Senior Manager, Planning

What the Role Is

As a Divisional Senior Planning Manager at Babylist, you’ll own the financial and inventory strategy for a full division of our e-commerce business—directly shaping how we invest, where we take risk, and how we deliver for millions of families. This is a leadership role within Planning where you’re accountable not just for hitting your numbers, but for how decisions get made. You’ll set the standard for how planning shows up as a strategic partner to Merchandising and a driver of company performance.

Your day-to-day sits at the intersection of analytics, judgment, and influence. You’ll lead your team through forecasting, OTB, and in-season management, while personally engaging in the highest-leverage decisions—where to lean in, where to pull back, and how to respond when the business shifts. You’ll operate in close partnership with Merchandising, bringing a clear point of view and engaging in real debate to get to better outcomes. At the same time, you’ll work across Finance, Supply Chain, and Operations to ensure plans hold up in execution—not just in spreadsheets.

This role requires strong perspective and comfort with ambiguity. If you’ve primarily executed within well-defined planning frameworks, relied on historical trends without challenging them, or avoided tension in cross-functional decision-making, this will be a difficult seat. You’ll be expected to step in, raise the level of thinking, and influence beyond your direct scope—even when the answer isn’t obvious.

Who You Are

8+ years in merchandise planning, inventory planning, or retail finance , with direct ownership of a department or division-level P L (sales, margin, inventory, OTB)

3+ years managing planners , including hiring and developing high-performing teams (at least 2 direct reports ) and raising the bar on planning capability

Deep expertise in retail math, forecasting, and inventory management , including OTB ownership, in-season reforecasting, and inventory turn optimization

Proven ability to influence Merchandising leaders on assortment, pricing, and investment decisions , bringing a clear, data-backed point of view—not just reporting performance

Experience leading cross-functional, cross-divisional initiatives that changed how planning operates (process, tools, or ways of working)

Strong command of planning tools and data environments (e.g., advanced Excel, plus systems like Anaplan, Netsuite, SAP, or similar )—able to independently diagnose performance and translate it into decisions

Experience operating across multiple inventory models (owned and drop-ship) and adjusting strategy based on category dynamics like lead times and product lifecycle

Comfortable in high-growth, evolving e-commerce or omnichannel environments where you’re expected to build while operating and make decisions without perfect data

You're genuinely excited about what AI can do - not just as a concept, but as something you want to get your hands on. At Babylist, every team uses AI daily, and we're looking for people who lean in

How You Will Make An Impact

Own the end-to-end financial and inventory strategy for your division, setting direction across sales, margin, inventory, and turns in line with company goals

Lead the monthly OTB process, framing tradeoffs and recommendations that directly influence leadership decisions on investment and risk

Define and evolve divisional inventory and replenishment strategies, improving in-stock rates, inventory flow, and working capital efficiency in partnership with Supply Chain

Act as the planning counterpart to Merchandising, shaping assortment and pricing decisions through clear, data-backed perspectives and healthy debate

Identify risks and opportunities through weekly performance analysis, driving timely, cross-functional actions that change business outcomes

Build pre-season financial plans that translate assortment vision into clear, executable targets across categories, classes, and key items

Lead cross-functional initiatives that improve forecasting accuracy, streamline planning workflows, and scale the function as the business grows

Develop and coach a team of planners, elevating analytical rigor, business judgment, and ownership across the team

Raise the bar for Planning beyond your division by introducing better frameworks, tools, and ways of working that improve how decisions get made across the organization

Why This Role

You own a full division P L — sales, margin, inventory, OTB — with real authority to set direction, not just execute it.

Planning is a strategic counterpart to Merchandising here, not a support function. You'll be in the room, expected to have a point of view and defend it.

The function is growing to match the business — if you've wanted to shape how planning operates at scale, this is the right seat at the right time.

Babylist serves millions of families at one of the most meaningful moments of their lives. The work is high-stakes, high-visibility…