Director - Merchandising Operations

Job Posting:

Since 1953, Ferguson has been a source of quality supplies for a variety of industries. Together We Build Better infrastructure, better homes and better businesses. We exist to make our customers’ complex projects simple, successful, and sustainable. We proactively solve problems, adapt and grow to continuously serve our customers, communities and each other. Ferguson, a Fortune 500 company, is proud to provide best-in-class products, service and capabilities across the following industries: Commercial/Mechanical, Facilities Supply, Fire and Fabrication, HVAC, Industrial, Residential Trade, Residential Building and Remodel, Waterworks and Residential Digital Commerce. Ferguson has approximately 36,000 associates across 1,700 locations. Ferguson is a community of proud associates who operate with the shared purpose of building something meaningful. You will build a career that you are proud of, at a company you can believe in.

The Director - Merchandising Operations is a senior leadership role responsible for defining and advancing the strategy, governance, and performance of core digital commerce capabilities that power the customer shopping experience and drive business growth. This leader oversees a multi‑functional organization with a strong emphasis on product data enrichment, governance, and taxonomy, along with other critical merchandising capabilities including site search, personalization/recommendations, and ratings & reviews. The role is accountable for ensuring product data and related capabilities work together cohesively to deliver scalable, high‑quality digital experiences and measurable business outcomes.

The Director plays a critical role across digital merchandising operations, from enterprise‑aligned strategy through day‑to‑day execution. This includes playing leadership roles in digital and enterprise product data enrichment /governance, developing management talent, and influencing cross‑functional partners to drive alignment, consistency, and operational discipline to drive measurable and scalable business outcomes. This role requires a balance of strategic vision, organizational leadership, and cross‑functional influence, with a clear focus on product data quality, customer experience, operational scalability

This role requires a balance of strategic vision, organizational leadership, and cross-functional influence, with a strong emphasis on data quality, customer experience, and operational scalability. The ideal leader brings a data‑first mindset and drives merchandising operations to enable growth, performance, and long‑term digital maturity.

Location: This position may be remote or hybrid in accordance with company policy.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Strategy & Business Outcomes

• Define and lead the long-term strategy for merchandising operations, ensuring alignment with enterprise digital commerce and customer experience goals

• Translate enterprise priorities into clear functional strategies, roadmaps, and measurable outcomes across all merchandising operations capabilities

• Drive improvements in key performance indicators including conversion, revenue, speed-to-market, data quality, and customer engagement

• Establish analytics as a core capability to measure Merch Operations performance, inform decision-making, and optimize the digital shopping experience

2. Enterprise Product Data Leadership

• Lead product data alignment initiatives to support the future integration of disparate product data systems into a unified MDM/PIM environment.

• Plays leadership role in digital and enterprise product data enrichment, including governance, strategy, and execution across channels

• Establish and enforce standards for data quality, completeness, accuracy, and consistency across product content

• Balance speed-to-market with data integrity, ensuring scalable processes for enriching vendor and internal product data

• Partner cross-functionally to define and evolve sources of truth, data models, and workflows that support enterprise and digital needs

• Ensure product data enables downstream capabilities including search relevance, recommendations, SEO performance, and overall site experience

3. Digital Experience Enablement

• Leverage platform capabilities to drive measurable improvements in relevance, discoverability, and engagement, enabling sales, conversion, and margin improvements via product data enrichment, site search, recommendations/personalization, reviews and the site taxonomies

• Ensure these capabilities are aligned and optimized to improve the end-to-end customer experience

4. AI & Future Capability Development

• Define /lead vision for AI-enabled capabilities across merchandising operations. Leads execution of AI use cases across Digital Merch Operations in partnership with AI Enterprise teams

• Evaluate, prioritize, and guide adoption of AI to improve scalability, automation, relevance, and data quality

5. Organizational Leadership & Team Development

• Lead a team of managers responsible for distinct functional areas, ensuring strong alignment, accountability, and performance across teams

• Build leadership capability within the organization, via Manager development and coaching, operating models and career pathing /succession planning

• Ensure digital and enterprise strategy and priorities are translated into actionable goals at every level of the organization

• Foster high-performance culture focused on outcomes, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement

6. Cross-Functional Influence & Enterprise Alignment

• Serve as a key partner to Digital, Product, IT, Merchandising, and Vendor Management teams to align priorities and remove organizational barriers

• Influence enterprise decisions related to product data, digital experience, and merchandising capabilities

• Drive standardization of processes, tools, and governance models across previously fragmented teams

Qualifications:

Required Experience

• 10+ years of experience in ecommerce, digital merchandising, merchandising operations, product data, or related fields

• Proven experience leading managers and building high-performing, multi-layered teams

• Demonstrated success driving strategy and execution across complex, cross-functional organizations

• Experience with product data, taxonomy, site search, personalization, or related digital commerce capabilities

Preferred Experience

• Experience leading or supporting enterprise product data enrichment and PIM strategies

• Familiarity with AI/ML applications in ecommerce (search, recommendations, content, data enrichment)

• Experience in large-scale, multi-brand or multi-site ecommerce environments

At Ferguson, we care for each other. We value our well-being just as much as our hard work. We are committed to a holistic approach towards benefits plans and programs that support the mental, physical and financial well-being of our associates. Our competitive offering not only includes benefits like health, dental, vision, paid time off, life insurance and a 401(k) with a company match, but our associates also enjoy additional meaningful and inclusive enhancements that are adaptable to their diverse situations and needs, including mental health coverage, gender affirming and family building benefits, paid parental leave, associate discounts, community involvement opportunities and more!

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Pay Range:

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Actual pay rate may vary depending upon location. The estimated pay range for this position is below. The specific rate will depend on a candidate’s qualifications and prior experience.

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Estimated Ranges displayed are Monthly for Salaried roles OR Hourly for all other roles.

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This role is Bonus or Incentive Plan eligible.

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Ferguson complies with all wage regulations. The starting wage may be higher in certain locations based on local or state wage requirements.

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The Company is an equal opportunity employer as well as a government contractor that shall abide by the requirements of 41 CFR 60-300.5(a), which prohibits discrimination against qualified protected Veterans and the requirements of 41 CFR 60-741.5(A), which prohibits discrimination against qualified individuals on the basis of disability.

Ferguson Enterprises, LLC. is an equal employment employer F/M/Disability/Vet/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity.

Equal Employment Opportunity and Reasonable Accommodation Information