Assistant Planning Manager (Merchandising) | Retail |UAE

Role Summary

Overview Of The Role

The Assistant Planning Manager plays a crucial role in supporting the Planning function by developing accurate financial, sales, and inventory plans across various channels and markets. This role is key to forecasting sales, margin, markdown, and inventory requirements, which are essential for maintaining robust business performance and effective stock management. Collaborating closely with Merchandising, Allocation, Retail, and Supply Chain teams, the Assistant Planning Manager ensures that all plans are well-aligned and executed with precision. They contribute to the annual business planning and are instrumental in managing markdown strategies to optimize sales and profitability.

Responsibilities

Business Planning

• Responsible for Planning Annual Business Plan by Market and Business Unit.
• Deliver Weekly Warehouse Sales and Stock Intake (WSSI) for Clothing & Home, Food and Total Business.
• Execute Markdown Management ensuring alignment with business objectives.

Sales & Financial Planning

• Support the development of seasonal and annual sales plans by market, store, category, and channel (Retail, E-Commerce, Omnichannel).
• Assist in building weekly, monthly, and seasonal sales forecasts, incorporating past performance, trends, and business drivers.
• Prepare financial projections for Gross Profit, Gross Margin, Markdown, and Inventory.
• Track performance versus plan and highlight risks or opportunities.

Business Unit Sales Planning

• Support Planning Manager in Business Unit sales planning by season, incorporating new product strategies and potential sales gaps from the previous year.
• Monitor performance against plan, identifying risks, opportunities, and corrective actions to optimize seasonal results.

Markdown & Price Optimization

• Support markdown planning, price phasing, and promotional analysis.
• Track sell-through and aging stock to recommend timely markdown actions.
• Partner with Merchandising to ensure markdown strategy protects margin while achieving sell-through targets.

Reporting & Analysis

• Prepare weekly and monthly business performance reports including sales, margin, stock, and KPIs.
• Analyze product, category, and store performance to support strategic decisions.
• Identify business risks and provide insight-driven recommendations.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Support Finance in validating forecasts and financial submissions.
• Work with Buying and Merchandising team on Weekly BU and Dept level planning.

System & Process Support

• Maintain accurate planning data and product hierarchies in reporting systems.
• Develop templates, dashboards, and presentations for planning reviews.

Requirements

Required Skills To Be Successful

• Strong analytical and numerical skills, proficient in Excel and reporting tools.
• Strong communication and presentation skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and work collaboratively across functions.
• Advanced Excel & reporting skills.

What Qualifies You For The Role

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, Retail Management, or related field.
• 3-5 years of experience in merchandise planning, financial planning, or retail analysis, preferably in fashion or multi-category retail.
• Experience with planning systems such as JDA, Power BI, Tableau, SAP, or similar.
• Ability to work under pressure in a fast-paced retail environment.

About the Company

Why Join HealthHub?

We Hear Your Ambition.

For over 90 years, the Al-Futtaim Group has been bringing the world’s leading brands of lifestyle watches, cars, home furnishings and fashion to the UAE. The Group has now introduced a whole new way of holistic healthcare through HealthHub Clinics by Al-Futtaim, its multi-speciality chain of more than 20 clinics in Dubai with over 25 specialties offering the right combination of advanced diagnostics, proven medical expertise and specialised services.

What gives our clinics an edge is that as a part of the Al-Futtaim Group, you can expect world-class quality standards, with access to the best medical services and facilities within a healing environment. It’s a new way of healthcare that’s designed to meet a patient’s needs with a complete range of smart healthcare solutions. As testimony to this, only recently, we’ve earned a rare milestone of being the only primary healthcare network in the UAE to receive the Gold Seal by a reputed international body: Accreditation Canada.

As trusted partners to health, we at HealthHub Clinics adopt evidence-based learning that enables us to listen to our patients more carefully. It helps us in treating the cause and not just the symptoms, while applying global best practices to ensure quality of care for every family member. Most of all, we adopt a patient-centric approach to healthcare that is reflected in the promise of our core belief: “We Hear You.”

5-day working week