Director, Allocation

About Our Company

Lids Sports Group is the largest licensed sports retailer in North America, selling fan and fashion-oriented headwear and apparel across the US and abroad. Operating out of Indianapolis, IN, our retail stores offer officially licensed headwear and apparel from collegiate and professional sports teams, plus top brands like Nike, New Era, Lululemon, and Mitchell & Ness. In addition to our wide assortment, we are the industry leader in on demand customization. 

We currently operate 1,300+ brick and mortar locations, including specialty concept stores for the NBA, NHL, Paris Saint-Germain, and the two largest MLB franchises, via our Yankees & Dodgers Clubhouse stores. Lids have built partnerships and collaborations with iconic global brands including Marvel/Disney, Playboy, Travis Scott’s Cactus Jack, and Post Malone, creating a community where fans, fashion, and culture collide. 

General Position Summary

The Director of Allocation is responsible for leading the Allocation Team and oversees the management and evolution of the allocation process, creating and executing effective inventory deployment strategies, and managing inventory levels to support financial plans. This leader is a pivotal partner to Buying, Planning, Field Operations, and DC leadership. This position supervises several direct reports in addition to owning allocation strategies for all product categories and managing special projects. A dynamic problem-solver with effective communication skills, ability to influence others, and adapt quickly with competing priorities will be critical to delivering the company's inventory productivity objectives.

Principle Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop and implement effective merchandise allocation strategies that align with organizational goals and objectives. Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies, adjusting as necessary.
• Drive initiatives to maintain healthy instock levels on key items and effective management of inventory deployment (flow, weeks of supply, excess inventory).
• Lead the evolution, testing, and validation of allocation/replenishment calculations and logic that improves inventory productivity and business results.
• Develop, enhance, and manage analytics reporting to deliver actionable insights, drive key initiatives, and monitor KPI performance and trends.
• Pursue increased systems/process efficiencies to drive toward automation.
• Partners with store operations to address inventory needs and concerns at the store, region, or district level.
• Maintain and update training content for Allocation/Replenishment systems.
• Serve as a primary point of contact between IT, Merchandising, Store Operations, and/or DC Operations teams.
• Communicate effectively and persuasively with employees at all levels of the company.
• Continued training & education of industry best practices, software capabilities, and other learning/development opportunities to foster growth, understanding, and effectiveness.

Additional Principal Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a team of Allocation Analysts, and Managers to ensure business needs are met and the team is supported with continuous development opportunities.
• Support team members and new hires with sharing of best practices, new tools and processes, systems, allocation logic, and ongoing training needs.
• Maintain and update training content for Allocation/Replenishment systems.
• Other duties, special projects, and ad hoc requests as assigned.

Job Required Knowledge & Skills

• Leadership: Demonstrated leadership ability, with experience leading and developing high-performing teams.
• Analytic Skills: Strong analytical skills and the ability to interpret complex data translate into sales driving action
• Strategic Mindset: Ability to think critically and creatively to solve problems.
• Financial and Business Acumen: Ability to leverage inventory as a key financial tool to drive outsized sales returns
• Relationship Management: Ability to build constructive and effective relationships with a broad and diverse group of business partners, both internally & externally.
• Dealing with Abiguity: Ability to balance conflicting & competing priorities. Delivering a set of options, detailing impacts for each while driving to a single recommendation.
• Influencing and Negotiation: Can present ideas and directions that lead others to action.

Preferred Job Required Knowledge & Skills

• Planning and Priority Setting: Ability to set objectives/goals and organize work appropriately to meet and exceed goals.
• Systems and Tools Acumen: Advanced capabilities in Microsoft Excel, Power Bl, PowerPoint, Word, and Outlook. Must also have aptitude to learn technical applications quickly.
• Risk Management: Anticipate risks and identifies contingency plans and processes to prevent disruptions when risks occur.
• 5-7 years of experience in inventory management, allocation, replenishment, merchandising, or related field.
• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Finance, Marketing, Fashion Merchandising, or a related field is preferred.
• Proven ability to perform independently with minimal supervision.
• Strong follow-up skills including issues-tracking & resolution critical for success in this role.

Education

Reports To

SVP, Allocation