Senior Manager, Retail Planning, Merchandising & In-stock

Job Description

The Senior Manager of Retail Planning, Merchandising & In-stock will define and execute the retail planning and merchandising strategy for LEGO’s owned and operated stores in China. 
As the first leader in this role, you will establish an integrated center of operational excellence—aligning closely with global RPMI organization to localize and enforce new systems, tools and ways of working across planning, merchandising, allocation, and inventory management.
This role will be instrumental in building data-driven retail operations that drive commercial results, optimize product availability, elevate the LEGO in-store experience, and support the growth of the China retail business.

No relocation assistance is offered for this position

Strategic Retail Planning & Business Leadership

• Lead annual and in-season retail business planning cycles, including sales targets, monthly submissions, assortment lifecycle, and space productivity goals.

• Partner with global retail and regional leadership to cascade global strategies into an actionable retail plan tailored to China’s market dynamics.

• Drive alignment between merchandising, marketing, and retail operations functions to maximize sell-through and consumer satisfaction and limit excess inventory and/or overstocks.

• Forecast and report business performance, identifying opportunities to improve profitability, efficiency, and forecast accuracy.

Merchandising & Assortment Strategy

• Ensure Merchandising excellence through reinforced range planning efforts focused on localized products and assortment strategies in partnership with local category, visual and marketing teams.

• Work with offsite Space/Floor Planning support, ensuring local merchandising responsible maintains consistent, effective relationships, to guarantee the LEGO brand story is effectively expressed.

• Coordinate with category management to ensure product lifecycle management across key lines, exclusives, and promotional sets.

• Collaborate with marketing to build moments that drive traffic and elevate store experiences.

Inventory Management & In-stock Optimization

• Own SKU forecasting, replenishment, and allocation processes across all LEGO operated stores in China.

• Implement systems for inventory planning and allocation in partnership with global retail function.

• Establish clear inventory KPIs to manage on-shelf availability, minimize stock-outs, and inventory turns.

• Guide data analytics and performance dashboards to inform demand patterns and forecast accuracy.

Operational Excellence & Systems Integration

• Lead the rollout of globally developed retail tools, systems, and new ways of working across the team.

• Build KPI frameworks that drive consistency, transparency, and efficiency across planning and merch.

• Partner with global process design teams to test, adapt, and refine integrated digital solutions (planning, allocation, pricing, reporting) with specific consideration for China market requirements.

• Champion continuous improvement and cross-functional capability building.

Leadership & Stakeholder Collaboration

• Build and mentor a high-performing retail planning and merchandising team, fostering a culture of creativity, accountability, and collaboration, with a willingness to assume direct responsibility over team tasks if required.

• Act as the key business partner for local leadership, marketing, VM, and category teams to bridge brand strategy, consumer insights, and operational action.

• Represent LEGO Retail China within global RPMI to influence tools, and input into future strategies.

• Support the Head of LR China and leadership team in long-term retail expansion and capability-building.

Play your part in our team succeeding

LEGO® Retail RPMI is at the heart of delivering good business plan to create the pinnacle LEGO® Brand experience across our Branded Sales Channels.

It is a global brand-led creativity and innovation powerhouse which bring to life the LEGO® Group mission to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow.

This pivotal role supports LEGO Retail in this mission by driving the strongest planning, merchandising and In-Stock plans to drive inspiration, discoverability and conversion, driving Active Base of our shoppers and consumers.  

Do you have what it takes?

• Bachelor / Master degree (preferably in marketing/international business) is preferred

• 10+ years relevant professional experience in full scope of planning, merchandise and allocation.with proven 3+ experience on people management .

• Proven track record working in a global business with strong multi-cultural teams, fostering strong relationships, team spirit and culture

• Advanced analytical skills, data-driven way of working, solution driven and result-oriented

• Extensive experience in understanding consumer needs and the retail environment. You must have a commercial mindset and full comprehension of marketing and sales principles

• Skillful influencer, stakeholder manager and natural collaborator

• Experience working with dashboards to provide in-depth data and insight reports

• Experience leveraging specific corporate data platforms (Power BI, Tableau, Adobe Analytics) and Microsoft office programs (e.g. PowerPoint, Excel, Word)

• Advanced or Native Mandarin Speaker, advanced level of English

Nice to have:

• Experience in trade or sales

• knowledge & Passion for Toy Category

• In depth knowledge of the China market

#LI-JY2

Applications are reviewed on an ongoing basis. However, please note we do amend or withdraw our jobs and reserve the right to do so at any time, including prior to any advertised closing date. So, if you're interested in this role we encourage you to apply as soon as possible.

What’s in it for you?

Here is what you can expect:

Family Care Leave - We offer enhanced paid leave options for those important times.

Insurances – All colleagues are covered by our life and disability insurance which provides protection and peace of mind.

Wellbeing - We want our people to feel well and thrive. We offer resources and benefits to nurture physical and mental wellbeing along with opportunities to build community and inspire creativity.

Colleague Discount – We know you'll love to build, so from day 1 you will qualify for our generous colleague discount.

Bonus - We do our best work to succeed together. When goals are reached and if eligible, you'll be rewarded through our bonus scheme.

Workplace - When you join the team you'll be assigned a primary workplace location i.e. one of our Offices, stores or factories. Our hybrid work policy means an average of 3 days per week in the office. The hiring team will discuss the policy and role eligibility with you during the recruitment process.

Children are our role models. Their curiosity, creativity and imagination inspire everything we do. We strive to create a diverse, dynamic and inclusive culture of play at the LEGO Group, where everyone feels safe, valued and they belong.

The LEGO Group is highly committed to equal employment opportunity and equal pay and seeks to encourage applicants from all backgrounds (eg. sex, gender identity or expression, race/ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, age and religion) to apply for roles in our team.

The LEGO Group is fully committed to Children’s Rights and Child Wellbeing across the globe. Candidates offered positions with high engagement with children are required to take part in Child Safeguarding Background Screening, as a condition of the offer.

Thank you for sharing our global commitment to Children’s Rights.

Just imagine building your dream career.

Then make it real.

Join the LEGO® team today.