Role Summary The Senior Director, Merch Assortment and Analytics is responsible for leading the development and execution of critical capabilities that enable high performance across the merchandising organization. This cross functional role will oversee business intelligence (BI), data & reporting, item management, business processes, systems management and enablement, and assortment planning strategy. Duties & Responsibilities: • Oversee development of BI dashboards and self-serve reporting tools within Sigma that inform assortment, financial, and operational decisions. • Drive reporting automation, improve data visualization, and reduce manual reporting tasks to increase efficiency, accuracy and drive insight. Partner with merchants to collect input, improve usage and train on new tool set. • Partner with SDS (IT) to use AI/ML to scale reporting infrastructure and data feeds to unlock deeper insights into assortment. • Own the item lifecycle process, including item setup, maintenance, and retirement. Ensuring data accuracy, process efficiency, and system alignment across merchandising. • Design and enforce standardized processes for item creation that balance speed-to-market with data accuracy and cross-functional needs. • Partner with SDS and Product teams to focus on driving automation, workflow improvements, and reducing manual work across the item setup ecosystem. • Oversee systems onboarding, training, and ongoing user enablement, ensuring all merchant teams are equipped to fully leverage tools and platforms. • Support merchant teams with tools, data, and frameworks that improve assortment planning and decision-making. Develop templates and planning calendars that drive consistency across desks. • Collaborate with digital, private brands and search teams to integrate conversion goals and customer insights into the assortment strategy. • Lead communication efforts with the merchant community and senior merchandising leaders (GMMs). Translate business challenges into operational initiatives—connecting executional details with strategy to ensure clarity, speed, and impact. Qualifications: • Strong understanding of retail and digital merchandising processes, product lifecycles, and assortment planning. • Experience in BI/reporting tools, advanced Excel and data analysis skills. Experience with Sigma a plus. • Exceptional communication, stakeholder management, and leadership presence. • Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-moving environment while building scalable solutions for the future. • Demonstrated ability to partner cross-functionally. Preferred Qualifications • Experience in an omni-channel or digitally native retail environment. • Proven ability to lead through influence and act as a connector across business and technical teams. • Strong change management and process reengineering experience.