Principal functional SME– Retail & Athleisure Planning

ITC Infotech is a wholly owned subsidiary of ITC Limited, one of India's foremost private sector companies and a diversified conglomerate. The ITC Group, with a market capitalization of $65 billion, is globally recognized as a leader in sustainability. The group's vision is to achieve world-class performance and create growing value for both the Indian economy and its stakeholders. This vision is supported by core values such as Trusteeship, where professional managers hold the company in "trust" for its stakeholders; a strong Customer Focus; Respect for People; a commitment to Excellence; a pursuit of Innovation; and a strong Nation Orientation.

ITC Infotech's business philosophy is that business is at the center and technology is an enabler, as reflected in its tagline, "Business-friendly Solutions." The company offers a wide range of services and solutions across key business areas, including CIO Services (Automation, Digital Workplace, ERP), Digital Experience (Experience Transformation), and Product 4.0 (Product Lifecycle Management, Digital Manufacturing). In the last seven years, ITC Infotech has successfully doubled its revenue from $250 million to $500 million+ annually, with its EBIT improving from 8% to over 18%.

Location: Vancouver, BC (Hybrid)

Position Type: Full-time (Strategic Advisory)

Industry Vertical: Retail & Apparel (Athleisure)

Role Overview

We are seeking an industry-veteran Principal Functional SME – Merchandise & Enterprise Planning to serve as the executive-level liaison for our premier athleisure retail client. This role is highly strategic, designed for an expert who will engage directly with senior business leaders (VPs, CXOs, and Directors of Merchandising and Planning) to align their long-term business vision with our technology delivery roadmap.

You are an expert in retail merchandise planning and demand-supply alignment, with hands-on and advisory expertise in leading enterprise planning platforms—specifically Anaplan, o9 Solutions, or Kinaxis.

Key Responsibilities

• Executive Business Advisory: Serve as a trusted advisor to senior retail business leaders. Facilitate steering committees to translate corporate merchandising and financial strategies into technology-enabled initiatives.
• Strategic Priority & Roadmap Steering: Align senior business priorities with our delivery team's capabilities. Help client leadership navigate trade-offs, define MVP scopes for major initiatives, and establish release sequencing.
• Strategic Release Governance: Evaluate high-level business risks and operational impacts of major production releases on critical retail milestones (e.g., peak seasons, buy-session deadlines). Ensure executive-level business readiness.
• Connected Planning Evolution (PLM & VibeIQ): Actively cross-train and lead functional integration between upstream product creation (PLM, VibeIQ) and downstream planning engines (Anaplan/O9/Kinaxis),
• Enterprise Architecture Alignment: Provide high-level governance to ensure that platform changes respect, scale, and modernize the client's complex merchandise hierarchies, visual planning systems, and core data flows.

Domain Expertise & Qualifications

Core Experience Metrics (Strictly Required):

• Overall Experience: Minimum 20+ years of professional experience in enterprise-level business consulting, technology delivery, or corporate retail leadership.
• Retail Specialization: At least 8 to 10 years of dedicated experience directly within the Retail / Apparel domain (ideally with direct exposure to premium, vertically integrated, or athleisure brands).

Required Strategic Domain Expertise (Must have deep knowledge in at least TWO of the following):

1. Merchandise Financial Planning (MFP): High-level knowledge of corporate budgeting, Open-to-Buy (OTB) policies, and margin management at an enterprise scale.
2. Visual Assortment Planning: Strategic understanding of how digital, visual, and localized layouts influence buying decisions and omni-channel inventory allocation.
3. Product & Merchandise Hierarchies: Deep experience structuring master data governance and product classifications across complex global retail organizations.
4. Associated Data Flows: Architectural understanding of enterprise data exchanges (PLM to ERP/WMS/eCommerce) to help executives visualize how data boundaries support business goals.

Core Platform Expertise (Must have strong depth in at least ONE):

• Anaplan: Strong functional architecture background in Anaplan for Retail / Supply Chain (Model building principles, multi-dimensional planning, ALM, and Connected Planning).
• o9 Solutions / Kinaxis: Proven functional consulting experience delivering Integrated Business Planning (IBP), demand planning, or merchandise planning modules.

Education:

Bachelor’s degree in business, Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field. An equivalent combination of education and relevant sales experience will also be considered.

Salary Range: The base salary range for this position is $120,000 - $140,000 annually. Actual compensation will depend on factors including skills, experience, location, and business needs. In addition to base salary, this position would have comprehensive benefits & 401K with employer match.

ITC Infotech is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We believe that no one should be discriminated against because of their differences, such as age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, religion, or sexual orientation. All employment decisions shall be made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status or any other basis as protected by federal, state, or local law.

ITC infotech is committed to providing veteran employment opportunities to our service men and women.