Merchandise Planning Manager

Founded in 2017, RPG Commerce is a leading direct-to-consumer (DTC) social e-commerce company dedicated to building cutting-edge everyday essentials. With an in-house portfolio ranging from innovative active wear to home and living products, RPG currently carries an in-house brand portfolio of brands, including Montigo, OiYO by Montigo and Casebang.

Recently securing a Series B funding round of RM127 million, RPG Commerce has over 100+ employees in KL and Singapore who work everyday to develop, design and produce high-quality products all over the world. To find out more, please visit https://www.rpg.ventures/.

About The Job

The Merchandise Planning Manager leads Montigo's merchandise planning function, owning the end-to-end assortment, inventory, merchandise financial planning, and allocation process across retail, ecommerce, and B2B channels. This role manages and develops Merchandise Planners, Merchandise Financial Planners, and Allocators — sets the planning cadence and standards the function runs on, and acts as the single point of accountability to the Head of Operations for planning performance — sell-through, inventory health, allocation accuracy across retail and ecommerce, and Open-to-Buy (OTB) discipline. The Manager bridges merchandising, finance, and operations to ensure assortment decisions, financial plans, and store- and channel-level distribution move in lockstep.

Key Responsibilities

1. Team Leadership & Development

• Manage, coach, and develop the Merchandise Planners, Merchandise Financial Planners, and Allocators — reporting directly to this role.
• Own the team's operating rhythm: weekly sync agendas, 1-on-1s with direct reports, OKR setting and review.
• Set individual and team goals aligned to company sales, margin, and inventory targets; own performance reviews and development plans.
• Build bench strength and succession coverage across the planning function.

2. Assortment & Inventory Strategy

• Own the seasonal assortment planning process across retail, ecommerce, and distributor channels, ensuring alignment with brand and financial objectives.
• Arbitrate tradeoffs between Ecommerce and Retail assortment strategies where channel priorities conflict.
• Ensure SKU productivity, product mix, and price architecture decisions are commercially sound before they reach the Head of Operations.
• Own the sell-through review framework (Core / Seasonal collections) and escalate risks proactively rather than reactively.

3. Store & Ecommerce Allocation & Distribution

• Partner with Allocators for both retail stores and ecommerce channels to translate approved assortment and buy plans into store- and channel-level distribution.
• Oversee replenishment cadence and stock balancing across Montigo's retail stores in Malaysia and Singapore, and its ecommerce channels.
• Monitor allocation execution against sell-through targets and inventory health flagged by Merchandise Planners.
• Ensure allocation decisions stay within the OTB and financial guardrails set with the Merchandise Financial Planner.

4. Financial & OTB Governance

• Partner directly with the Merchandise Financial Planner to set and enforce Open-to-Buy budgets by category, channel, and region.
• Review and approve monthly/quarterly reforecasts before they go to relevant internal stakeholders.
• Own variance analysis at the team level — identify risks and opportunities across the full planning function, not just individual categories.
• Ensure inventory investment decisions across the team are mutually consistent, with no channel-level or allocation decisions that undermine company-level financial guardrails.

5. Cross-Functional & Executive Alignment

• Represent the planning function in cross-functional forums with Product, Marketing, Commercial, Finance and Operations.
• Align product launch sequencing and campaign timing with inventory and OTB realities.
• Deliver consolidated planning performance summaries to the Management and Head of Operations.

6. Process & Systems Ownership

• Own and evolve the planning tools, templates, and Excel workbooks/action trackers used by the team.
• Drive consistent reporting standards and planning calendar cadence across all four direct reports.
• Lead process improvements as the team scales or as planning systems evolve.

Who You Are

• A planner who has grown into a manager — you can do the job of the people you lead, and know where to push back on their numbers.
• Comfortable holding both assortment intuition and financial discipline in the same conversation.
• Decisive under ambiguity; you synthesize input from planning, finance, and allocation into one clear recommendation for leadership.
• A strong developer of people — able to coach, mentor, empower and hold team members accountable with equal credibility.
• Commercially minded: every assortment or inventory call is filtered through sales, margin, and turn.
• Equally comfortable setting strategy and staying close to in-season execution — you don't just plan the buy, you make sure it lands in the right place.

What You Need To Have

• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Finance, Supply Chain, or related field.
• Minimum 7 years of experience in merchandise planning, assortment planning, or merchandise financial planning, ideally spanning both assortment and financial/OTB planning.
• Minimum 3 years in a people management, team lead, or mentorship capacity.
• Strong command of retail math: sales, margin, turn, OTB, GMROI, markdown %.
• Advanced Excel/Google Sheets proficiency; experience with planning software or merchandise management systems preferred.
• Omnichannel experience (ecommerce + retail) required, given the team spans both.
• Familiarity with inventory allocation/replenishment processes is a plus — hands-on allocation experience is not required, oversight-level understanding is sufficient.