Free People Movement Senior Manager, Operations & Strategy

As the Lead for Operations and Strategy, you will serve as the person catalyzing our process from product insights to post-consumer operations, leading the creation, execution and continuous improvement of the company’s global operations calendar and process.

The Lead will drive cross-functional processes that strengthen our team partnership, enhance operational efficiency, and leverage data and AI to drive improvements. This is a highly visible role that requires analytical depth, operational passion, and ability to influence and partner across levels and functions. 

In this role, you must be able to connect dots across the business, pull together processes to simplify complexity, and show cross-functional range to operate effectively across domains and contexts. You will be expected to operate and lead at every level, shaping decisions with executive stakeholders, partnering seamlessly with cross-functional teams across Design, Development, Product and Merchandising, Marketing, and Strategy, driving operational execution excellence and drawing insights from what you see in the business and our activation approaches. 

If you are passionate about building scalable  processes, optimizing, and leading through data and building efficiencies in a retail organization, this is an opportunity to make sourcing strategies, optimizing global supply chain processes, and leading innovation through data, this is an opportunity to help shape the future of  one of the most exciting organizations in women’s sports and activewear.

• Lead the creation (when necessary), evolution, and execution, and evolution of the global calendar – from inception to commercialization and beyond - ensuring alignment across sourcing, product, design, merchandising, marketing and sales.

• Partner with the heads of Product, Sourcing and Design and to define and drive distinct product creation calendars for the different lines and speeds of our business

• Oversee operational processes to ensure speed and efficiency to market.

• Collaborate with Product, Merchandising, Sales and Marketing to desing Go to Market process, calendar, and milestones

• Properly identify and pursue opportunities for process improvement, agility, and innovation across all calendars and processes.

• Develop and implement tools and processes to combine human capacity planning across business units

• Act as the team’s data and AI champion, driving the use of analytics and automation when relevant

• Design dashboards and performance metrics that link our process to our objectives.

• Build executive-level materials summarizing our process, process performance, and strategic opportunities
  
  

• 5 years of experience in management consulting, sales or merchandising operations, business strategy, or corporate advisory, or 3 years of experience with an MBA

• Experience in leading cross-functional initiatives from design through execution.

• Experience in process evaluation and design, operational analysis and working with teams to create operations flows 

• Understanding of apparel production and/or retail business

• Experience with negotiation, collaboration, and communication skills with the ability to influence across all levels of the organization.

• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment that values agility, and is learning to operate at scale 

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Supply Chain, Fashion Merchandising, or related field; MBA or equivalent advanced degree preferred but not necessary.

• Ideal candidate brings foundational AI literacy, including experience using generative AI tools, and a proactive mindset to experiment with new technologies to drive process design and innovation. 

• Experience building new operating models and scaling frameworks, ability to manage ambiguity, deconstruct problems, and drive executive stakeholder alignment.

• Excellent communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to influence executive leaders and teams.
  
  

URBN offers comprehensive Perks & Benefits to employees. Availability and eligibility to specific benefits may be subject to your location and employment status. Benefits include medical, dental, vision, PTO, generous employee discounts, retirement savings and much more! For additional information visit www.urbn.com/work-with-us/benefits 

URBN celebrates diversity and is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We are proud to provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, sex (including gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity or expression), religion, creed, age, physical or mental disability, national origin or ancestry, ethnicity, citizenship, service in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other protected characteristic as established by law. We believe strongly in fostering a safe, fair and respectful work environment. To ensure compliance with our non-discrimination and anti-harassment policies, we offer anti-harassment training to managers and employees.