Director, Merchandise Planning & Allocation

About the Team
Pet Smart’s Canada Home Office (CHO) is home to approximately 50+ associates who work in departments such as Merchandising, Marketing, Demand Planning, Pricing, Space Planning, Digital/e-Commerce, Human Resources, Legal, IT and more. The small but mighty team at the CHO supports the operations of 160+ Pet Smart stores in Canada and works closely with counterparts at Pet Smart’s global corporate headquarters located in Phoenix, Arizona.

We also share the Canada Home Office with our colleagues at Pet Smart Charities of Canada—an independent, registered charity. Pet Smart Charities of Canada is committed to making the world a better place for pets and all who love them by connecting pets with loving homes through adoption, improving access to veterinary care and supporting families in times of crisis with access to pet food, shelter, and emergency relief.

About the Location
At Pet Smart, teamwork and connection are core to how we thrive. This role is based at our Canada Home Office, with an expectation of working a minimum of four days in the office each week. In a standard work week, associates may work up to one remote “flex day” (with leader approval). Our hybrid approach is designed to foster strong collaboration while also supporting flexibility and individual success.

About the Job
The Director, Merchandise Planning & Allocation is responsible for developing and leading the end-to-end MP&A strategy for Pet Smart Canada. This role leads merchandise planning, pricing, demand planning, space planning, and inventory allocation to maximize sales, margin, inventory productivity, and customer experience. The Director, MP&A partners closely with Merchandise, Marketing, Retail Operations, and US counterparts to deliver enterprise and Canada specific objectives.

This role leads strategic, seasonal, and annual planning activities and provides data driven insights to optimize assortments, localization, pricing strategies, and product life cycle management. The position plays a critical leadership role in translating consumer, category, and competitive insights into actionable plans that drive profitable growth in Canada.

Key Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership and Planning

Lead the strategic development and execution of merchandise planning, allocation, space optimization, localized assortments, and inventory optimization for Canada.

Develop and execute seasonal, annual, and long range financial and strategic plans across vendor, customer, and merchandising segments.

Partner with Merchandise Buying leadership to align category strategies, investment priorities, and execution plans with corporate objectives.

Translate consumer, category, and competitive insights into portfolio plans that optimize revenue, margin, pricing, and inventory productivity.

Merchandise Planning, Pricing, Allocation and Optimization

Direct the development of the Canada merchandise plan and all associated KPIs including sales, margin, inventory turnover, service levels, and in stock performance.

Lead and measure performance against business planning and product creation calendars to drive timely, informed decision making.

Own end to end inventory management including in line, promotional, and seasonal products, ensuring optimal service levels while minimizing excess and ad residue.

Establish and manage inventory productivity targets, demand plans, and vendor inventory metrics in partnership with Supply Chain, US counterparts and vendors.

Merchandise Planning partnering with Pricing to support execution of pricing strategies across the product life cycle, including promotional pricing, markdown optimization, elasticity management, and zone pricing.

Oversee allocation and replenishment strategies that support sales, margin, and customer experience while optimizing space utilization and assortment localization.

Drive continuous improvement through analytics, testing, and process optimization across planning, allocation, store requirements and space disciplines.

Cross Functional Collaboration and Execution

Collaborate with Marketing to execute division and category marketing and promotional plans including ads, planner locations,…