Role: Inventory and Merchandise Planning Manager
Location: Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad
Job Type: Full Time, Permanent
Role Overview:
This is a strategic inventory role, responsible for end-to-end inventory planning, optimization, allocation strategy, and stock profitability across all stores. This role requires strong commercial acumen, maturity in decision-making, and the ability to influence business outcomes through data. The incumbent will:
- Own inventory health across the organization
- Interpret business data and convert it into commercial action
- Drive stock turn improvement and working capital optimization
- Take replenishment and buying decisions
- Act as a key business partner to the Director
Key Responsibilities:
Strategic Inventory Governance
- Develop and institutionalize centralized inventory planning processes
- Define stock norms, safety levels, and depth strategies across categories
- Establish frameworks for allocation and replenishment across 70+ stores
- Ensure optimal stock distribution aligned with store performance and regional demand
Inventory Analytics and Business Insights
- Analyze sell-through, ageing, stock cover, and category contribution
- Identify slow-moving, non-performing, and high-velocity SKUs
- Drive corrective actions including transfers, liquidation strategies, and replenishment adjustments
- Build dashboards for real-time visibility of inventory KPIs
- Present periodic inventory performance insights to the Director
Commercial Decision-Making and Replenishment
- Take objective calls on replenishment planning based on sales velocity and trend
- analysis
- Drive inter-store transfers to optimize sell-through
- Manage inventory investment levels and capital allocation
- Collaborate with brands/vendors for stock planning and commercial alignment
Working Capital and Profitability Optimization
- Improve inventory turnover and reduce ageing stock
- Optimize GMROI and stock productivity
- Balance availability with capital efficiency
- Monitor inventory carrying cost and dead stock exposure
Cross-Functional Coordination
- Work closely with retail operations, finance, and brand teams
- Guide store teams on inventory discipline and reporting
- Act as the central point of accountability for inventory performance
Requirements:
- Proven experience in Inventory Planning / Merchandise Planning / Retail Supply Chain
- Mandatory exposure to multi-store retail environment
- Experience in luxury, lifestyle, fashion, jewellery, electronics, or premium retail preferred
- Experience managing high-value SKUs and distributed retail networks
- Strong command over inventory KPIs (Sell-through, Stock Turn, Weeks of Cover, GMROI, Ageing Analysis)
- Advanced Excel proficiency preferred
- Experience working with ERP-driven inventory systems
- Strong financial understanding of inventory impact on working capital
- High ownership and accountability
- Ability to take independent commercial decisions
- Strong presentation skills and ability to interact with senior leadership
- Data-driven, structured, and process-oriented
Pay: ₹1,000,000.00 - ₹1,200,000.00 per year
Application Question(s):
- How many years of experience do you have in Inventory Planning, Merchandise Planning in retail space ?
- Have you worked in a multi-store retail environment?
- Have you worked with inventory KPIs such as Sell-through, Stock Turn, Ageing analysis etc.?
- On a scale of 1 to 5, how confident are you in your ability to establish and implement inventory planning processes within a retail environment?
- This role entails working 6 days from their Head Office Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad. Are you comfortable with that?
- What is your current monthly salary?
- What is your expected monthly salary?
- What is your notice period?
Work Location: In person
