Position is located in Boston with a hybrid schedule. 

We’re seeking a curious tinkerer full of gumption – a true innovator that loves ambiguous problems, end to end ownership, and breaking complex systems into manageable parts – to join our North American Strategic Platform Innovations (SPI) team. SPI is a supplier-facing team and part of Retail Buying and Category Management’s Complex Business Group in Home Improvement, which covers the categories Appliances, Blinds, Cabinetry, Flooring, Fireplaces & Grills, and Hardware. SPI’s goal is to innovatively solve complex challenges for our categories where there are critical go-to-market category needs and capability gaps, with an eye for global scalability to other categories and core business lines wherever possible. 

North American Retail, our parent organization, is the organization within Wayfair that drives the overall strategy for the multitude of product categories that are offered across our channels of business. 

Who We Are

SPI is composed of business evangelists and owners that sit at the intersection of product management, program management, operations management, category management, and supplier engagement, translating and coordinating between the various functions to drive outcomes, with a commercial customer lens. SPIs travel across figurative team borders and speak multiple functional languages to manage large stakeholder groups and execute on our vision.

We have a deep understanding of end to end customer problems and the associated business value in order to coordinate across the various technical pods and business teams required to enact complex solutions.

SPIs are dedicated resources to tackle large and complex projects that cover end to end customer experiences.

As a Senior Associate on the SPI team, you will be expected to define overarching goals and strategy within your global projects, problem-solve, articulate and execute against self-defined tactical plans, and manage key business metrics. Members of the team must be able to expertly negotiate internally and externally, while also being effective project and stakeholder managers.

We are at the forefront as Wayfair redefines the supplier and customer experience as a platform, giving suppliers more data, more transparency, and more control while retaining the high-touch elements that make working with Wayfair exceptional. Internally, we leverage a diverse set of cross-functional partners to execute our strategic vision.

How is this opportunity unique?

The Category Management team interacts with our suppliers every day. We like candidates with consultative mindsets who want to work with external partners. Collaborative partnerships are a hallmark of a relationship with Wayfair.

SPI team members tackle large ambiguous problems, defining the end to end approach to solving in new green spaces.

Wayfair is a data-driven environment. Candidates with experience using data to drive decision-making are great matches.

We move fast and take risks. If you have experience at a start-up or in another fast-paced, risk-taking environment, you’d enjoy working at Wayfair. Be prepared to constantly evolve.

Strong communication is key. We have a 360° view into suppliers and categories. You’ll need to be able to gain buy-in from senior leaders and cross-functional teams to accomplish your goals.

We like to have fun. Our team takes time each month to celebrate our wins and toast our accomplishments. We foster an environment that values balance, and we encourage personal development by offering a broad spectrum of opportunities for continuous development and mentorship.

What You'll Do

• Execute initiatives to drive progress against well-defined objectives and KPIs
• May have ownership over E2E complex project’s to achieve revenue and profitability goals by unlocking new supplier/customer experiences or Wayfair capabilities.
• Build strong relationships with existing suppliers and internal business and technical stakeholders, influencing both with informal and formal authority to drive your projects to completion. 
• Analyze data to strategize profit growth opportunities. 
• Engage deeply with, and coordinate multiple stakeholders across company domains to bring clarity and order to complex, often stalled or delayed multidisciplinary business challenges and opportunities. 
• Support and execute built out solutions and project plans to enable multiple teams to correctly size and sequence their work to realize commercial outcomes.
• Help technical teams by supporting the end state vision from current state - “here is what we want, and here is where we need to start.” 
• Collaborate with other CM partners to take nascent concepts and build concrete plans against them to bring them to market. 
• Analyze and anticipate competitor marketing, selection, and pricing strategy
• Attend tradeshows or visit key suppliers (3-6 times per year)
  
  

What You'll Need

• 3+ years of E-commerce, corporate retail, management consulting, or sales experience preferred
• An ability to hit the ground running as a confident, entrepreneurial self-starter
• Comfort with extreme ambiguity and innovation
• High degree of resilience and collaborative persistence 
• Articulate and persuasive communication skills, both written and verbal
• A track record of successful negotiation and relationship management skills
• An ability to hit the ground running – a confident, entrepreneurial self-starter
• Demonstrated senior presence, recognized as an effective manager
• An ability to manage and prioritize projects and to delegate tasks appropriately
• Innovative problem-solving skills – dissect and determine root causes of problems and implement solutions
• Proven experience of taking on big challenges and delivering despite obstacles and limited resources