W2 temporary assignment in San Francisco, CA.

We are looking for an Assistant Merchant to act as an integral part of our global merchandising team. It is important to us this person can manage and provide day-to-day support within a cross-functional role, with a wide range of diverse responsibilities anywhere between bee keeping and wizard training. Ideally this person is someone who can twirl flaming batons with their eyes closed, while hopping on a pogo stick, without neglecting emails or outlook notifications. If you are this person we would love to get to know you and we can certainly assure you that your talents will never be overlooked.

The notable responsibilities of the Assistant Merchant are:

• Contribute to some aspects of Product Development activities
• Contribute to the execution of the annual brand plan
• Create and maintain line plans/matrix and communicate plan to stakeholders
• Assist with targeted consumer research via market shopping and trade/fashion publications to contribute to line development and pricing strategy
• Create and maintain internal seasonal sample lines
• Act as a conduit of information, materials and samples to external agencies
• Assist in creating Manufacturing Ready Packages
• Maintain seasonal product integrity in our system
• Present product lines at internal meetings

What the Assistant Merchant already has:

• Bachelor’s degree, however, a combination of college education and related work experience may be used as a substitute
• Minimum 2 years of experience working in a merchandising function for an apparel manufacturer, retailer and/or marketer
• Proficiency in PLM preferred
• Flexibility with regards to job responsibilities
• Expert knowledge and proficiency with MS Office applications including Word, Excel and Outlook
• Extremely strong customer service orientation and the ability to multi-task; with the desire to work in a very fast paced environment and an ability to not become frustrated with last minute changes
• Effective interpersonal and organizational skills; especially when it comes to working directly with senior level directors
• Impeccable communication skills across all channels with an ability to get the message across over IM, email, phone, text, smoke signals, Morse code and carrier pigeon - all at the same instance
• Excellent discretion, judgment, tact and diplomacy
• Demonstrated ability to learn new computer programs quickly