Saks Fifth Avenue Assistant Planner
- Location
- United States United States USA
- Employment
- Full-Time
- Seniority
- Entry-Level
- Compensation
- $59,000–79,000/year
- Department
- Merchandising, Buying & Planning
- Posted
- Oct 7, 2026
About Saks Fifth Avenue
Saks Fifth Avenue is a premier luxury department store and a cornerstone of the Saks Global portfolio. Renowned for a carefully curated assortment of designer fashion and high-touch client service, the brand blends immersive in-store experiences with an elevated digital offering across its North American locations.
Saks Fifth Avenue is seeking an Assistant Planner for Contemporary Handbags to support pre-season and in-season planning, financial and assortment plans, OTB, reporting, vendor analysis, and buy recommendations. The role requires 1–2 years in buying, planning, or allocation and offers a full-time schedule, with an annual salary range of $59,000–$79,000.
Role & Responsibilities
- Support the planning and buying teams during pre-season and in-season planning processes, working with the Planner to achieve sales and profit objectives for one or more merchandise categories in conjunction with buying teams.
- Support the Planner in developing and executing financial plans, assortment plans, and buy plans.
- Support the buying team with Open to Buy (OTB), receipt management, market preparation, and ad hoc merchandise analysis.
- Support monthly OTB forecasts and presentations.
- Assist the Planner in setting pre-season sales, profit, and inventory targets, and identify in-season opportunities and liabilities.
- Maintain daily and weekly reports for the merchant team.
- Analyze business regularly at vendor, product-category, and classification levels, and make recommendations to drive the business.
- Develop and maintain vendor relationships to align on business goals and needs.
- Work effectively with Buying, Planning, Category Growth, and Store Allocation teams.
- Prepare pre-market buy recommendations on style breadth and unit depth by vendor and channel.
- Assume progressively greater responsibility and ownership of part of the business.
Qualifications
- Post-secondary education or commensurate retail experience.
- 1–2 years of experience in buying, planning, or allocation.
- Fundamental understanding of retail mathematics and inventory management.
- Proficiency in MS Office, especially Excel.
- Familiarity with merchandising systems.
- A natural problem-solver with a financial and analytical perspective.
- Resourcefulness, proactivity, and a solution-oriented approach.
- Attention to detail.
- Experience working across multiple functions to gather different perspectives and solve problems.
Skills
Experience
1–2 years in buying, planning, or allocation
Education
Post-secondary education or commensurate retail experience
Workplace
This position is based in United States, United States, USA.
Compensation
The base compensation for this position ranges from USD 59,000 to USD 79,000 per annum.
Benefits
Medical, dental, and vision insurance; 401(k) retirement plan; basic and supplemental life insurance; disability insurance; voluntary benefits including critical illness, hospital, and accident insurance; employee discount.
Culture
Saks Fifth Avenue emphasizes a high‑standard, client‑centric retail culture that fuses creative visual storytelling with commercial rigor. The environment rewards initiative and offers cross‑functional career mobility across retail, digital and corporate disciplines within the Saks Global portfolio.
About Cerulean
Cerulean is the definitive career portal for the global luxury industry. We match exceptional professionals with exclusive opportunities at the world's most prestigious brands. From haute couture and fine watchmaking to prestige beauty, hospitality, and boutique retail, Cerulean centralises luxury employment to help you find the career for which you were destined.
Frequently Asked Questions
The luxury industry is characterised by a diverse and nuanced nomenclature. Esteemed houses frequently employ proprietary terminology, and even within a single organisation like Saks Fifth Avenue, titles may vary across global markets to reflect local conventions. To ensure absolute clarity, Cerulean assigns a standardised, industry-coherent canonical title to every listing. However, it is worth noting that this role is functionally synonymous with «Assistant Merchandise Planner», «Junior Merchandise Planner», «Planning Analyst», «Assistant Retail Planner», and other variations. Our sophisticated search architecture anticipates these variations, ensuring that inquiries using related terms will seamlessly yield the exact roles you desire.