Merchandising Product Owner Jobs

Role Summary

Under the general direction of the VP of Information Technology, the Merchandising Product Owner [GR1] (which includes PLM, Assortment and Merchandise Financial Planning systems), will lead the modernization efforts to replace, enhance and support all merchandising systems. Merchandising Product Owner will review business requirements, generate project specifications ensuring they are in accordance with best practices. The Merchandising Product Owner will also work in conjunction with the Business Technology Manager, IT Scrum Master and Business Product owners to effectively manage project timelines, resources, deliverables, and risks. The Merchandising Product Owner will works closely with Department Heads (including merchandising, finance, marketing & eCom) to define all system and process needs and to ensure proper documentation of all as is and to be documented. The Merchandising Product Owner will contribute to the team with their specific functional and technical expertise to help steer the strategic direction towards fully implemented services matching Laura’s specific business needs.

Critical Responsibilities

• Ensures end-users buy in and sign off on all development issues.
• Works closely with the vendor(s) to ensure alignment and project cadence.
• In conjunction with the IT Scrum Master, and Business Technology Manager, supports in Managing the timeline and mitigates all issues and risks related to the project.
• Follow up and foster the adoption of the platform by supporting the internal customers, including writing usage guides, and organizing training.
• Support coordinating the assessment and the integration of any tools and services in the Applications Landscape with the PLM system and solutions.
• Follows up on action items resulting from the various discussions with users, vendors and team members.
• Reviews business requirements on an ongoing basis.
• Interact and coordinate with Subject Matter Experts (Business Product Owners) and various stakeholders to gather requirements and define the design and the implementation plan for the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system.
• Facilitates and performs training on the new applications as they are rolled out.
• Work closely with the merchandising team to ensure gaps are understood and clear plan to address them is communicated.
• Documents, refines and manages requirements, as is documentation as well as to be documented.
• In conjunction with the Business Technology Manager, generate various project documents: Charter, Scope, Project Plan, Project Status.
• Collaborate and coordinate with external consultants regarding any configuration, customization, integration, training, and with any Laura external partners to use the PLM platform as a standard collaboration space for defined processes.
• In conjunction with the Business Technology Manager, Manages the development and implementation of new merchandising applications (both functional and technical).
• Facilitates the project and development review meetings and prepares the user training material for the new applications.
• In conjunction with the IT Scrum master delegates responsibilities to project team members (Infra, Security, Dev, QA) and performs follow-ups to ensure quality standards and timelines are respected.

Additional Responsibilities

• Adheres to all new and existing Company policies and procedures (i.e. IT Methodology, Loss Prevention, Health & Safety and Human Resources).
• Works with the different IT (Infra/ Security) team on issues relating to hardware, software, network components and communications.
• Manage scope creep and future enhancements while documenting backlog for all of merchandising.
• Works closely with IT on issues relating to interfaces and additional development requirements.

Requirements

• Bilingualism is an asset.
• PMP or CAPM Certification is an asset.
• Minimum of 10 years experience leading multiple projects in a fast-paced business environment.
• Ability to work in a team environment
• Strong communication skills (verbal, written and presentation)
• Detail oriented and able to create user documentation
• Self-driving, proactive, with a can-do attitude and excellent coordination and communication skills, able to build a strong collaboration between different teams with the goal of deploying our new merchandising platforms.
• Experience implementing Retail merchandising systems and an understanding of financial systems including Aptos CRM, WMS, Great Plains, or equivalent is preferred.
• PLM is an asset
• Good experience to support gathering, collecting, and validating requirements from the business stakeholders (internal and external), and leading challenging projects, ideally in the retail area.
• Working knowledge of the standard Systems Development Life Cycle
• Excellent working knowledge of Microsoft Business Applications (MS Project, MS Office), Confluence & Jira
• Merchandising experience is a must.

Working Conditions and Environment

• This is a full-time position.
• Works in a sitting/walking/standing position.
• Hybrid work environment.