Head of Merchandise Planning

As Head of Merchandise Planning, you will play a critical role in Global Merchandise Planning (GMP) - the team that shapes the dynamic merchandise financial framework guiding ASOS’s Product function toward profitable growth. GMP empowers buying teams with informed financial plans, oversees holistic category performance, and continually refines budgets to reflect customer demand - ensuring the business invests in the right product, at the right time, in the right quantity. You will hold strategic control of product category plans for your area of the business, working across Merchandise Financial Planning, Strategic Inventory Planning and Assortment Planning to translate strategy into budgets, width and depth, and open-to-buy (OTB) decisions. You will lead a team of Planners and Assistant Planners in formulating short- and long-term category plans, distributing and re-allocating budgets, and interpreting performance to drive action and recommendation. Reporting to the ASOS Merchandising Director, you will drive category performance with an end-to-end view across product teams, delivering a dynamic approach to OTB management that improves sales and margin - and doing it with the strategic alignment, commercial curiosity, proactivity and trusted partnership that GMP expects of every one of its leaders. 1. Strategic Thinking - Support the Merchandising Director in formulating customer-facing (gender/category) pre-season sales and stock strategies, and distribute budgets to commercial product teams accordingly. - Own strategic planning and trading of category performance, overseeing intake and OTB allocation to deliver the stock requirements the business needs. - Determine investment priorities based on a combined view across insight, business units and categories. - Maintain an agile, dynamic approach to OTB management that keeps ASOS flexible, drives profitability and protects competitive advantage. - Maintain in-depth knowledge of category performance and KPIs, continually challenging and re-defining them to maximise sales and profit. - Co-ordinate and oversee delivery of end-use strategies (e.g. cold weather, high summer, occasion), providing product teams with budget and phasing guidance. - Interpret analytical data to guide width and depth by product type across business units. - Set price status guidelines for product categories to protect full-price performance. 2. Business Knowledge - Drive in-season trading through re-allocation of budgets based on customer demand, optimising stock health and Prime Stock Mix. - Use supply chain and lead-time expertise to keep the buy agile and flexible to changing customer demand. - Assimilate channel team requirements into category plans to ensure local market needs are met. - Use the latest analytical data to support decision-making, analysing trading patterns and acting on unexpected sales reactions or budget gaps. - Partner with your buying division director(s) to translate the Merchandise Financial Planning framework into a category strategy they believe in — the plan only works if the narrative behind the numbers lands. 3. Leadership - Manage a Merchandise Planning team, making strategic and trading decisions in a fast-paced environment. - Translate GMP and company strategy into clear team objectives, empowering Planners and Assistant Planners to deliver against them. - Champion GMP’s Alignment, Ownership, Energy behaviours across the team - clear priorities, unambiguous ownership, and a pace that sustains engagement. - Contribute to the Merchandise Planning Evolution programme, supporting capability-building and the team’s adoption of new planning tools, including GMP’s emerging agentic AI pilots. - Encourage cross-functional collaboration with buying, trading and channel teams, leading through top-down target setting. 4. Problem Solving - Evaluate complex situations using multiple sources of information to formulate a general direction with outcomes aligned to Product function strategy, including: - Long-term business unit projections - Category budget, OTB and intake planning - Width and depth guidance - Price architecture and status guidance 5. Impact - Support the Merchandising Director in influencing the wider Product function through advice, guidance and counsel. - Revenue and profitability are key measures of success, alongside contribution to GMP’s shared Key Results - GMV Net Sales growth, Prime Stock Mix, and Prime Sell Through. - Provide analysis and visibility of performance KPIs, ultimately supporting ASOS’s corporate targets for 12-week Prime sell-through and 52-week product ROI. - Commercial approach and control of financial budgets and targets. - Strong numerical acumen to manage performance by category. - Expertise in planning, and in managing sales, stock, intake and OTB. - Ability to make decisions in a fast-paced environment. - Fashion/market knowledge to guide trade-off decisions between business units. - Ability to work cross-functionally to drive the best outcome for ASOS. - Proven ability to manage, lead and develop a team. - Commercially curious and insight-led, with a proactive rather than reactive approach to trading decisions. - Strong organisational skills; able to use initiative and work in a pressurised environment. - Excellent communication skills, able to influence colleagues and stakeholders at all levels, including Director level. - Attention to detail. - Computer literate, with advanced Excel skills; comfortable working within Oracle or equivalent planning systems