Mission Brief: Build the Intelligence Layer That Moves Owndays' Global Merchandise
Owndays is a global eyewear brand with a rapidly expanding footprint across Asia, the Middle East, and beyond. Operating
an integrated value chain across design, manufacturing, retail, and e-commerce, Owndays is building a tech-enabled, data-
led omni-channel business. With thousands of SKUs and a complex supplier network, we are reimagining how merchandise
flows — from vendor to warehouse to customer — with intelligence, precision, and speed.
This is not a role about managing stock. It is about building the intelligence layer that ensures the right product is in the
right place at the right time — powered by data, driven by AI, and led by you. As Buying, Planning & Merchandise Lead, you
will own the strategic and operational command of Owndays' end-to-end merchandise flow — from demand sensing and
OTB to vendor capacity and warehouse inflow — turning raw signals into precision decisions and transforming
replenishment from reactive to predictive.
This is a hands-on leadership role that will require needs-based travel across Owndays' geographies — to work directly with
vendors, manufacturing partners, warehouses, and regional teams as the business demands.
Core Mandate: Turning Merchandise Flow Into a Data-Led Advantage
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Demand Forecasting & S&OP
- Global Forecast Ownership: Own demand forecasting across all categories, channels, and regions — frames, lenses,
sunglasses, and accessories.
- Forecast Accuracy: Drive forecast accuracy through disciplined S&OP cycles, sell-through analysis, and seasonality
modelling; set and own MAPE/WAPE targets that are best-in-class for a retailer of Owndays' complexity.
- One Demand View: Translate top-down financial plans and bottom-up category plans into a single, executable
demand view.
- ML-Driven Sensing: Lead the adoption of machine learning-based demand sensing tools; partner with Data Science
and Engineering to sharpen algorithms and replenishment triggers.
2. Open-to-Buy & Buying Planning
- OTB Ownership: Own the Open-to-Buy process end-to-end — building, tracking, and re-forecasting across seasons.
- Inflow & Assortment Planning: Manage inflow planning, phasing, and depth-vs-breadth decisions aligned to sales,
stock cover, and margin targets; partner with buying and category teams to convert assortment plans into actionable
buy quantities.
- Dynamic Forecasting: Move the organisation from static planning models to dynamic, AI-assisted forecasting that
responds in real time to demand signals and fashion cycles.
3. Vendor Capacity Planning & Procurement Intelligence
- Capacity Planning: Lead capacity planning with the vendor base — aligning monthly and weekly production capacity
with the demand plan, locking capacity ahead of peak periods, and managing flex during demand swings.
- Vendor Visibility: Build visibility into vendor performance across capacity utilisation, on-time delivery, and fill rates.
- Data-Backed Negotiation: Bring data to every sourcing negotiation, balancing Economic Order Quantities with the
speed demands of a fashion-adjacent business, and build the supplier frameworks that make Owndays' supply
relationships a genuine competitive advantage.
4. Lead-Time Reduction & Inflow Management
- Cycle Time Reduction: Drive reduction of lead times across the vendor-to-warehouse cycle through better planning
rhythm, order release discipline, and vendor collaboration.
- Inbound Predictability: Improve PO-to-receipt timelines, in-transit visibility, and warehouse inbound predictability.
- Network Smoothing: Work with logistics and warehousing teams to smooth inflow, reduce bullwhip effects, and
improve network-wide service levels.
5. End-to-End Inventory Operations
- Full Lifecycle Ownership: Own the full inventory lifecycle — from purchase order strategy to stock monitoring, cycle
integrity, and shrinkage controls.
- Systems & Accuracy: Leverage ERP/WMS platforms to drive 98%+ inventory accuracy while continuously eliminating
process waste through automation and lean principles.
- Inventory Health: Own inventory health across warehouses — turns, cover, ageing, excess — and drive allocation and
replenishment models that maintain availability with controlled markdowns.
- Scalable Guardrails: Design systems and guardrails that scale as the business expands across new geographies.
6. Cross-Functional Leadership & Data Culture
- Commercial Partnership: Partner with Retail Operations, Merchandising, Finance, E-commerce, Sourcing, and
Manufacturing to ensure inventory strategy serves commercial goals.
- Leadership Communication: Present insights, KPIs, and strategic recommendations to senior leadership with clarity
and conviction.
- Team Building: Build, mentor, and lead a high-performance planning and merchandise supply chain team.
- Data-First Culture: Make data-driven inventory decisions the organisational norm — bring the wider team along on
the journey from intuition to intelligence.
The Essentials
- Experience: Proven experience in inventory management, merchandise planning, buying planning, or supply chain
roles, including at least 5 years in a strategic leadership capacity.
- Track Record at Scale: Demonstrated experience in high-SKU, omni-channel, or retail-at-scale environments,
spanning demand forecasting, OTB management, vendor capacity planning, and lead-time reduction.
- Commercial Acumen: Strong understanding of inventory turns, fill rates, markdowns, and working capital.
- Technical Depth: Hands-on fluency with ERP/WMS platforms and advanced analytics tools (e.g., SAP, Oracle,
Anaplan, or equivalent), with practical experience applying forecasting methodologies — time-series, statistical, ML-
assisted — to real inventory decisions.
- Domain Exposure: Background in retail, eyewear, fashion, consumer goods, or another fast-moving category with
high SKU complexity; exposure to automated warehouses, phygital retail models, or in-house manufacturing
ecosystems is a strong advantage. Consulting backgrounds are welcome, provided they come with deep operational
exposure.
Education
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Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Operations Research, Business, or a related quantitative
field; an MBA or advanced degree is preferred.
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Travel: Willingness to travel on a needs basis across global markets to work directly with vendors, manufacturing partners, and regional teams.
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The Mindset
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AI-Native Thinking You don't just use data — you build systems that generate it, interpret it, and act on it, and seemerchandise planning as a technology problem as much as an operations one.
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Precision at Scale You are energised by complexity — millions of SKUs, hundreds of vendors, multiple geographies —and bring rigour and clarity to decisions others find overwhelming.
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Ownership Mentality When a stockout happens or inventory turns slip, you take responsibility for solving it and hold
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yourself and your team to a high standard.
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Builder's Drive You want to design new systems, challenge legacy processes, and leave behind a playbook that didn'texist before you.
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Versatile Communication You can walk a boardroom through working capital strategy and walk a warehouse floorwith equal ease
