Junior Merchandise Planner in Melbourne

Our client is a large well known Global retail giant, now seeking a Junior Merchandise Planner to translate commercial strategy into actionable sales, stock and margin plans.

This role plays a critical part in forecasting demand, shaping the open-to-buy (OTB), and making in-season trading decisions to balance availability, cost and markdown risk.

Partnering closely with Buying and cross-functional teams, you will turn insights into actions that drive strong category performance.

Responsibilities

• Key responsibilities
• Financial planning & forecasting: Build annual/seasonal sales, margin and stock plans using top-down and bottom-up approaches; model scenarios and recommend actions to achieve targets.
• Inventory management (stock control): Monitor stock levels and key metrics (cover, sell-through, weeks of supply) to optimise availability, reduce overstock and prevent stockouts across channels.
• Open-to-buy (OTB) management: Own and maintain the OTB; track commitments, receipts and in-season movements; partner with Buying to keep purchases within budget and aligned to strategy.
• Assortment & range planning: Partner with Buyers to shape the option mix (styles, sizes, colours, price points, ranges) informed by historical performance, customer insights and planned strategy.
• In-season trading & performance analysis: Review weekly/monthly performance vs plan; identify risks/opportunities; recommend actions across replenishment, allocation, pricing, promotions and markdowns.
• Reporting & governance: Produce clear trading reports and post-season analysis; maintain planning tools, assumptions and documentation to support decision making.
• Required Skills
• You will be experienced in merchandise planning, demand planning, inventory planning, allocations, or a related retail analytics role (preferred).
• You will have a strong understanding of retail KPIs (sales, margin, stock turns, markdown) and how sales, stock and OTB interact.
• You will feel comfortable working with ambiguity and adapting plans in response to changing performance and inputs.
• You will build strong stakeholder management and relationship-building skills with Buying and cross-functional partners.
• You will be proactive, organised, and detail focused, with the ability to manage competing priorities to deadlines.
• A must have for this role is, Solid skills in Excel and planning tools; comfortable working with large datasets and building basic models and reports.
• This role will be managing up to 100 retail stores.
• Retail planning is an absolute must
• This is a full-time office based role. No hybrid.
• Due to the high number of candidates , only candidates with Retail merchandise planning experience will be considered.
• Preferred Skills
• retail merchandise planning experience as a junior planner or more senior
• global planning experience would be highly regarded
• understanding the role is a head office based role - 5 days a week
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