matters most through pragmatic, outcome-focused decision-making at scale

Grow & Adapt

• Challenges & Commits: A track record of fostering a culture where challenge is welcomed and pushing for open, rigorous debate to ensure resilient decisions, followed by championing the final direction with conviction

Master & Apply

• Functional/Technical Expertise: Deep experience of supply chain, demand planning, and S&OP planning in volatile contexts. Required technical skills include championing technical excellence and the ability to evaluate and implement new tools relevant to the task

• Applies Knowledge with Impact: Uses organisational insight and expertise to shape strategic priorities and translates complexity into clarity and execution

To be successful at Monica Vinader...

• Are hands-on, solutions-focused, and entrepreneurial

• Collaborate openly with humility, honesty, and humour

• Embrace learning, teaching, and personal growth

• Stay resilient, adaptable, and self-motivated in a creative environment

• Speak up when you don’t know—and act fast to figure it out

Additional Requirements

Ability to document your authorisation to work in the United Kingdom.

Travel Requirements

Ad hoc travel to our Norfolk office may be required

Our Aims and Values

Our mission is to be the leading accessible luxury brand, by delivering outstanding quality, design and customer service. We are:

Customer Obsessed

Our customers are at the core of everything we do. We will always deliver an outstanding and personal experience to them every time they interact with us, to ensure their ongoing support and loyalty.

Caring

We treat people with respect, as we would want to be treated. We are apolitical and assume good intentions in others. We are open and honest with each other while ensuring we take an empathetic and supportive approach.

Fast Paced

We are passionate about what we do, and we want to reach as many customers as fast as we can. We combine focus with pragmatism and flexibility so that we can move at pace in whichever direction we need to take.

Exceptional

We have a relentless desire to continually learn and improve to ensure our products and approach are exceptional. Our tenacity, high standards and attention to detail give us a competitive advantage.

Commercial

We focus hard on facts and approach things in a logical, rational and analytical way. We challenge each other to make sure we make decisions and take actions that create value for our business and our customers.

Monica Vinader as a global business makes the following inclusive culture pledge:
Our jewellery is for everyone and so is our community. Together, we will continue to implement sustainable changes to ensure that career opportunities and progression are open to all. We commit to celebrating the diverse voices of our employees, partners, and the customers we serve.

This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of duties to be performed by the employee. This job description may be altered to reflect the business needs of the company.