Director Apparel Merchandising

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At L.L.Bean, we believe the outdoors brings out the best in all of us. We are committed to fostering a culture of belonging and creating safe, inclusive spaces where everyone feels welcome—both here and Outside. We value individual differences and are dedicated to maintaining an inclusive work environment where everyone can bring the best of their experience and talents and truly thrive.

L.L.Bean is seeking a dynamic Director of Apparel Merchandising to lead the strategic vision and execution of our apparel product line. In this role, you will shape the future of our assortment—driving product ideation, development, and merchandising strategies that inspire customers to embrace an active, outdoor lifestyle.

As a key leader, you will:

Provide strategic direction and data-driven insights to optimize product performance and growth.
Champion innovation and creativity in product development, ensuring alignment with brand values and customer needs.
Build and mentor high-performing, action-oriented teams, fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement.
Lead succession planning and talent development to strengthen organizational capability for the future.

The ideal candidate brings:

Proven success in merchandising leadership within apparel or related industries.
A growth mindset and ability to translate vision into actionable strategies.
Strong analytical skills combined with a passion for delivering exceptional customer experiences.

Responsibilities:

Build and grow the business by identifying and executing on opportunities to positively affect department, customer engagement and the L.L.Bean Brand.

Own Merchandising strategies of the product line and product development process. Formulate strategies, both long term vision and short-term tactical plans that are cost effective, efficient and realistic. Prioritize tasks to support Division strategies and increase earnings.

Develop and maintain consistency of vision for category across all L.L.Bean channels and regions.

Oversee strategy & execution of the line plan to ensure the line is commercially viable, provides a customer experience that delivers on target customer and on brand expectations. Own seasonal calendar, line architecture, assortment reviews, pricing and margin targets for all categories.

Participate in product milestones and ensure product needs are met at concept stage through channel execution. Present clear, succinct, strong product stories and direction in milestones and cross functional Mind to Market & Commercial Planning milestones.

Ensure consistent consumer experience through execution of cohesive product vision via assortments, marketing content and visual merchandising presentation.

Own competitive analysis for all categories; identify voids in assortment, and white space within the competitive landscape. Continuously seek deep competitor insight and trend prediction of category.

Possess a clear fiscal understanding and accountability of gross margin goals, analyze and recommend pricing strategies to hit targets.

Embrace a read and react urgency for both the business impacts and product changes necessary to stay agile while moving the business forward. Analyze how merchandising decisions and results impact earnings. Assess and respond to seasonal, yearly and strategic trends.

Partner, collaborate and ideate with other Merchandising leaders to create consistency of product assortments, messaging and processes.

Manage cross functional partnerships to continuously improve the quality and function of the product, build a compelling assortment, ensure alignment in functions and clear and compelling category story, and to ensure timely product delivery.

Manage Apparel division merchant teams. Ensure adequate training, and development of personnel; manage employee performance; resolve complex personnel problems and administer company personnel policies.

Edit, Evolve, Amplify – analyze assortment dynamics to-date & adjust targets by MG to maximize opportunities.

Other related duties as assigned.

Health and Safety Requirement

Every employee is responsible for contributing to a safe and healthy workplace. Employees are expected to be active participants in health and safety by following all safety policies and procedures, reporting unsafe conditions or at-risk behaviors to leadership, and conducting work in a safe manner. Those in a leadership role are also expected to model safe behaviors, evaluate risk, and ensure that risks are reduced to acceptable levels.

Skills & Qualifications:

4 Year Bachelor's Degree
10+ years of relevant experience
Proven track record driving successful merchandising strategies on a large scale
Ability to multi-task, manage multiple timelines
Ability to lead and provide direction to a cross functional team
Ability to coach, mentor, and develop others
Ability to identify strong product and merchandising concepts and execute
Conceptual and analytical thinking ability
Extensive experience in assigned product and category
Effectively sell a point of view to peers and upper management
Possess a strong working knowledge of financial measurements and how to impact them
Possess strong presentation, listening, verbal and written communication skills
Mindset that leads with curiosity, collaboration, empowerment & transparency

If you care about the outdoors, joining L.L.Bean is a great way to feel good about what you do. Our benefits package makes a good thing even better, with programs and perks designed to support your health and financial goals. Plus, maintaining a healthy work-life balance and re-charging outside are all part of the plan.

If your experience looks a little different from what we've identified and you think you'd be great at this role, we'd love to learn more about you! At L.L.Bean, we believe the outdoors brings out the best in all of us. We strive to reflect this every day in our commitments to employees and partners and in our efforts to promote belonging.

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