About The Role

Rachel Gilbert Pty Limited (Rachel Gilbert) is a premium fashion brand specialising in modern women’s eveningwear. Known for elegant design, quality craftsmanship, and a refined aesthetic, we operate across our own retail boutiques, a growing eCommerce platform, and an international wholesale business.

Rachel Gilbert is seeking an experienced and commercially driven Senior Merchandise Planner to join the Product team and play a key role in driving profitable growth, inventory productivity and commercial decision-making across the business.

Reporting to the Head of Product, the Senior Merchandise Planner will partner closely with Product, Design, Production, Wholesale, eCommerce, Retail and Finance to develop and maintain robust merchandise planning processes across channels and markets.

This role will be responsible for translating sales, inventory and product performance data into clear commercial actions. The successful candidate will establish disciplined planning processes across seasonal forecasting, Open to Buy (OTB), inventory management, product lifecycle, replenishment and range planning while supporting the continued development of Rachel Gilbert's merchandise planning capability.

The role requires a balance of strong analytical capability, commercial judgement and product sensitivity, with an understanding of the dynamics of a premium/luxury fashion business.

Key Responsibilities

Merchandise Planning

- Develop and maintain seasonal and annual merchandise financial plans across sales, inventory, intake, margin and OTB.
- Manage the Merchandise, Sales, Stock and Intake (MSSI) planning process across key channels and markets.
- Forecast sales, stock and intake requirements against budget, prior year and latest trends.
- Maintain rolling forecasts and identify risks and opportunities to sales, margin and inventory.
- Develop channel-level plans across Au Retail, Au eCommerce, US eCommerce and other emerging channels.
- Partner with Finance and the Head of Product to ensure merchandise plans align with overall financial targets.
- Provide clear recommendations regarding investment, intake timing and inventory exposure.

Open To Buy & Inventory Management

- Develop and manage seasonal and monthly OTB frameworks.
- Monitor forward inventory cover and identify areas of over-stock and under-stock.
- Recommend changes to future purchases based on trading performance and revised demand.
- Manage inventory investment by category, collection, season, channel and market.
- Establish appropriate weeks-of-cover and forward-cover parameters.
- Identify aged and becoming-aged inventory; recommend commercially appropriate exit strategies.
- Support markdown, promotional, archive and clearance planning while protecting gross margin and brand positioning.

Seasonal & Range Planning

- Partner with the Head of Product to develop seasonal range plans aligned with financial targets and product strategy.
- Build category, price-point and option plans to inform future range architecture.
- Analyse historical performance to recommend future investment by category, silhouette, price point, colour and size.




- Review purchase unit mix and stock mix to identify opportunities to improve inventory productivity.
- Provide data-led recommendations on breadth versus depth of assortment.
- Support initial buy quantities and investment decisions for new products and collections.
- Conduct pre-season, in-season and post-season analysis to inform future range development.

Product Performance & Lifecycle Management

- Establish and maintain transparent product performance reporting and benchmarks.
- Analyse product performance using agreed key metrics.
- Identify emerging best sellers, underperformers and replenishment opportunities.
- Partner with the Head of Product to manage the progression of products through the product lifecycle from Seasonal → Carryover → Core → Exit.
- Develop replenishment and core-line planning methodologies.
- Maintain forecasting for continuity and core products, incorporating lead times, MOQ requirements and future demand.

Trading & Forecasting

- Lead preparation of merchandise analysis for weekly trade meetings.
- Review weekly performance against budget, forecast and prior year.
- Highlight key commercial wins, risks, opportunities and required actions.
- Analyse performance by market, channel, category, collection and product.
- Maintain monthly and quarterly cumulative performance reporting.
- Update forecasts based on current trading trends.
- Translate trading data into clear recommendations for Product, Retail, eCommerce and Wholesale teams.
- Support the Head of Product with commercial analysis for senior leadership reporting.

Inventory Health & Productivity

- Establish inventory health reporting across current, becoming-aged and aged inventory.
- Monitor stock-to-sales relationships and inventory turns.
- Develop end-of-season inventory targets and measure performance against agreed KPIs.
- Identify excess inventory early and recommend actions before inventory becomes aged.
- Monitor inventory productivity by channel and recommend stock movements where commercially appropriate.
- Support inventory rationalisation initiatives and long-term stock reduction strategies.

Size, Price & Customer Analysis

- Develop size-curve analysis by product category, channel and market.
- Recommend future buy curves based on historical demand and availability-adjusted performance.
- Analyse price architecture and customer response across key price bands.
- Evaluate ASP, unit demand, margin and conversion implications of changes to pricing.
- Support price-point architecture across Ready-to-Wear, Evening, Bridal and other relevant product divisions.
- Identify differences in customer demand between Australian and international markets.

Wholesale Planning





- Partner with the Head of Product and Wholesale team to incorporate wholesale demand into the broader merchandise strategy.
- Analyse wholesale performance by market, customer, category and product.
- Support seasonal wholesale forecasts and inventory requirements.
- Identify opportunities to improve global product investment through consolidated retail and wholesale demand.
- Support future allocation and inventory strategies across DTC and wholesale channels.

Systems, Reporting & Process Improvement

- Support the continued development of Rachel Gilbert's merchandise planning tools and reporting suite.
- Maintain accurate merchandise planning data and reporting.
- Champion a clear Product Masterfile / Single Source of Truth for key product and commercial information.
- Develop scalable planning templates and processes across MSSI, OTB, product performance, inventory health and range planning.
- Partner with Operations, Warehousing, Retail and Technology to resolve stock variances and improve inventory accuracy.
- Identify opportunities to automate manual planning and reporting processes.
- Support future merchandise planning system implementation and process development.

Key Deliverables The Senior Merchandise Planner will be accountable for maintaining and continually improving:

- Merchandise Financial Plans
- MSSI
- Open to Buy
- Weekly Trade Reporting
- Sales & Inventory Forecasting
- Seasonal Range Plans
- Category & Price Architecture
- Product Performance Reporting
- Core & Replenishment Forecasting
- Inventory Health & Ageing Analysis
- Size Curve Analysis
- End-of-Season Reviews
- Seasonal Post-Mortems
- Product Masterfile and Planning Data Integrity

Experience & Skill Set

- 5+ years Senior Merchandise Planner experience within fashion, premium apparel or luxury retail.
- Strong merchandise financial planning and OTB experience with advanced Excel and analytical capability.
- Mandatory proficiency with merchandise planning systems, ERPs, BI tools, or inventory management platforms.
- Experience and proven success working across multichannel retail, eCommerce, and wholesale environments. International experience will be highly regarded.
- Strong understanding of sales, stock, intake, margin, sell-through, ROS, weeks cover and inventory productivity.
- Experience in pricing strategy, margin management, and competitive analysis within a premium or luxury brand is desirable.
- Comprehensive understanding of stock health, inventory accuracy, and systems supporting visibility and control.
- Sound commercial taste level and eye, with the ability to interpret trend and performance data into cohesive assortments.
- Strong communication skills with the ability to present complex analysis clearly to both commercial and creative stakeholders.
- Highly organised with strong attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple planning cycles simultaneously.

Why work with us?

- A generous staff discount.
- Training and development opportunities.
- A day off on or during the month of your birthday.
- Summer Fridays.
- Frequent team and culture activities.

📌 Senior Merchandise Planner (Sydney)
🏢 RACHEL GILBERT
📍 Sydney