General Merchandise Manager - San Diego or Park City

The Opportunity

Event Network creates retail experiences inside some of the country's most memorable cultural, educational, and entertainment destinations. As General Merchandise Manager, you will lead merchandise strategy and product vision for an assigned portfolio of partnerships, translating each partner's mission, brand, guest experience, and business opportunity into distinctive, commercially compelling product experiences.

This role combines strategic merchandising leadership, exceptional product instinct, financial acumen, and trusted relationship-building. You will confidently present product strategies, earn partner trust through thoughtful ideas and sound judgment, and lead teams that deliver differentiated assortments with consistent follow-through.

We prefer someone located in either San Diego, CA or Park City, UT.  However,for the right individual we are also open to someone working this role remotely.

Leadership Mandate

Own merchandise strategy, product vision, partnership health, and concept direction for an assigned portfolio. Build trusted partner relationships, develop strong merchandising leaders, and use sound financial and product judgment to ensure each business is distinctive, productive, and aligned with Event Network priorities.

Core Responsibilities

Lead Portfolio Strategy and Product Vision

• Develop and lead merchandise strategy and product vision for an assigned portfolio. Become deeply knowledgeable about each partner's mission, brand, audience, guest experience, priorities, and business opportunities.
• Establish seasonal vision with Senior Merchandise Managers, including key stories, product opportunities, assortment guardrails, and expected outcomes. Define product strategy for new stores, remodels, major resets, and other initiatives.
• Ability to prioritize competing opportunities and initiatives based on enterprise impact, return on investment, cost, timing, and available resources. Makes thoughtful decisions about where to focus, balancing partner needs and creative opportunities with business performance, operational feasibility, and long-term value.

Build and Strengthen Partner Relationships

• Develop trusted relationships across assigned partner organizations and serve as a credible merchandising leader. Listen carefully to partner priorities and translate insights into thoughtful product strategies and opportunities.
• Confidently present seasonal assortments, major concepts, and custom-product initiatives, connecting merchandise choices to partner mission, guest experience, and business opportunity. Anticipate needs and address opportunities or concerns proactively.
• Ability to thoughtfully evaluate and prioritize opportunities based on enterprise impact, financial performance, operational feasibility, timing, and available resources. Guides partners toward the ideas with the greatest potential while helping shape, refine, or redirect opportunities to ensure long-term value and success.

Drive Product and Financial Performance

• Maintain a strong understanding of portfolio performance, including cost of goods, inventory productivity, assortment health, and partnership results. Use reporting and trends to identify opportunities, risks, and strategy changes.
• Partner with Planning, Division Merchandise Managers, and Buyers on productivity and strategic cost opportunities. Approve major concepts and custom-product initiatives, focusing resources where they can have the greatest impact.
• Lead product strategies that deliver strong cost of goods, healthy margins, meaningful return on investment, and measurable enterprise value. Evaluate opportunities through both a creative and commercial lens.
• Use performance data to guide investment decisions and prioritize opportunities. Consider the cost of initiatives, including vendor setup, sourcing, product development, inventory productivity, and margin.

Lead and Develop the Merchandising Team

• Lead, coach, and develop Senior Merchandise Managers, strengthening strategic thinking, product judgment, financial acumen, communication, and leadership. Establish clear expectations, priorities, and guardrails that enable confident execution.
• Provide decisive feedback and create clarity through competing priorities or ambiguity. Build strong collaboration across Planning, Purchasing, Product Development, Visual Merchandising, Replenishment, E-commerce, Operations, Finance, and other cross-functional teams.

Skills and Qualifications

• 7–10 years of experience in merchandising, product development, buying, retail, or a related field, with experience leading product strategy, managing partner relationships, evaluating performance, and guiding cross-functional teams. Equivalent combinations of experience and demonstrated capability may be considered.
• Strong project management skills, including prioritizing work, managing timelines, tracking dependencies, and advancing multiple initiatives.
• Proficiency with Monday.com or similar platforms to track status, ownership, milestones, and deliverables.
• Advanced Excel skills, including reporting, data maintenance, performance analysis, trend identification, and recommendations.
• Strong strategic merchandising, partner relationship, presentation, financial analysis, communication, and cross-functional leadership skills.
• Proficiency creating polished presentations in Canva and PowerPoint that communicate product strategies, assortments, financial insights, and recommendations.

Physical Requirements

• The physical demands described below are representative of those required to perform the essential functions of the role. Reasonable accommodations may be made as appropriate.
• Frequently sit, stand, walk, and use hands to handle products and samples; occasionally reach, climb or balance, stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl. Occasionally lift and/or move merchandise samples and materials. Travel as needed to support partnerships, stores, markets, and strategic business priorities.

Salary Range: $120,000.00/yr plus profit sharing bonus

THE EXPERIENCE MATTERS.

For our guests. For our partners. For our teams.