Apply for the Bloomingdale’s 2024 Leadership Development Program

The foundation of your expansive career at Bloomingdale’s begins with the Buying and Planning Leadership Development Program. Bloomingdale’s is committed to a culture of collaboration and continuous learning and offers an exciting career with a variety of opportunities for you to take charge. With so many facets to the business of retail, Bloomingdale’s offers a multitude of areas where you can run multi-million-dollar businesses. 

The 8-week program combines highly interactive training classes with hands-on experience to help you develop the technical, business and leadership skills required for your first buying or planning role. This program will teach you how to curate, assort and allocate merchandise that makes style a creative source of energy in customers’ lives. You will collaborate with all levels of the executive team to analyze the business and develop strategies that directly impact sales and profitability. 

Following the successful completion of the program you will be placed into your first role as either an Assistant Buyer or an Assistant Planner.

Essential Functions:

BUYING LDP
Buyers select and curate merchandise that creates a distinctive, powerful image and demand for Bloomingdale’s that speaks to the Omni-channel customer. Buyers are responsible for the sales and profitability of the business through strategy creation and execution.

EXPERIENCE

• Partner with vendors to curate a distinguished Bloomingdale’s assortment across both channels
• Consistently analyze and react to business trends by strategically selecting appropriate merchandise to satisfy customer demand
• Monitor the stock levels, analyze sell-through and make recommendations for future product buys
• Seek new and differentiating vendors to satisfy customer demand in your assigned area of business
• Collaborate with cross-functional departments, including Planning, Marketing, Creative and Site Merchandising to grow the business through Omni-channel selling strategies

PLANNING LDP
Planners are responsible to drive the business by leveraging analytics to optimize sales, gross margin and turnover for both the stores and online business. Planners develop and execute localization strategies to capture business opportunities by demographics, climate and other unique market characteristics.  

EXPERIENCE

• Analyze sales and stock performance by location using merchandise reporting to understand opportunities and liabilities
• Develop pre-market analysis using relevant planning tools
• Create and manage the merchandise financial plan
• Cultivate relationships and collaborate with Planning, Buying and other cross-functional teams, including replenishment, sizing, fulfillment and finance to drive the business
• Develop and execute a strategic vision, with a progressive, customer-centric approach all while delivering on sales and profit objectives

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s Degree from a 4-year college or university
• 1-2 years related experience
• Strong analytical skills, business acumen and value on professional business ethics
• Ability to succeed in a team environment; strong communication, interpersonal and time-management skills
• Organized approach to prioritizing projects and ability to multi-task
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Ability to read, write and interpret documents such as reports and procedure manuals
• Minimum of average mathematical skills, including the ability to compute rates, ratios and percentages
• Highly analytical, strategic and able to identify data trends and present risks and opportunities
• Ability to manage workflow independently and effectively with minimal direction
• Demonstrated ability to balance multiple projects and be flexible in response to changing priorities
• Highly self-motivated with a proactive approach to work responsibilities
• Strong team player who leverages others to make better decisions
• Strong Excel (i.e., v-lookups, pivot tables, sum-ifs)
• Ability to influence and collaborate effectively with cross-functional partners

Apply to this position here.