Visual Merchandising Project Manager - Meta (CA, WA, NY)
Meta is looking for a Reality Labs (RL) Visual Merchandising Project Manager. This person will be responsible for developing global retail display concepts in partnership with retail creative that help bring Meta products to life in physical retail. This role plays an instrumental part in contributing to the RL vision for our global customers to find, learn and experience RL products through our various retail channels. This person needs to have a keen sensibility when it comes to working through everything related to merchandising, including a balancing act between the brand, 3rd party retail needs, limitations on retail technology & product experience and overarching timelines. They are responsible for translating Meta strategic product and sales initiatives into compelling merchandising- fixture programs that create an exceptional customer experience. It is critical to have a background in how physical displays and display technology come together to create seamless shopper experiences across a variety of footprints.
The primary role of the VM Project Manager is to ensure that all visual merchandising components including fixtures, demo units, graphics and display technologies are designed and produced on brand, on budget, and on time to meet our channel marketing needs. There will be continued focus on optimizing our existing displays as well as a large emphasis on designing experiences for future unreleased Meta products that are in the roadmap, establishing global design requirements including concepting / engineering / prototyping to enable the local regional teams to take that guidance for production. This role is expected to partner with Meta retail creative as well as retail tech, product marketing and the regional Meta physical merchandising teams to design, engineer and prototype displays for RL products based on channel & retailer needs. The VM Project Manager must be comfortable in a fast-paced environment working collaboratively across a wide variety of cross functional partners internally and externally. A robust understanding of how fixtures & printed elements are designed, engineered, manufactured, shipped and installed is extremely critical to be successful in this role.
Visual Merchandising Project Manager Responsibilities
Prioritize a large volume of projects with tight deadlines to meet critical dates for refresh / launch globally
Partner closely with Channel Marketing, Product Marketing, Category and Creative to develop comprehensive display programs across a variety of retailer footprints. This includes building out a merchandising playbooks that can be handed off to the regional physical merchandising teams for localization and production
Manage RFQ / RFPs with external vendors or agencies
Be involved in research pertaining to merchandising that includes but not limited to shopper journey and display evaluations - and be able to leverage data to drive merchandising evolution
Build highly detailed schedules for a variety of physical merchandising initiatives (ranging from product launch to simple temporary elements) and track them from inception to deployment with ability to inform cross functionally the whole way
Partner closely with product marketing and retail tech / engineering teams to understand some of the parameters around product experience to incorporate into the physical display requirements
Follow established brand style guidelines when working with display concepts, graphics and any physical merch assets
Review revisions and comments for multiple projects simultaneously
Review engineering, prototypes, digital and printed proofs for all programs with a keen eye for detail
Understand fixture production processes in order to properly prepare workback schedules and deliverables with the broader organization. Establish global processes for sharing design / engineering with regional teams and vendors
Understand a variety of manufacturing processes as well as familiarity with retail security practices (i.e- tethers, alarms etc.)
Manage global design budgets including processing quotes & purchase orders for vendors. Negotiate with suppliers on pricing
Minimum Qualifications
5+ years of professional experience (on either the brand side of retail displays or the vendor side of retail displays)
Proven experience understanding the shopper experiences and how to translate that into physical design requirements
Must have experience sharing program / project updates across broad teams and organizations - transparency is key within the Meta culture and the experience to communicate, clear + concise cross functionally at all levels
Experiences of developing processes, or when processes are in place, streamlining and making them more efficient and scalable
Demonstrated high level of accuracy and attention to detail with experience to track and articulate the intricacies of complex display programs
Experience managing relationships with cross-functional stakeholders and external vendors
Highly effective at managing conflict. Knows how to address issues between stakeholders swiftly in order to maintain a positive team spirit that is consistent with Meta values
Effective interpersonal & communication skills, approachable and flexible
Understand how to create and manage project and budget trackers
Preferred Qualifications
BA/BS degree in Business, Graphic Design or a related field
Familiarity with global retail partners and their guidelines / processes
Experience within a brand executing a direct-to-consumer physical retail strategy
Prior history of developing and building retail displays within the consumer electronics categories
Experience in bringing projects from concept stage through design, development, and execution
Experience in working with sales, product, brand, channel marketing, and legal
Experience maintaining budgets and fiscal responsibility
Knowledge of presentation decks for executives and partners
