Lead Category Specialist

Company Description

The Warehouse Group (TWG) has become a Kiwi household name, and we proudly recognise the role that we play in communities throughout New Zealand. We are the largest general merchandise retailer in NZ across The Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery & Noel Leeming. We are at an exciting point in our journey where our focus is on becoming brand-centric, aiming to deliver an unparalleled experience for our customers. Agility and collaboration are cornerstones of our work culture, empowering us to adapt swiftly and work seamlessly together. By being brand-led and retail-focused, we are intentional about placing the right people in the right roles, allowing us to perform work that truly makes a difference.

Job Description

A snapshot of who the Apparel team is as a whole - dynamic, fashion forward, commercial with both a keen eye for trend and quality and deep understanding of our customers - they’re truly passionate about bringing excitement to our customers through great value apparel ranges Our Category Specialists are a crucial part of our Apparel team, being the key day to day operational admin, point contact in supplier relationships and offer buying assistance to our Apparel buyers.

We’re currently seeking a Lead Category Specialist to deliver & lead by example - key to deliver operational admin excellence and empower, coach and mentor the Category Specialist team to support the customer goals and buying objectives of our Apparel department.

You’ll be responsible for:

- Overseeing the daily operations and activities across your team and Apparel department to ensure key team milestones are met with high level of accuracy
- Taking ownership of delivery excellence of tasks, merchandise policies and procedures, ensuring quality, accuracy and deadlines are met including critical path milestones
- Providing mentorship, feedback and development to grow capability and skills of your team. Leading with clarity, integrity and accountability
- Work cross functionally with stakeholders to ensure clear communication, smooth administration and operation of your categories
- Ownership of all product data that is delivered complete and accurate, within critical path and deadlines
- Collaboration with Product Data team and Merch Enrichment team to ensure product descriptions and features online increase conversion
- Collaboration with Buyers on any product data or supplier issues needing escalation
- Delivering all order placement to schedule and deadlines - placing, tracking, raising purchase order and barcodes
- Delivering on operational administration all to milestones and deadlines - order placements, raising supplier rebates, promotion loading, ownership of sample management

Qualifications

You’ll champion your team whilst raising the bar on how the team shows up and delivers for the business - living and breathing collaboration and having an owner’s mindset will come naturally to you. You’ll be passionate about and love retail as much as we do This role will see you work cross-functionally and influence a range of stakeholders at all levels. Equally important is your ability to develop, empower and nurture your team to drive engagement and the best practice - your passion and drive to share knowledge and raise the bar on productivity and efficiency will be infectious.

Your prioritisation and time management skills are strengths as you work efficiently to juggle priorities, manage workload and deliver to strict deadlines with ease. You will have outstanding verbal and written communication skills, have high attention to detail and robust organisational skills.

Also on our wish list:

- Experience delivering buyers assistance and supporting the buying journey
- Background/experience/knowledge in fashion or apparel would be a great bonus
- Strong administration and organisational capabilities - you’re a natural organiser
- Curiosity, innovative and collaborative approach
- Calm approach and decisiveness in the dynamic pace of retail

Additional Information

We are intentional about finding the right people to drive things forward in our brand-centric, retail-focused journey - allowing us to perform work as a team that truly makes a difference for the business and or customers. What we can promise in return is work that will challenge and excite, working with people passionate like-minded people.

Our teams balance a hybrid working approach (up to 2 days per week from home). Conveniently located in Northcote, we offer free car parking on-site plus EV charging We'll also give you your birthday off, great discounts across our brands and excellent career opportunities within the business