Senior Technology Director - Merchandise Planning

Overview

lululemon is an innovative performance apparel company for yoga, running, training, and other athletic pursuits. Setting the bar in technical fabrics and functional design, we create transformational products and experiences that support people in moving, growing, connecting, and being well. We owe our success to our innovative product, emphasis on stores, commitment to our people, and the incredible connections we make in every community we're in. As a company, we focus on creating positive change to build a healthier, thriving future and an equitable, inclusive and growth‑focused environment for our people.

About This Team

Global Product Technology (GPT) delivers the platforms and capabilities that power lululemon’s product lifecycle – from 2D/3D design and development to merchandising, sourcing, assortment planning, master data management and go‑to‑market. We partner closely with design, technical development, merchandising, sourcing and planning functions to accelerate speed to market and elevate quality through PLM modernization, digital product creation, data and integration platforms, assortment planning, size planning, master data management, analytics, decision‑making solutions and AI‑assisted workflows.

The Role

We’re seeking a Senior Director Technology to define and execute a multi‑year technology strategy that transforms how lululemon merchandises, plans and delivers products to our guests. This leader will modernize the merchandise planning and allocations suite of solutions and related integration stacks, scale our capabilities to enable assortment planning, space planning, size planning, and embed AI‑driven automation to compress planning cycles and unlock better business decision‑making through both historical and forward‑looking insights. You will lead a global, multi‑disciplinary engineering organization across North America and India, stewarding platforms, products and vendor ecosystems that serve our merchants and planners end to end.

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate with internal stakeholders, drive change initiatives, and foster a culture of continuous improvement to keep pace with the organization’s growth strategy.
• Manage resources, oversee financial interests, and implement essential policies, practices and processes.
• Build and lead high‑performance teams, set standards, and elevate sustained delivery.
• Communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing.
• Deliver world‑class engineering solutions that are reliable, observable, secure, compliant and highly available.
• Guide a globally dispersed engineering team through platform and solution modernization with advanced AI capabilities such as LLMs, vector retrieval, computer vision and intelligent agents.
• Design and implement scalable, secure, responsible AI/ML‑enabled systems that bridge merchandising and planning to accelerate decision‑making.
• Translate lululemon’s merchandising and planning vision into a multi‑year solution realization strategy.
• Leverage AI and ML solutions to drive measurable impact across planning capabilities such as attributes generation, demand forecasting, allocation optimization and store clustering.
• Present complex AI/ML architectures in clear narratives for executive stakeholders.
• Champion transparency, inclusion and ethics as core enablers of innovation.
• Develop future‑ready leaders capable of balancing technical depth and business acumen.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related field.
• 5+ years of engineering leadership and delivery experience.
• Experience in retail, merchandise planning and allocations, or related field is a bonus.
• Experience managing large budgets.
• Experience translating business strategy into technology and engineering roadmaps.
• Experience in data‑heavy planning systems such as Anaplan, Oracle RPAS, etc.
• Expert proficiency in programming languages (Python, Java) and relevant libraries/frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit‑learn).
• Deep understanding of machine learning, NLP, computer vision and generative AI techniques.
• Experience producing documentation such as narratives and root‑cause analysis providing actionable insights.
• Hands‑on experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and MLOps tools.
• Strong knowledge of data engineering concepts and big data.
• Continuous learning mindset that keeps on the leading edge of ML, LLMs and NLP advancements.
• Exceptional communication and storytelling skills for executive audiences.
• PhD/Master’s in computer science, applied mathematics or statistics is a bonus.

Must Haves

• Take personal responsibility for choices and embrace life’s opportunities.
• Possess an entrepreneurial spirit and continuously innovate to achieve great results.
• Communicate with honesty and kindness and create space for others to do the same.
• Lead with courage, embracing the possibility of greatness.
• Build trusting relationships and put people first.
• Integrate fun and joy, staying lighthearted without taking oneself too seriously.

Additional Notes

Authorization to work in Canada is required for this role.

Compensation and Benefits Package

lululemon’s compensation offerings are grounded in a pay‑for‑performance philosophy that recognizes exceptional individual and team performance. The typical hiring range for this position is $241,300 - $316,700 annually; base pay offered is based on location and may vary. Permanent employees may be eligible for a competitive annual bonus program and equity offerings subject to eligibility. Key benefits include: extended health and dental benefits, mental health plans, paid time off, savings and retirement plan matching, generous employee discount, fitness & yoga classes, parenthood top‑up and extensive catalog of development course offerings. Note: Incentive programs, benefits and perks have eligibility requirements; the Company reserves the right to alter them in whole or part at any time without advance notice.

Workplace Arrangement

In‑person collaboration and connection is important to our culture. Work is performed onsite, a minimum of 4 days per week.

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