General Merchandising Manager

Role Overview

• Develop private label product architecture (pricing tiers, margin targets, assortment strategy) that support fast-growing global accounts across beauty, CPG, and accessories.
• Lead key client projects, coordinating internally according to commercial needs.
• Translate brand and product briefs into scalable, profitable product programs.
• Oversee full lifecycle for projects from Development → Proto → PPS → PO → Production → Inspection → Shipment → Financial Closure.
• Partner with internal stakeholders to identify and resolve risks impacting timeline, quality, or cost.
• Enforce structured workflow control within the merchandising team and cross-functional partners.
• Serve as commercial gatekeeper before PO release, production launch, and shipment.
• Identify market gaps, trends, and innovation opportunities for product and packaging that align with key accounts.
• Review costing sheets, BOMs, and packaging specs.
• Enforce sample cost control and financial traceability (EST#/PO# discipline), monitoring material fluctuations.
• Review product and/or packaging specifications to ensure design aligns with branding, compliance, manufacturability, and cost constraints.
• Drive cost optimization with factory partners without compromising quality.
• Lead pre-production risk reviews.
• Escalate and resolve pre-production or compliance risks quickly through sampling process.
• Participate in vendor performance evaluation and allocation decisions.
• Work closely with factory partners across the region to ensure delivering to the Twelve Standard.
• Align development timelines with production feasibility, working closely with Sourcing Manager to anticipate new vendor needs.
• Mentor and guide a team of four merchandisers in region – elevating commercial acumen, process discipline and accountability.
• Strengthen structured processes across programs to achieve KPI targets.
• Improve cross-functional alignment between development (US/EU based), Asia based sourcing, and quality teams.

Requirements

• 10+ years in private label, OEM/ODM, or brand-sided merchandising.
• Proven ownership of end-to-end product programs, not just functional contribution.
• Strong experience with product costing and packaging development within multi-SKU, high volume categories.
• Deep understanding of complex manufacturing ecosystems.
• Experience working with US and EU mass retail companies (Target, WalMart, Costco) or brands preferred.
• Strong negotiation, financial, and risk management skill.
• Willing to travel on-site to the vendor sites to review samples and production of key projects.
• Fluent English required; Mandarin preferred.

Benefits

• N/A