Director of Buying / Merchandising - PERM FTE

Director of Buying / Merchandising

ONSITE OFFICE Location: Des Moines, Iowa ONSITE 

Why This Role Matters: This leader will shape the product strategy that drives revenue and profitability. We need someone who brings both strong merchandising instincts and strong leadership presence—a person who can set vision, move teams to action, and elevate the function.

Director of Buying / Merchandising to lead product strategy across retail and online ecommerce channels. This is a senior leadership role for someone with deep merchandising expertise, strong business acumen, and the ability to lead a high-performing team !  

You will drive, manage, oversee, and be in the day to day weeds with a team of 8+ Buyers plus a Merchandising Manager leading merchandising coordinators. Requires someone who can set the strategic direction, EMBRACE change, data analytics experience / make data driven decisions, hold teams accountable, remove blockers, and step into the details negotiating with vendors etc.  

What You’ll Own

• Lead the overall merchandising and buying strategy across categories, including assortment planning, product lifecycle, pricing structure, and presentation

• Build profitable, trend-right assortments aligned to customer demand, brand positioning, and financial goals

• Direct procurement and vendor strategy, including sourcing, onboarding, negotiations, pricing, terms, and contracts

• Negotiate and control 3rd party vendor relationships.  

• Data analytics experience and history making DATA DRIVEN DECISIONS.

• Use sales, market, customer, and inventory data to guide top-level buying decisions and set direction for the team

•Guide forecasting and inventory strategy across product groups, establishing performance targets that inform purchasing decisions, support profitability, and improve availability with regular and seasonal buying.  

• Partner with Marketing on promotions, campaigns, and pricing strategy

• Align with Visual teams to ensure strong product presentation and CX

• Improve merchandising workflows through better process design, cross-functional collaboration, and adoption of tools/technology that automate routine work

What We’re Looking For

• 6+ years in merchandising, buying, or retail or e-commerce

• 3–5 years of people leadership

• Strong background in vendor negotiation, assortment planning, pricing, demand planning, and margin management

• Proven ability to lead through change and help teams adapt quickly to new products, platforms, processes, and partnerships

• High level of retail math and forecasting capability, including markup, margin, fill rates, and inventory productivity

• Bachelor’s degree in Merchandising, Marketing,

Direct hire permanent position with one of our local DES MOINES client companies. Full time DH position- Director of Buying / Merchandising to $130K base. For immediate, confidential consideration, please contact me directly, Carrie Danger, SVP, Permanent Placement Team, Iowa Region at Office: 515-259-6087 or Cell: 515-991-0863, Email resume confidentially to Carrie Danger * My email address is on my LinkedIN page OR you can ONE CLICK APPLY AT Robert Half website, Specifically Apply to this posting.

• At least 7 years of experience in merchandising, buying, retail, or e-commerce environments.

• 3 or more years of experience leading teams and managing performance in a fast-paced business setting.

• Demonstrated success in vendor negotiations, assortment planning, pricing strategy, demand forecasting, and margin improvement.

• Strong command of retail and inventory metrics, including markup, margin, fill rate, and stock productivity.

• Ability to lead through organizational change and help teams adapt to new products, systems, processes, or business partnerships.

• Proficiency with data analysis and digital commerce tools, with the ability to translate insights into business decisions.