Senior Manager, Product & Styling Expertise

About Bloomingdale's makes fashion personal and fun, aspirational yet approachable. Our mission is to guide and inspire our customers to make style a source of creative energy in their lives. We will always strive to make Bloomingdale's like no other store in the world. Everyone plays a critical role to bring our mission to life. Regardless of position, we believe all colleagues have a voice and access to share their thoughts with every level of leadership. Our colleagues are passionate, driven, entrepreneurial and collaborative. We welcome and embrace diversity of background, thought and opinion while having a lot of fun along the way.

JOB OVERVIEW

The Customer Experience & Strategy team at Bloomingdale's is responsible for designing the connected experience across all touchpoints - online, in-store and in-between - with the goal of building meaningful relationships with our customers by closing the gap between customers and products in an elevated, fun, personalized, memorable and uniquely Bloomingdale's way. The Senior Manager of Product & Styling Expertise plays a critical role within this team - leading on product knowledge and styling acumen, all with the goal of building fashion competency of our selling colleagues across stores, site and customer service teams. They are responsible for creating programs to develop the art of guiding and inspiring customers, connecting them with product that meets their needs to drive sales performance. They will lead trend activation across selling populations, developing wardrobing and cross-category selling skills.

The candidate should be energized and inspired by the humanity that underpins our business -- our customers and our people - and be equally excited by the opportunity to design a wide range of product focused skill-building programs and spend time activating them in stores. This role will report to the Director of Selling Strategy.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Collaborate with merchants and fashion office to activate merchandise strategies through full-scale seasonal/holiday product, trend and styling programs
• Partner within Selling Strategy team to evolve Bloomingdale's Selling Ceremony, integrating it within the larger Customer Experience Framework. Work with Talent Development to appropriately integrate into Onboarding and Ongoing Education strategies
• Work with vendor partners to ensure the network activation of high priority, limited time product engagements with product, brand heritage and styling education
• Design and host virtual and in-person Summits & Clinics in support of focus product categories and selling groups
• Spearhead efforts to maximize in-store vendor product expertise sessions through best practices for Product Expertise Calendar management, scheduling, attendance and post-training practical application
• Support the launch of high-priority brands across store and site with product expertise strategy that sets teams up for selling success
• Balance time between office collaboration/content development and in-store presence, activating strategies, investing in leadership and soliciting best practices for broader application
• Maintain Product & Styling Expertise pages on SharePoint and Associate Portal

QUALIFICATION & CORE COMPETENCIES

We encourage candidates with either a bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience in a related field to apply

• 5+ years of relevant work experience (retail, luxury, client/customer experience, senior store leadership, strategy)
• Cross-functional & Influence Based Leadership : Ability to lead cross-functionally through influence and build relationships across functions and hierarchy levels to leverage smart decision-making across our organization. Collaboration skills are critical.
• Strategic & Creative Thinking:  Creative, innovative thinker able to apply structure and analytical rigor to complex problems, drawing actionable insights and translating them into a vision, strategy, and action plan.
• Customer & Colleague Champion : Thinks as a customer to anticipate wants and needs to the mutual benefit of the company and the customer. Designs solutions through an empathetic colleague-focused mindset
• Powerful Storytelling : Outstanding written and verbal communication, storytelling and PowerPoint/presentation skills for diverse audiences
• Prioritization in a Fast Paced Environment : Ability to juggle multiple projects - can identify primary and secondary objectives, prioritize tasks, and communicate timeline to team members.
• Team player who is a self-starter and can thrive in fast-paced, results-oriented environment
• Excellent computer skills, including Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).