Lead Director of Merchandising Operations – Business Acceleration

We’re building a world of health around every individual — shaping a more connected, convenient and compassionate health experience. At CVS Health®, you’ll be surrounded by passionate colleagues who care deeply, innovate with purpose, hold ourselves accountable and prioritize safety and quality in everything we do. Join us and be part of something bigger – helping to simplify health care one person, one family and one community at a time.

Summary At every step of our 63-year journey from beginnings as ‘Consumer Value Stores’ to transforming the healthcare experience as CVS Health, a Fortune 4 company, the relationships we forge assisting people on their path to better health often happen in the store. 70% of Americans live within 3 miles of a CVS store – it’s often the first interaction people have with our brand – and within Front Store (Retail) Merchandising, we’re often charged with shaping that initial experience through the exciting products and services we offer. The journey continues: as we lead redefining the role of our stores and healthcare in the communities we serve, coupled with deep connections to our customers enabled through leading digital platforms and leveraging enterprise capabilities across the healthcare ecosystem, it’s truly an exciting time to be a part of CVS Health. If you’d like to join us on that journey, please read on! The Lead Director of Merchandising Operations, Business Acceleration will lead a team of approx. 4 Senior Managers and Analysts in developing and recommending data-driven strategies to improve business performance by working closely with Merchandising leadership in analyzing market trends and dynamics, vendor/brand economics and productivities, customer loyalty, and related optimization opportunities across various levers, such as assortment, placement, pricing, and promotion. This consultative role also serves as trusted advisor to Category Managers, providing and ad hoc analytical support to drive growth and results.  Your responsibilities will include: • Lead, develop, and manage a high-performing team • Assess SKU/Vendor/Brand/Promotional incrementality; competitively benchmark (space, brands, assortment); generate market, customer (e.g., ExtraCare, segmentation), and vendor insights (cost structures, trade funding); and analyze assortment (relative productivity, elasticity, profitability, loyalty, etc.) • Build strategy, applying data tools, to support Merchant-led vendor negotiations • Advise Category Manager partners on developing and writing creative, rigorous, and exhaustive vendor agreements and contracts • Conduct complex quantitative analysis and build analytical models using Microsoft Excel and other tools/platforms (e.g., Tableau) • Develop annual plans and budgets for category strategy and profit improvement, working with senior Merchandising leaders • Inspire creativity and new capability design often spurred by 'white space' opportunity identification and business case development • Design initiative pilots and deploy in select number of stores to measure and assess (‘Test & Learn’) • Enact a customer-first perspective, understanding when to approach problems through a macro, cross-business unit lens, necessary to reflect how customers shop at CVS (e.g., trip motivations, basket analyses) • Partner (e.g., Supply Chain, Store Operations, Finance) to activate ideas that expand beyond Merchandising and create strategy or change projects • Deploy an Enterprise Mindset, engaging partners and partners across Enterprise Teams (e.g., Pharmacy Services, Health Care Benefits) to identify synergies and create improved outcomes/growth The candidate selected for this position will be a creative, ‘out-of-the-box’ thinker who is intellectually curious with a passion for using data to drive business decision making. This person will need to be self-motivated, entrepreneurial, and able to excel in a high demand,