Principal functional SME– Retail & Athleisure Planning

Greetings!

Hope you are doing great!

Please find the job description and let me know your thoughts,

Principal Functional SME

Location: Vancouver, CA – first preference. Seattle, WA – 2nd preference

Joining Mode: FTE

Salary: CAD140-150K(Negotiable)

Principal functional SME– Retail & Athleisure Planning

Location: Vancouver, BC / Seattle, WA (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.

Thanks, and Regards,

Anand Singh

OKAYA Inc.| http://okayainc.com

Mobile: +1631-250-1310

[email protected]

418 Broadway #7195, Albany, NY 12207