Senior Director, Specialty Buying

Join our Support Center and be a pivotal resource to our field and distribution teams —where innovation, cross-functional collaboration, and career growth come together in an exciting environment!

The Senior Director, Specialty leads the commercial strategy, brand partnerships, and category performance for WHSmith North America’s Specialty portfolio, including licensed merchandise, beauty, fragrance, sports, and other emerging specialty categories across the airport and resort estate.

This role is responsible for driving sales growth, margin expansion, and brand relevance by developing category strategies, building strong vendor partnerships, and optimizing product assortments aligned to passenger demographics and airport environments. The Senior Director works cross-functionally with Operations, Trade Planning & Deployment, Supply Chain, Marketing, and Finance to ensure specialty categories deliver strong commercial performance while enhancing the overall passenger retail experience.

Location: Support Center, 6600 S Bermuda Rd, Las Vegas, NV 89119

Schedule: Monday – Friday, 8:00 am-5:00 pm (onsite)

Pay: $150,000 - 180,000 annually

Benefits:

• Employee Discount
• Employer-Paid Life Insurance
• Flex Time Off
• Disability Insurance
• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• Paid Parental Leave
• 401(k) with company match

Job Responsibilities

Category Strategy & Growth

• Develop and execute category strategies across licensed merchandise, beauty, fragrance, sports, and specialty retail segments
• Identify emerging trends, brands, and product opportunities that strengthen the Specialty portfolio.
• Build category roadmaps that support sustained sales growth, margin improvement, and retail differentiation.

Vendor Partnerships

• Lead relationships and negotiations with key brand partners, licensors, and specialty vendors.
• Secure favorable commercial terms including margin structures, exclusivity opportunities, and promotional funding.
• Partner with vendors to develop travel retail assortments and destination-specific merchandise.

Commercial Performance

• Monitor and drive category performance across the estate through assortment optimization, pricing strategy, and promotional programs.
• Analyze sales data, passenger trends, and store performance to guide category decisions.
• Identify opportunities to improve conversion, average transaction value (ATV), and units per transaction (UPT).

Merchandising & Retail Experience

• Partner with Trade Planning & Deployment to ensure strong in-store presentation and brand storytelling.
• Support development of specialty merchandising frameworks suited to high-traffic airport retail environments.
• Collaborate with Operations to ensure consistent execution across stores.

Inventory & Supply Alignment

• Work with Supply Chain and Inventory teams to optimize replenishment, inventory productivity, and sell-through performance.
• Ensure appropriate inventory levels to support sales while minimizing aged inventory risk.

Innovation & Concept Development

• Identify opportunities to introduce new specialty brands, shop-in-shop concepts, and experiential retail formats.
• Support development of new specialty retail concepts across the airport estate.

Decision Accountabilities

• Specialty category assortment and brand portfolio strategy
• Vendor selection and partnership development
• Pricing and promotional strategy for specialty categories
• Category performance improvement initiatives
• New brand launches and product introductions

Key Performance Indicators

• Specialty category sales growth
• Category gross margin performance
• Average Transaction Value (ATV) contribution
• Units per Transaction (UPT) within specialty categories
• Inventory productivity and sell-through rates
• Vendor funding and commercial partnership value

Key Stakeholders

Internal

• Commercial Leadership
• Operations Leadership (Field & Central)
• Trade Planning & Deployment
• Supply Chain & Inventory Planning
• Marketing
• Finance

External

• Brand partners and specialty vendors
• Licensing partners and sports organizations
• Airport partners for destination merchandise opportunities

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Retail, or related field (MBA preferred)
• 10+ years’ experience in retail merchandising, category management, or brand partnerships
• 3+ years’ experience leading a team of buyers
• Experience in specialty retail categories such as beauty, fragrance, licensed products, or sports merchandise
• Strong commercial and negotiation skills with demonstrated sales and margin growth
• Experience managing multi-location retail categories
• Strong analytical and data-driven decision-making capability

Additional Requirements

• Frequent sitting
• Limited standing, walking, climbing, crouching, bending, pushing, or pulling
• Limited travel or overnight
• Occasional travel or overnight
• Frequent travel or overnight; including international
• Normal or corrected vision and hearing
• Can distinguish varying or specific colors, patterns, or materials
• Fluency in English is required for training, customer interactions, and ensuring compliance with company policies and procedures
• Typically, indoors
• Typically, at a consistent temperature
• Lift 0-25 lbs.
• Use of fine motor hand functions

We can’t wait to meet you so apply today!

About Us

WHSmith is a leading global travel retailer with over 1,700 stores across 30 countries worldwide. WHSmith North America, incorporating Marshall Retail Group (MRG) and InMotion, represents over half of the Company’s international store estate, with a collection of attractive, successful specialty retail stores located in airports and resorts across North America.

WHSmith prides itself on creating unique experiences for customers by developing distinctive retail store concepts that feature and highlight the local culture, community, and lifestyle of the cities in which they are located.

EEO/ADA/DFWP

WH Smith is committed to employing a diverse workforce. Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sexual orientation, national origin/ancestry, age, gender identity, gender expression, military/veteran status, marital status, disability status or any other basis prohibited by law. It is about each person bringing passion and skills to a dynamic and inclusive workplace!