Sr. Retail Buyer

Sr. Retail Buyer

Region: MD, PA, & NJ

The candidate in this role must be able to travel up to 25% of the time throughout the designated region, and will be required to work on-site when not traveling.

About the Role:

As a Senior Retail Buyer, you will lead sourcing, purchasing, and planning efforts for materials and finished goods, strategically managing the retail assortment to align with customer needs and market trends. Your role will involve analyzing data, forecasting, pricing, and inventory planning to drive sales and ensure an optimal product mix. You will foster strong vendor partnerships, negotiate pricing, and continuously seek new opportunities for business growth.

What You'll Do:

• Strategic Buying & Planning

• Drive the strategic direction for assigned categories, ensuring competitive pricing, relevant assortment, and compelling promotions to enhance the customer shopping experience.

• Analyze market trends and customer preferences to select brands and items that align with current and future needs.

• Develop a bottom-up financial plan to meet category and total area sales and margin goals.

• Assortment & Inventory Management

• Oversee product assortment, determining mix and category roles, and approve master product selection.

• Partners with inventory and supply chain teams to ensure inventory optimization and support promotional activities.

• Perform regular store visits to assess assortment presentation, pricing, and promotions, ensuring alignment with strategic goals.

• Pricing & Promotion

• Set and review pricing strategies that uphold brand pricing integrity, maximize gross margin, and enhance competitive positioning.

• Determine promotional pricing based on seasonal events, competitive landscape, and sales goals.

• Evaluate promotional effectiveness, implementing changes to drive year-over-year improvements.

• Vendor & Stakeholder Collaboration

• Cultivate partnerships with reliable vendors and negotiate favorable pricing and promotional support.

• Collaborate closely with inventory management, marketing, and supply chain teams to align strategies across functions.

• Guide cross-functional partners in buying and analysis best practices.

• Lead and mentor team members to foster their professional development.

What You'll Bring:

• Associate or bachelor's degree, or equivalent experience in retail buying.
• Minimum of 5 years in retail buying or merchandising roles within the retail industry, with a focus on category management, inventory planning, and strategic pricing.
• Strong analytical skills, proficiency in MS Excel and experience with Tableau or similar tools.
• Financial planning skills and familiarity with retail business drivers, including pricing, promotion, and assortment management.
• Excellent negotiation skills with a strong sense of product trends and customer insights.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with a proactive, problem-solving attitude.

Even Better If You Have:

• Experience in the food or beverage industry, consumer packaged goods (CPG), or cannabis

Physical Requirements and Work Environment

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.

While performing the duties of this Job, the employee is regularly required to stand, walk, sit, talk or hear, use hands to finger or feel. The employee is occasionally required to reach with hands and arms, climb and balance; stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl, lift up to 10 pounds.

This position has no special vision requirements.

This position requires high stress tolerance, adaptability, and flexibility. Ability to work in an ever-changing environment.