Associate Director Planning

Associate Director, Planning is responsible for leading and orchestrating the end-to-end planning function for ZALORA’s retail and marketplace businesses across all categories and brands. This role will drive the strategic direction for inventory, inbounds, sell-through, revenue, and gross margin planning, ensuring alignment with business objectives and operational excellence. The Head of Planning will play a pivotal role in cross-functional collaboration, process automation, and data-driven decision-making to optimize commercial performance and inventory health.

**Responsibilities**:

- Lead, mentor, and develop the planning team, fostering a high-performance culture and continuous improvement mindset.
- Own the consolidation of category and brand plans into a centralized WSSI (Weekly Sales, Stock, and Intake) framework, ensuring alignment across the organization.
- Identify and address outliers in key metrics such as weeks of cover (WOC), aged inventory, and stock health, driving corrective actions as needed.
- Partner with Finance, Operations, and GFG teams to align on commercial and inventory-related business plans, including NMV, intake, aged inventory, and margin targets.
- Standardize and enhance dashboards and reporting tools across commercial teams and forums, ensuring a unified and actionable view of business performance.
- Collaborate with Technology and Data teams to automate WSSI and planning processes, working towards a single source of truth for targets and performance metrics.
- Work closely with Data Science to implement advanced forecasting models for assortment, buy quantities, and replenishment, leveraging machine learning and predictive analytics.
- Drive scenario planning and risk management initiatives to support agile decision-making in a dynamic market environment.
- Champion best practices in inventory management, demand planning, and commercial analytics, ensuring scalability and efficiency.
- Represent the planning function in senior leadership forums, providing insights and recommendations to support strategic business decisions.
- Collaborate closely with buying teams to validate order proposals and develop an options plan that ensures the right breadth and depth of assortment, aligned with business targets and customer needs.

**Requirements**:

- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Business, Marketing, Finance, Supply Chain, or a related field.
- 10+ years of experience in planning, merchandising, or commercial roles within e-commerce or retail, with at least 5 years in a leadership capacity.
- Proven track record of leading and developing high-performing teams in a fast-paced, data-driven environment.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret complex data and translate insights into actionable strategies.
- Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Google Slides, Looker, and SQL; experience with planning and BI tools is highly desirable.
- Exceptional organizational skills, attention to detail, and the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to influence and collaborate across functions and seniority levels.
- Results-oriented mindset with a passion for driving business growth and operational excellence.

**The Zalora Story**

ZALORA is Asia’s leading online fashion, beauty and lifestyle destination, part of Global Fashion Group. As one of the region’s pioneer large scale e-commerce platforms, ZALORA has established a strong presence throughout the region, particularly in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines, Hong Kong, enjoying over 50 million visits per month.PKQj97Bl4y