Engineer III - Merchandise Planning

GENERAL PURPOSE:

The Engineer III, Merchandise Planning is responsible for supporting, enhancing, and evolving the Arthur Planning application and related merchandising planning systems. The Engineer III will lead and contribute to migration, integration, and configuration efforts across planning platforms, ensuring seamless data flow from enterprise source systems into cloud-based SaaS planning solutions.

This role partners closely with business stakeholders and IT leadership to deliver scalable solutions, enhance planning capabilities, and drive operational excellence through reliable production support and continuous innovation. The role also maintains and enhances legacy planning platforms, focusing on improving workflows and introducing non-invasive features that add value to the planning organization without disrupting existing operations.

The base salary range for this role is $134,300 - $229,400. The base salary range is dependent on factors including, but not limited to, experience, skills, qualifications, relevant education, certifications, seniority, and location. The range listed is just one component of the total compensation package for employees. Other rewards vary by position and location.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• Lead support and maintenance of the Arthur Planning application, ensuring high availability and system performance.

• Design, develop, and support data integrations between source systems and cloud-based merchandising planning and assortment solutions (e.g., Forecasting, MFP, Assortment Planning, Allocation, RMS, MDO etc.)

• Execute migration, conversion, and deployment activities for planning system implementations and enhancements

• Configure and develop planning system capabilities including:
o Custom calculations and business rules
o Custom reporting and dashboards
o What-if scenario planning and versioning
o Workflow automation and approval processes

• Build and execute plan reconciliation processes; ensure data accuracy across planning systems.

• Support end-to-end planning flow including exporting plans from MFP to downstream systems such as Assortment Planning, Allocation, and Receipt Management

• Develop and implement advanced analytics solutions such as:
o Store clustering
o Assortment clustering
o Price clustering

• Configure and implement AI-driven workflows and automation to streamline planning and operational tasks, leveraging Large Language Models (LLMs) for intelligent insights and natural language interactions; design and build Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) frameworks integrating enterprise data and business context; develop AI agents to automate processes such as reconciliation, variance analysis, reporting, and exception handling; and integrate these capabilities with merchandising systems while applying prompt engineering, governance, and continuous model optimization

• Collaborate with business stakeholders to understand requirements and present solution options, trade-offs, and recommendations

• Provide hands-on production support, including triaging and resolving Sev1 and Sev2 incidents in a timely manner

• Build strong relationships with cross-functional stakeholders across Planning, Merchandising, and IT teams

• Contribute to strategic initiatives and roadmaps (e.g., Project PISTON, MP&A footprint evolution, Planning tech hardening of the legacy platform etc).

• Mentor junior team members and demonstrate leadership in driving best practices and continuous improvement

COMPETENCIES:
People

• Building Effective Teams

• Developing Talent

• Collaboration
Self

• Leading by Example

• Business Acumen

• Plans, Aligns and Prioritizes

• Organizational Agility
With particular emphasis on the following specific position-related competencies:

• Retail Planning Technology Expertise

• AI & Intelligent Automation Enablement

• Enterprise Data & Integration Engineering

• Production Engineering & Operational Resilience

QUALIFICATIONS AND SPECIAL SKILLS REQUIRED:

Education & Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related field.

• 8-10+ years of experience in software engineering or IT with a focus on retail merchandising/planning / Forecasting systems.

• Proven experience supporting or implementing merchandising planning solutions (Arthur Planning, Oracle Retail, Blue Yonder, O9 Solutions, Anaplan or similar).
Technical Skills:

• Strong experience with planning systems such as Arthur Planning, O9 solutions, Anaplan, Oracle Retail (RDF, RMS, RPAS, Fusion platform for MFP, Assortment and buy planning, size and pack, Allocations etc), or similar platforms.

• Experience integrating enterprise data into cloud SaaS platforms using APIs, ETL tools, or middleware.

• Proficiency in SQL, data modeling, and working with large datasets (EDW environments).