We are seeking a Senior Buying Manager who is a strong commercial operator — highly analytical, deeply skilled in in-season trading, and experienced at translating sales data into precise buy decisions across styles, channels, and stores. The ideal candidate excels at driving business KPIs, leading and developing a buying team, and ensuring that strategic direction is executed with rigour and consistency across the business.
Reporting to the Senior Director of Merchandising & Planning, you will own the day-to-day buying function — providing oversight of all seasonal buys, driving performance and markdown strategy across the full assortment, and executing the category and assortment plan set by the Senior Director with precision. You will lead and develop the buying team (Buyer and Associate Buyer) and partner closely with the Senior Planning Manager, Supply Chain, Marketing, and consumer channel leads.
What You’ll Be Working On:
Buy Oversight, Assortment Execution & OTB Management (45%)
- Provide strategic oversight of all seasonal buys — reviewing, challenging, and approving the buying team's assortment depth, unit investments, and style mix before escalation to the Senior Director, ensuring every buy is grounded in sales data, OTB parameters, and the assortment plan set by the Senior Director.
- Execute the seasonal category and assortment plan as defined by the Senior Director, translating strategic direction into precise buy decisions at the style, channel, and store level; act as the primary accountability point for plan execution within the buying team.
- Use granular sales data — by style, channel, and store — to determine the right units and assortment needed by door and channel, ensuring depth decisions are driven by localized performance and demand signals rather than blended averages.
- Act as the primary checkpoint between the Buyer and Senior Director; own the quality and rigour of all buys before sign-off, ensuring depth calls are well-supported by data and aligned with both the assortment strategy and financial targets.
- Guide and coach the Buyer through investment decisions — depth calls, reorder opportunities, and risk mitigation — providing a clear strategic lens and ensuring the team builds sound, data-backed buying rationale.
- Own OTB management in close partnership with the Senior Planning Manager, ensuring disciplined budget control, accurate PO commitment tracking, and alignment with financial plans and inventory strategies across all categories.
- Oversee all PO management — ex-factory dates, costs, and quantities — ensuring accuracy and data integrity across all systems throughout the product lifecycle.
- Collaborate with Supply Chain to ensure timely product delivery; surface and resolve delivery risks proactively before they impact sell-through, margin, or launch timelines.
- Reconcile monthly receipts against OTB and communicate PO commitments clearly to key stakeholders, including Finance, the Senior Director, and leadership.
Performance Analysis, KPI Management & In-Season Trading (40%)
- Own all buying KPIs across the business — sell-through, gross margin, GMROI, AUR, inventory productivity, and markdown rate — driving in-season actions across the team to meet and exceed targets.
- Conduct ongoing sales analysis by style, channel, and store to identify performance trends, flag outliers, and surface clear recommendations for in-season action — reorders, depth shifts, price moves, or exit strategies.
- Lead promotional strategy and execution: determine the timing, depth, and scope of markdowns across the full assortment, balancing inventory clearance with margin protection and brand positioning.
- Monitor performance weekly across all categories, identifying risks and opportunities early and ensuring the buying team is taking the right actions to course-correct in-season.
- Prepare and deliver comprehensive performance reporting (weekly, seasonal, ad hoc) for the Senior Director and leadership, synthesizing data across categories, channels, and stores into clear, actionable insights and recommendations.
- Drive end-of-life strategies — exit timing, consolidations, transfers, and promotional cadence — to maximize recovery and minimize aged inventory exposure.
- Lead seasonal hindsight processes, synthesizing category and channel learnings to inform the Senior Director's forward strategy and future buy decisions.
Cross-Functional Execution & Collaboration (15%)
- Serve as the primary executional partner to Marketing and consumer channel leads (E-Comm and Retail), ensuring that strategic direction set at the leadership level is translated accurately into seasonal launch calendars, promotional plans, and channel priorities.
- Partner with Marketing on go-to-market execution — aligning product availability, depth, and promotional cadence with campaign plans, and ensuring buying decisions support marketing timelines and messaging.
- Collaborate with E-Comm and Retail channel leads to ensure product launches, in-season priorities, and markdown actions are communicated clearly and executed consistently across all channels; drive accountability for follow-through on strategic decisions.
- Leverage channel and store-level sales data in partnership with E-Comm and Retail teams to refine assortment and depth decisions by channel, ensuring product is right-sized for each door and customer context.
- Align with Planning on seasonal budgets, receipts, and financial reconciliation; support leadership business reviews with accurate and timely reporting.
What You’ll Bring:
Commercial Instinct & In-Season Agility
Be the face of the brand: maintains authenticity, live and communicate the Kotn values and ethos
Commercial Instinct & In-Season Agility
You read the business clearly and move fast. You can spot a sell-through risk before it becomes a markdown problem, and you know how to course-correct mid-season at the style, channel, and store level without losing sight of the full-year picture.
Analytical Acumen & Financial Fluency
You are deeply comfortable with retail math and connect every decision — buy depth, markdown timing, OTB discipline — to its financial outcome. You own KPIs, not just report on them, and you build your recommendations on granular data rather than intuition alone.
Leadership & Team Development
You've led buying teams before and know how to develop talent, set a clear direction, and hold the team to a high standard of buying rigour. You provide strong oversight without micromanaging and invest genuinely in the growth of those around you.
Executional Excellence & Cross-Functional Partnership
You translate strategy into action with precision. You work effectively alongside Planning, Marketing, channel teams, Supply Chain, and Finance — keeping things moving, communicating clearly, and ensuring that leadership decisions land consistently across the business.
Qualifications:
- 8–10+ years of buying or merchandising experience in retail or consumer goods, with required expertise in apparel and a strong track record of delivering against sales, margin, sell-through, and markdown targets.
- Proven experience providing oversight and sign-off on seasonal buys, including reviewing style-level depth decisions and ensuring alignment with OTB and assortment strategy.
- Demonstrated ownership of in-season KPI management, markdown strategy, and end-of-life execution across a multi-category assortment.
- Strong proficiency in sales analysis by style, channel, and store — with the ability to translate granular data into actionable buy decisions and unit recommendations by door and channel.
- Experience managing and developing buying teams, with the ability to build capability, buying discipline, and succession readiness.
- Experience across multi-channel environments (e-commerce and retail) is critical; DTC or high-growth apparel brand experience is strongly preferred.
- Expert in retail math and commercial acumen: OTB management, IMU strategy, markdown optimization, sell-through, and inventory productivity.
- Strong analytical skills with advanced proficiency in Excel and Google Sheets; familiarity with BI or ERP tools (e.g., Shopify, NetSuite, or similar) is an asset.
- Clear communicator with the ability to influence cross-functionally and present data and insights with confidence to senior leadership.
- Bachelor's degree in Business, Merchandising, Fashion, or a related field.
Job Title: Senior Buying Manager
Reporting To: Senior Director, Merchandising & Planning
Department: Merchandising, Buying, & Planning
Direct Reports: Buyer
Compensation: $95,000 - $115,000
The Senior Buying Manager role is ideal for individuals who are passionate about apparel retail, thrive on owning business performance, and excel at translating strategic direction and sales data into disciplined, high-quality buying execution.
Equal Employment Opportunity:
KOTN Inc. is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind. We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace where all employees feel valued, respected, and empowered to contribute to our mission.
Accommodation:
KOTN Inc. is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities and ensuring equal access to employment opportunities. If you require accommodation during the application or interview process, please notify the hiring manager of the role.