Director, Visual Merchandising

Director, Visual Merchandising - Brilliant Earth 

Brilliant Earth is seeking a Director of Visual Merchandising to innovate and implement visual standards across our showroom locations that drive customer engagement and conversion. The Director of Visual Merchandising will be responsible for providing leadership and overseeing successful execution of all visual merchandising strategies for our showroom locations. We are seeking an experienced visual merchandising leader who can beautifully and effectively present product, tell product stories, and bring the Brilliant Earth brand to life through visual displays. This is the perfect position for someone who loves to travel, is an excellent communicator and collaborator, and takes pride in creating new processes and innovative visual approaches.
 
This position sits within the Brand and Retail Experience team. The role sits at the intersection of the retail expansion team and the brand marketing team and requires close collaboration with both.
Key to this role will be building relationships cross-functionally, establishing visual merchandising best practices, providing visual merchandising training, direction, and support to retail teams, and comfortably balancing creative vision, strategic decision-making and tactical implementation. Please submit your design portfolio when applying, with particular emphasis on ideas that connect with our brand.

This role requires regular onsite presence in one of our showroom locations.

What you’ll do:

Visual Merchandising Strategy and Execution

• Create an inspiring customer experience in store. Guide overall design, ensuring our visual merchandising reflects the Brand guidelines and elevates the overall customer experience.
• Establish high level strategy and execution plans for all visual merchandising elements including visual guidelines and display standards, planograms, display fixtures, window displays, seasonal changes, case signage.
• Develop and execute a seasonal installation calendar to support key product launches and initiatives.
• Oversee creation of planograms and window line strategies
• In collaboration with merchants, oversee the selection, placement and presentation of product for each store.
• Oversee planogram implementation to ensure standards are being met throughout the showroom fleet.
• With the support of the visual merchandising manager, conduct and oversee recurring showroom visits in person or virtually to ensure stores comply with brand standards.
• Conduct and oversee mystery shopping with competitors and peers to identify opportunities for improvement, new best practices and innovative concepts
• Develop strong partnerships with sales team to drive sales through displays and to identify opportunities to improve the visual merchandising strategy and sell-through. Support showroom field teams by supporting requests as needed, soliciting feedback regarding showroom presentations, and taking action accordingly.

New Showroom Expansion

• Oversee planning, scheduling and installation of visual merchandising elements for new showroom launches and remodels.
• In collaboration with Merchandising, oversee product selection, sample ordering / budgets and planogram creation for all new showrooms.
• In collaboration with Retail design and construction, source visual merchandising supplies including millwork, case line displays and fixtures for new and existing stores. Identify new vendors and own vendor relationships for fixturing / displays.
• Work with design architects and construction team to develop and refine store design strategy, utilizing best practices and offering innovative and industry leading store concepts.
• Create and manage visual merchandising budgets including department expenses, store capex (showroom samples, fixtures and displays) and travel expenses.

Process Creation & Improvement

• Support continued development, maintenance and elevation of Visual Merchandising Standards and Guidelines.
• Create accurate and easy-to-use documentation to ensure uniform execution across showroom fleet.
• Create training materials to support the field in implementing and properly maintaining visual merchandising standards.
• Implement best practices and identify opportunities for process improvements.
• Source and onboard new tools to improve efficiency in creating and maintaining planograms.
• Establish systems for tracking store types, visual iterations and visual elements, including fixturing and display inventory.
• Develop and track key metrics and sales input to drive results, including understanding impact of visual merchandising strategies on conversion and sell-through in showrooms overall, regionally and by format.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Collaborate with design architect and store design team and outside firm on new store build-outs and fixtures.
• Collaborate with merchandising, planning and product development team to ensure that visual merchandising strategy aligns with and supports category goals, and to plan inventory needs.
• Collaborate with marketing and creative teams to ensure key brand codes, product stories, trends and marketing initiatives are reflected in visual merchandising.
• Collaborate with showroom managers, showroom team and retail ops teams to ensure visual merchandising strategies are properly implemented and opportunities for improvement are identified on a recurring basis.

Team Leadership

• Oversee one direct report.
• Lead growth of visual merchandising function, identifying incremental resource needs and org structure needed to enable scale and continued growth.
• Effectively hire, manage, mentor and train direct reports and consultants. Provide coaching and support to instill best-in-class visual merchandising practices.
• Demonstrate excellent leadership and collaboration skills and ability to motivate & inspire both direct reports and broader cross-functional team members.

What you’ll have:

• 10+ years of related work experience
• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent work experience
• Must have experience in a visual merchandising leadership role, ideally with a brand with multiple doors and store formats. Retail industry experience required, jewelry retail experience preferred.
• Creative and innovative thinker with strong attention to detail. High levels of creativity and aesthetic sense are required.
• Proven track record of successfully managing and growing a team.
• Outstanding communication and collaboration skills.
• Highly organized. Able to effectively balance the creative and operational needs of the role and plan effectively.
• Demonstrated project management experience. Experience with project management tools, such as Asana, preferred.
• Experience in a high growth emerging brand strongly preferred. Ability to multi-task projects in a dynamic, fast-paced environment with shifting priorities
• Excellent collaboration and influencing Skills; able to communicate effectively through verbal and written communication with cross functional partners at all levels.
• Experience in sourcing and collaboration with vendors for window displays and fixtures, including developing prototypes, negotiating costs and managing delivery schedules. Prefer strong knowledge of materials, manufacturing processes and costs.
• Experience working with architects and store design teams, including understanding of and collaborating on architectural drawings, shop drawings and renderings.
• Comfort analyzing sales and customer insights data to draw conclusions and make recommendations to impact business results.
• Basic computer skills required: email/Outlook, Microsoft Excel & Word. Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and planogram software experience preferred.
• Ability to travel to support showroom launches and recurring showroom visits (estimated 25-40%+) 

What We Offer:
At Brilliant Earth, we’re passionate about the employee experience. That’s why we offer an excellent training program and endless opportunities for career growth! In addition, we offer competitive compensation and a robust benefits package, including:

• Insurance. Medical, dental, and vision insurance kick in on the first day of your 2nd month!
• 401k match. We know that saving for the future is important. That's why we offer a generous 401k match.
• Open PTO Policy. We know it’s important to recharge and relax.
• Disability and Life insurance. 100% employer-paid.
• Pre-Tax Commuter Benefits.
• Continued Education. Company-sponsored learning in leadership, professional skills, diversity & inclusion, and access to tuition reimbursement for role-specific trainings.
• Employee Discounts. As an employee at Brilliant Earth, you’ll receive a generous discount on our jewelry.
• Wellness Benefits. We offer access to exclusive discounts on gym memberships and more, as well as an Employee Assistance Program for 24/7 access to counseling.
• Giving Back and Volunteer Opportunities. In addition to our giving back programs, our teams support local initiatives and spend time together by volunteering

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