Category Planner Target Plus-1

About us:

As a Fortune 50 company with more than 400,000 team members worldwide, Target is an iconic brand and one of America's leading retailers.

Joining Target means promoting a culture of mutual care and respect and striving to make the most meaningful and positive impact. Becoming a Target team member means joining a community that values different voices and lifts each other up. Here, we believe your unique perspective is important, and you'll build relationships by being authentic and respectful.

Overview about TII
At Target, we have a timeless purpose and a proven strategy. And that hasn’t happened by accident. Some of the best minds from different backgrounds come together at Target to redefine retail in an inclusive learning environment that values people and delivers world-class outcomes. That winning formula is especially apparent in Bengaluru, where Target in India operates as a fully integrated part of Target’s global team and has more than 4,000 team members supporting the company’s global strategy and operations.

As a category planner for Target+, you will be responsible for creating effective financial and category growth plans by developing accurate forecasts and actionable strategies in partnership with category management. You will oversee financial planning, forecasting, and analysis for your category, acting as the liaison between category management and FP&A. This role enables you to influence key strategy decisions and support divisional objectives through category expertise and cross-functional partnerships. A significant portion of your responsibilities will involve interpreting financials for the category, conducting "what if?" analysis, and providing recommendations, including risk mitigation strategies

Core responsibilities are described within this job description. Job duties may change at any time due to business needs.

Key Responsibilities:

Business Plan- Strategy & Alignment

• Analyzing past years’ performance to understand trends and derive insights
• Annual financial plan: Building blocks (Market trends, LRP goals, traffic, ASP, order growth) including template design & framework
• Developing Annual Plans that deliver Long Range Plan / Multi-Year Strategy Plan growth goals for the pyramid
• Tracking plan and identifying gaps and suggest growth levers
• Define financial Guardrails for assortment at the category level (Sales, Margins, SKU count goals, etc.)
• Partner with category on key seller level planning and budgeting

Build Financial Plans & Risk Management

• Build granular financial plans to maximize category profitability (Pyramid, Division & Partner level)
• Lead pre-forecast & forecast routines with insights & devise risk mitigation plan
• Build promotion demand forecast & work with partner teams (product, promotions, operations) on opportunity sizing & feed into forecasting
• Planning and forecasting Tools and Templates incl partner planning framework

Cross-functional collaboration

• Extensive work with global teams on aligning templates, opportunity sizing and growth numbers
• Partner with cross-functional teams on assessing their impact on business
• Presenting to senior leadership during business reviews
• Weekly business recapping on financials with RCA for missing plan with recovery plans
• VP profit monitoring & improvements
• Collaborate on assortment planning and channel optimization strategies

About you: Join us if you are

• Minimum 5-6 years of experience in merchandise planning, forecasting, financial planning. Preferably managing an ecommerce business
• Sales Forecasting - Proficiency in predicting future sales volumes based on historical data, market trends, marketing campaigns, seasonal fluctuations, and competitor analysis.
• Market Trend Analysis - Understanding of e-commerce industry trends, consumer behavior, and emerging technologies to incorporate into financial forecasts.
• Scenario Planning: Ability to create multiple financial forecasts based on different market conditions (best-case, worst-case, most likely).
• Budgeting and Forecasting Tools: Familiarity with specialized financial planning software and tools.
• Self- starter with high ownership
• Flexible, resilient and comfortable working in “grey areas” that are constantly changing.
• A wizard with numbers- Can convert data into insights and comfortable working on business modeling
• Can do story telling with numbers and able to read trends

Culture- https://india.target.com/life-at-target/belonging

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