Who is Ross Stores?

Ross Stores, Inc. is a $15 billion off-price retailer with offices in the country’s major fashion hubs: New York City, Los Angeles and Boston. The Company operates two brands: Ross Dress for Less® ("Ross"), the largest off-price chain in the U.S. and dd’s DISCOUNTS®. Product offerings include everything from apparel to accessories and home fashions for the entire family across 1,700 store locations. Ross Stores, Inc. is a growing company, opening about 90 new stores annually with an ultimate goal of 3,000 locations! As you can imagine, there are plenty of opportunities for you to grow here, too!

What Ross Stores Offers You:

• A large investment in Associates through extensive onboarding programs and continuous learning opportunities
• A focus on growing and promoting internal talent
• A big company with a family feeling
• A hands on leadership team with close engagement at all levels
• A culture embedded with teamwork and humility
• An opportunity to give back to your community
• And did we mention… Summer Fridays and holiday closure?

What is an Assistant Planner at Ross?

The Assistant Planner is a true learning role that allows you to build a foundation of planning skills. You will focus on maximizing sales potential and minimizing risks at the region and store level for a specific business. As an Assistant Planner, you will contribute to the management of in-season plans and building of pre-season plans in support of regional strategies. You will develop an understanding of key performance indicators, such as performance to plan, same-store sales and turn, in order to support your recommendations.

What would you do?

In-Season:

• Analyze performance using standardized reports prepared monthly
• Review future plans based on historical performance and knowledge of future business conditions (e.g. product availability and assortment strategies)
• Identify risks and/or opportunities by product and region
• Begin to learn how to propose recommendations (i.e., influence changes to be made) to Region plans to Location Planning Manager and implement approved changes into the planning system
• Prepare hindsight analysis and collaborate with Merchandise Planning counterpart at key fiscal points (e.g. events/holidays and quarterly)
• Partner with Location Planning Manager to conduct hindsight reviews to present findings to Senior leadership
• Propose recommendations in order to capitalize on opportunities and/or reduce risk for next year (e.g. influence product flow changes to drive sales/reduce liabilities)
• Work with cross-functional teams (Store Planning and Allocation) to implement Store strategies and address callouts and errors
• Utilize forecast to evaluate future Store plans against system parameters

Pre-Season:

• Analyze historical performance and develop skills to propose flow strategies to Location Planning Manager
• Partner with Merchandise Planning counterpart to inform the Chain plans of Region recommendations
• Under Location Planning Manager’s direction, develop Region plans by applying their independent hindsight analysis and known assortment strategies to update the initial system-generated plans
• Review higher product levels to validate the mix of assortment within a Region using additional reporting tools
• Present recommended plans to Location Planning Manager in a formal meeting for continued learning
• Recommend store lists for limited door product opportunities and analyze different store groups (e.g. door rankings, target demographics) to determine location strategies and initiatives
• Modify system-generated Store level plans by resolving outliers and exceptions

Note- please be aware that the application for this position requires you to complete an online Excel assessment. We encourage you to be prepared to answer basic Excel questions. Please complete the assessment to the best of your ability and know that it is not the determining factor for whether you move forward in the interview process. You should give yourself 45- 60 minutes to complete both the application and assessment, use Google Chrome and complete the application in one sitting.

What you bring to the table:

• An interest in weaving a story out of numbers!
• A desire to learn, grow and engage
• A systematic approach to problem-solving
• A team player attitude
• A drive for results

Why you are qualified:

• You are proficient in Excel
• You have a Bachelor’s degree
• You have strong analytical and quantitative skills
• You have prior work experience and retail knowledge

Our Buying Office is the engine that drives our company. Since Ross & dd’s focus on bringing our customers a constant stream of high quality products at extraordinary savings, our business model dictates that we need savvy merchants who search the globe for the best brands and latest styles. Every day, our Planning team provides analytical and financial forecasting support to our buyers, and that dynamic partnership has spurred us to grow into a $15 billion company, as well as the nation’s largest off-price retail chain. To maintain the steady upward momentum we’ve achieved over the past 40 years, we consistently seek out new associates and interns who will add their passion for product and business acumen to our buying and planning teams. Join us!