Description

Canada Softlines – Product Manager, Buying & Forecasting

Canada Softlines team works with Apparel, Shoes, Luggage, Watches and Accessories brands to provide our customers with a broad range of fashion selection at sharp prices with fast delivery speeds. Due to the seasonal element of fashion — with an ever-changing catalog of new colors, product styles, and trends — our supply chain team often purchases inventory 6–8 months in advance to cater to make-to-order seasonal selection.

This buying and forecasting process is highly complex. It requires a high bar on demand forecasting accuracy, adherence to financial tenets, and disciplined inventory coverage planning to ensure our customers have the products they want available throughout the season while preventing overstock and margin erosion.

We are looking for a curious, self-driven, and passionate Product Manager to join the team. The Product Manager will work cross-functionally with Vendor Managers, central Buying and Forecasting teams, Finance, and other key stakeholders to determine requirements and execute the vision for a suite of tools that support and automate the buying, forecasting, and planning process for Softlines.

What You Will Be Doing:

- Own the product and program roadmap for Softlines buying and forecasting, driving initiatives across three areas: growing topline through improved forecasting and automated buying, increasing team productivity through AI and automation, and reducing cost to serve through optimized sourcing and inventory management.
- Lead the development and adoption of automated buying workflows to reduce manual intervention, improve purchase accuracy, and ensure timely inventory placement for seasonal and new product launches.
- Partner with central forecasting teams to improve demand prediction accuracy, particularly for new products and lower-volume items where fashion seasonality and limited sales history make forecasting inherently difficult.
- Build and refine tools and processes for high-traffic event planning, including forecast validation and inventory positioning ahead of major sales events.
- Develop data-driven approaches to inventory optimization that balance customer availability with overstock risk across the season.
- Engage with vendors to gain insight into new products, upcoming styles, and seasonal trends that inform buying and forecasting decisions.
- Leverage AI and centralized analytics to democratize supply chain insights, reduce time spent on repetitive analysis, and make key operational metrics accessible across the organization.
- Determine opportunity size of key enhancements, prioritize across initiatives, and oversee launch and training for end users including Vendor Managers and Supply Chain Managers.

What We're Looking For:
- Experience in in-stock management, demand forecasting, supply chain, or operations management
- Strong SQL skills with the ability to write complex queries to extract, analyze, and transform large datasets
- Experience building dashboards and reporting tools to surface operational metrics and drive decision-making
- Strong skills in working collaboratively and cross-functionally with a track record of delivering results
- Familiarity with seasonal or fashion buying cycles, automated buying systems, or inventory optimization
- Experience with data visualization tools (e.g., QuickSight, Tableau, or similar BI platforms)
- Comfort building practical, data-driven solutions to close capability gaps while partnering on longer-term systemic improvements
- Superb business judgment with the ability to size opportunities, prioritize trade-offs, and influence without authority