Director, Outlet Merchandising

Director, Outlet Merchandising

About Us:

vineyard vines is a highly successful, privately held, American clothing and accessory retailer founded in 1998 on Martha's Vineyard by brothers, Shep and Ian Murray. With Shep & Ian still at the helm today, vineyard vines has experienced exponential year over year growth and now operates over 120 retail locations including an outlet division, a successful e-commerce business, domestic distribution center, and expanding corporate headquarters. In addition, vineyard vines is carried in major department stores such as Nordstrom and Bloomingdales as well as numerous specialty boutiques across the US. 

vineyard vines was founded on a state of mind that Every day should feel this good. 

You don't need to be on a beach, by the ocean or on vacation to have Every day should feel this good moments. It's a state of mind that we all experience, and one where everyone is invited. At vineyard vines, we don't live an #EDSFTG life away from our desks - we bring it to work with us, too. 

In our stores, at our Harbor Drive headquarters or working remotely, our company culture is fun, encouraging and welcoming to all. We work hard and play harder, and we never take ourselves too seriously. And while we have many company goals, our number one priority is making vineyard vines a great place to work for all employees. 

Our team is our family, and we'd never have grown to where we are today without them. 

We're committed to building an inclusive team across all channels, departments and stores within our community. We hope you'll join us and see what the smiling pink whale is all about.

Overview

The Director, Outlet Merchandising will lead the overall Merchandising strategy, vision, and financial performance for the Outlet business, with primary ownership of Men’s Merchandising and strategic oversight of Women’s and Kids’. This leader will shape the strategic direction and evolution of the Outlet channel, driving profitable sales growth, inventory productivity, customer engagement, and long-term brand health.

The ideal candidate is a strategic, entrepreneurial merchant with a deep understanding of the Outlet customer and a proven ability to translate customer insights, market trends, and business opportunities into differentiated strategies that drive results. This leader will challenge the status quo, identify new ways to grow the business, and build the product and financial architecture required to deliver the right product, at the right price, at the right time.

The Director, Outlet Merchandising is expected to operate as both a strategic business leader and a hands-on merchandising expert. This leader will balance long-term vision with near-term business needs, challenge the status quo, and create clarity and alignment across a complex cross-functional organization. Success in this role requires strong commercial instincts, financial acumen, customer obsession, decisive leadership, and the ability to influence and drive execution across teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the overall merchandising strategy, vision, and financial performance for the Outlet business, with primary ownership of Men’s and strategic oversight of Women’s and Kids’.
• Establish a clear and differentiated Outlet merchandising strategy that balances brand integrity, customer needs, fashion, value, and profitability.
• Define and lead the long-term evolution of the Outlet merchandising model, challenging existing ways of working and identifying new opportunities across product, pricing, inventory, customer experience, and channel strategy.
• Approach the Outlet business with an entrepreneurial mindset, identifying opportunities to drive sales, improve productivity, strengthen the customer proposition, and unlock profitable growth.
• Lead a test-and-learn mindset across the business, developing and scaling new strategies that unlock incremental sales, improve productivity, and strengthen the Outlet customer proposition.
• Champion blue-sky opportunities and build cross-functional alignment around strategies that drive meaningful business impact.
• Analyze the business through both creative and financial lenses, balancing short- and long-term opportunities across Men’s, Women’s, and Kids’.
• Own and drive key financial metrics, including sales, margin, inventory, sell-through, productivity, and markdown performance; proactively identify risks and opportunities and establish action plans to address them.
• Leverage weekly sales and inventory reporting to identify trends, optimize assortments, mitigate risk, and capitalize on emerging opportunities.
• Develop seasonal merchandising strategies and materials, including scorecards, assortment overviews, presentation decks, assortment rankings, and store tiering strategies.
• Define and evolve the Outlet product architecture to ensure the assortment delivers the appropriate balance of fashion, core, good/better/best, opening price points, and key volume-driving categories.
• Ensure the Outlet assortment is differentiated from full-price channels while maintaining brand integrity and delivering a compelling value proposition to the customer.
• Develop a deep understanding of the Outlet customer and translate customer insights, market trends, competitive intelligence, and business performance into relevant product and assortment strategies.
• Partner closely with Planning to develop and execute financial plans, inventory strategies, and assortment frameworks that support overall Outlet objectives.
• Serve as the senior cross-functional merchandising leader for the Outlet channel, creating alignment and driving accountability from concept through commercialization across Design, Planning, Product Development, Production, Sourcing, Marketing, Logistics, and other key partners.
• Ensure product assortment, pricing, quality, product lifecycle, and timing align with the overall Outlet strategy and customer expectations.
• Lead adherence to the seasonal development calendar across all Outlet departments, proactively managing milestones, priorities, risks, and cross-functional dependencies.
• Set the strategic vision and merchandising standards across Men’s, Women’s, and Kids’, empowering category leaders with clear ownership and accountability for their businesses.
• Serve as a key voice for Outlet at the senior leadership level, clearly communicating business performance, strategic opportunities, risks, and priorities while driving cross-functional accountability and execution.
• Manage, coach, and develop a high-performing team of merchants, creating opportunities for professional growth, increased ownership, leadership development, and succession planning.
• Foster a collaborative, entrepreneurial, and results-oriented culture that encourages innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.
• Partner with senior leadership to identify and execute strategies that drive profitable growth and elevate the overall Outlet business.

What you bring:

•  8+ years of Merchandising experience required, Men’s, Women’s and Kid’s experience is ideal
•  4+ years of managing high performing teams
•  Team-oriented with the ability to interact with partners across the organization at all levels
•  Strong business acumen and understanding of inventory management
•  The broad scope of this role requires a deep understanding of many functions, including Buying, Planning, Product Development, CAD Design, Production Services, Overseas Sourcing, Logistics, and Marketing
•  Ability to innovate and challenge current norms to drive positive change and efficacy
•  Experience in customer and trend direction to inform both assortment strategy, and decision making
•  Inspirational leader who fosters growth & a positive environment
•  Must have strong Excel skills (Pivot Tables, vlookups, etc.)
•  Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience required

Every-day Will Feel This Good Because: 

• We have a fun-spirited entrepreneurial culture filled with truly “good” people
• We offer a generous employee discount so you can rep our lifestyle on-and-off the boat
• We offer a competitive salary package, 401-K, commuter benefits, and paid-family leave, health savings , flex spending accounts, life & disability insurance
• We have an onsite gym as well as health & financial wellness programs to keep you active
• We offer 2 summer Fridays to take off in addition to a competitive vacation policy & holiday calendar.