Owndays - Buying and Planning Lead

Owndays is a global eyewear brand with a rapidly expanding footprint across Asia, the Middle East, and beyond. Operating an integrated value chain across design, manufacturing, retail, and e-commerce, Owndays is building a tech-enabled, data-led omni-channel business. As Buying, Planning & Merchandise Lead, you will own the strategic and operational command of Owndays' end-to-end merchandise flow, from demand sensing and OTB to vendor capacity and warehouse inflow, turning raw signals into precision decisions and transforming replenishment from reactive to predictive. This is a hands-on leadership role that will require needs-based travel across Owndays' geographies.

Responsibilities

Own demand forecasting across all categories, channels, and regions; Drive forecast accuracy through S&OP cycles, sell-through analysis, and seasonality modelling, and set MAPE/WAPE targets; Translate top-down financial plans and bottom-up category plans into a single demand view; Lead adoption of machine learning-based demand sensing tools with Data Science and Engineering; Own the Open-to-Buy process end-to-end; Manage inflow planning, phasing, and depth-vs-breadth decisions; Lead capacity planning with the vendor base; Build visibility into vendor performance; Bring data to sourcing negotiations and build supplier frameworks; Drive reduction of vendor-to-warehouse lead times; Improve PO-to-receipt timelines and warehouse inbound predictability; Work with logistics and warehousing teams to smooth inflow and improve service levels; Own the full inventory lifecycle, including stock monitoring, cycle integrity, and shrinkage controls; Leverage ERP/WMS platforms to drive 98%+ inventory accuracy; Own inventory health across warehouses; Partner with Retail Operations, Merchandising, Finance, E-commerce, Sourcing, and Manufacturing; Present insights and KPIs to senior leadership; Build, mentor, and lead a high-performance planning and merchandise supply chain team

Requirements

Proven experience in inventory management, merchandise planning, buying planning, or supply chain roles, including at least 5 years in a strategic leadership capacity; Demonstrated experience in high-SKU, omni-channel, or retail-at-scale environments, spanning demand forecasting, OTB management, vendor capacity planning, and lead-time reduction; Strong understanding of inventory turns, fill rates, markdowns, and working capital; Hands-on fluency with ERP/WMS platforms and advanced analytics tools (e.g., SAP, Oracle, Anaplan, or equivalent); Practical experience applying forecasting methodologies (time-series, statistical, ML-assisted) to real inventory decisions; Background in retail, eyewear, fashion, consumer goods, or another fast-moving category with high SKU complexity; Bachelor's degree in Supply Chain, Engineering, Operations Research, Business, or a related quantitative field; Willingness to travel on a needs basis across global markets

Nice to have

MBA or advanced degree; Exposure to automated warehouses, phygital retail models, or in-house manufacturing ecosystems; Consulting background with deep operational exposure; Experience with machine learning-based demand sensing tools