The posting
FOR OUR HEAD OFFICE NORTHERN EUROPE, BASED IN HAMBURG, WE ARE LOOKING FOR YOU!
Category Management Senior Specialist (Strategic Planning Focus) – Hamburg
Similar roles: Buyer, Category Manager, Merchandise Planner
WE DELIVER • WE DREAM • WE CARE • WE DARE
WE DELIVER - Let's deliver together:
- Strategic planning and initiative follow-through
- Support the strategic assortment planning agenda by leading the planning workstream for key initiatives such as Tourism, Engraving, or other commercial focus areas.
- Translate initiative performance, market trends, store feedback, and customer demand into clear recommendations, decision support, and next steps.
- Identify whether opportunities or risks are linked to market, store, product, stock, assortment, or execution topics, and proactively connect with the right stakeholders to validate root causes and align on actions.
- Validate market needs through performance analysis, competitor checks, store visits, and close collaboration with commercial teams.
- Reporting, insights and decision-making routines
- Design, standardize, and maintain reusable reporting views and planning tools across weekly trading, cycles, strategic initiatives, and EOSS, ensuring consistent definitions, ownership, and efficient refresh routines.
- Turn reporting into decision support by simplifying complexity, highlighting what matters, and ensuring each output leads to a clear recommendation, decision, or follow-up action.
- Newness / cycle planning
- Build and maintain cluster-level assortment views for newness/NPI decisions, including ranging, expectations, rankings, quantity guidance, and market/channel relevance.
- Lead cycle post-mortems that connect launch performance, market feedback, stock availability, and execution learnings, providing clear guidance to Global on how future cycles should be bought, shaped, forecasted, and prioritised.
- Provide clear feedback on new collections and communicate cluster needs based on market trends, customer demand, and commercial priorities.
- Weekly trading and performance deep dives
- Drive weekly trading insights by identifying what is over- or under-performing, where action is needed, and which stakeholders need to be engaged to solve issues or unlock opportunities.
- Lead monthly and quarterly performance deep dives by market, channel, initiative, and product area to assess sales trends, assortment effectiveness, and strategic priorities.
- EOSS readiness and commercial planning
- Own EOSS readiness through product-range reviews, bottom-up assortment and sell-out forecasts, discontinued-item analysis, commercial scenario planning, discount strategy recommendations, and clear read-outs on whether the stock position and sales potential are sufficient to deliver the expected result.
- Monitor progress against targets and recommend actions when performance is off-track.
- Cross-functional collaboration and team support
- Partner closely with the GTM-focused Specialist to translate assortment direction, insights, and recommendations into local execution, with clear boundaries between planning and execution.
- Influence Global and internal stakeholders through evidence-based recommendations, constructive challenge, and clear communication of cluster needs and priorities.
- Guide and coach the Working Student by assigning tasks, reviewing outputs, and building capability in line with the strategic planning agenda.
WE DREAM - This is what we dream of:
- We are looking for a seasoned Merchandise Planner who can independently structure complex business questions, define the right analytical approach, and turn findings into commercially relevant recommendations and follow-through.
- You are highly number-driven, commercial, fact-based, and analytical, with the ability to work confidently with large data sets, identify what truly matters, and communicate insights in a simple, decision-ready way.
- You thrive in a fast-paced retail environment, are comfortable with ambiguity and changing priorities, and can independently prioritise the topics with the greatest commercial impact.
- You are people-smart and collaborative, able to build trusted relationships across functions and geographies, influence without direct authority, and challenge constructively when needed.
- You combine strong logical reasoning with emotional intelligence and can provide clear feedback, guidance, and coaching to support others in translating strategy into execution.
- You are structured and pragmatic, with a continuous improvement mindset and a strong focus on making reporting, tools, and routines more efficient and action-oriented.
- You bring at least five years of relevant experience in merchandise planning, assortment planning, buying, or category management within retail, fashion, lifestyle, or FMCG, ideally in an omnichannel or global vertical retail environment.
- Preferred education: Economics, Finance, Business Administration, Fashion Merchandising or similar.
We CARE - what you can expect:
We truly care to offer you a great place to work!
- Internationally successful company with a flat hierarchy
- A highly motivated team with a Can-Do-Attitude
- A great discount on our jewellery
- Personal and professional development through regular e-learning modules, trainings and workshops
- Beautiful & modern office space in the Hamburg city center
- Gym membership at Fitness First at a reduced Pandora-Corporate-Rate
- Cooperation with corporate benefits & free access to a benefits portal for discounted tickets for sport, culture events and corporate deals
- Monthly Sodexo vouchers
- Company pension scheme with an attractive employer contribution and insurance package
- Flexible working time with opportunities for mobile working & Mobile Working Kits Allowance
We love to celebrate special moments together that matter to us like your birthday, where you are given a special leave day, or with corporate events in the summertime & at Christmas.
We DARE - you to apply.
We are looking forward to welcoming you!
