About Officeworks:

Officeworks purpose is we bring big ideas to life at low prices. It's how we create shared value for customers, team members, suppliers, communities and shareholders.

We are Australia's leading omnichannel retailer of complete technology solutions, stationery, furniture, art supplies, and learning resources. We also offer services including Print & Create, and Geeks2U.

Our products and services provide solutions to our diverse range of customers across Australia from households, students, small to large sized businesses, governments and schools.

Our culture is built on beginning with customer, doing the right thing, executing with accountability, and leading with ambition. We are one team who are proud to wear the blues and deliver for our customers.

We are an inclusive, forward-thinking organization where diverse perspectives enable innovation, continuous improvement and better outcomes for our customers and teams. The work we do plays an important role in helping Australians work, learn, create and connect.

About the Commercial Function:

The Commercial team within the Global Capability Centre (GCC) sits at the heart of Officeworks growth agenda. This function brings together customer needs, product innovation, services, supplier partnerships, merchandise planning, and channel growth to shape what Officeworks sells, how it competes, and the value it delivers across Retail, B2B, Government, and Education.
This is a unique opportunity to contribute to one of the business's most commercially impactful areas. The team plays a key role in evolving Officeworks product and service offering, accelerating growth in high-potential channels (such as B2B and Education), expanding private label and exclusive ranges, strengthening supplier partnerships, and unlocking emerging category opportunities across areas like technology, gaming, mobility, VR, print, installation, telco, and managed services.
As part of the newly established GCC, you will help build commercial capability from the ground up, shaping scalable ways of working, strengthening planning and decision-making, and driving outcomes that impact sales, margin, customer experience, inventory performance, and long-term growth.

These roles are best suited for people who enjoy:

Thriving in a growth-focused retail environment where commercial decisions directly influence customers, sales, margin, and competitiveness
Contributing to key growth areas, including B2B, Education, Government, private label, exclusive products, and emerging categories
Using insights (customer, competitor, category, supplier, financial, inventory) to identify opportunities and inform decisions
Collaborating cross-functionally to turn commercial strategy into practical outcomes

Who you will be working with:

Head of Merchandise Planning, Forecasting and Supply: Align the Hub's priorities with Officeworks inventory strategy and escalate material decisions, risks and trade-offs.
Inventory Optimization Analysts: Lead performance, capability, work allocation and delivery across the Bengaluru team.
Merchandise Planning, Replenishment and Inventory Teams: Define business problems, provide operational expertise and embed approved improvements.
Category Management, Supply Chain and Finance: Address cross-functional drivers of availability, inventory investment, supplier performance and stock flow.
Technology and Data: Coordinate data access, system design, technical delivery, testing and issue resolution.
Planning System Vendors and Delivery Partners: Support solution design, system optimization and implementation where required.

What success looks like:

Inventory outcomes: Approved initiatives contribute to improved availability, inventory productivity, stock flow and management of excess inventory.
Portfolio value: Improvement work is prioritized against clear business needs and delivers measurable benefits.
Analytical quality: Insights and recommendations are accurate, clearly explained and trusted by business stakeholders.
Process and system improvement: Planning processes are simpler, better controlled and supported by effective system logic and automation.
Implementation and adoption: Approved changes are tested, documented and embedded into business operations.
Stakeholder confidence: Australian business owners have clear visibility of priorities, progress, risks and expected outcomes.
Team capability: Inventory Optimization Analysts demonstrate strong inventory, analytical, process and system capability and deliver consistently high-quality work.
Cross-location effectiveness: Bengaluru and Australian teams work through clear accountabilities, decision rights and delivery rhythms.
Demonstrates behaviours aligned to Officeworks values, contributing to a respectful, inclusive and high-performing culture.

Our Values:

Our values shape the way we work, our behaviours and how we interact with each other, our customers, suppliers and communities.

We begin with customer:

We start with our customer needs in every decision.
We offer simple, helpful and affordable solutions.
We listen, learn and continuously improve.

We do the right thing:

We lead with integrity and care for our team communities and planet.
We work together safely and treat everyone with respect, inclusion, and trust.
We collaborate across teams and think Officeworks-wide.

We execute with accountability:

We are accountable for our decisions, actions, results, and mistakes.
We stay across the details and focus on delivering what matters.
We move with pace and agility to deliver outcomes.

We lead with ambition:

We set bold ambitions that help us to win and transform.
We are courageous with new ideas.
We focus on transformation, not incremental steps.

Why this role exists:

The Associate Inventory Optimization Manager leads the Inventory Optimization team and its portfolio of analytics, process and planning system improvements. The role translates Officeworks inventory priorities into a structured pipeline of work and ensures analysis results in practical, measurable improvements to availability, inventory productivity and planning effectiveness.

The role is accountable for the performance and capability of the Inventory Optimization Analysts and for the quality, prioritization and delivery of the team's work. It remains close to complex analysis and solution design, providing direction, challenge and quality assurance where required.

Working with merchandise planning, replenishment, supply chain, Technology and Data teams, the role identifies root causes, shapes recommendations and supports implementation. Functional business owners retain accountability for operational planning decisions, policies and performance outcomes.

Where you will make a difference:

In this role you will:

Inventory Optimization and Portfolio Leadership:

Translate business priorities into a clear portfolio of inventory optimization, analytics, process and system initiatives.
Prioritize opportunities based on customer and commercial impact, inventory benefit, risk, effort and delivery capacity.
Define and govern inventory policies, service-level strategies and optimization parameters that balance availability, inventory investment, cost and operational constraints.
Set clear outcomes, scope and accountabilities for initiatives and maintain visibility of progress, dependencies, risks and decisions.
Provide evidence-based recommendations to improve availability, inventory productivity, replenishment performance and stock flow.
Escalate material inventory-policy decisions, investment requirements and priority trade-offs to the appropriate business owners and governance forums.

Analytics, Process and System Optimization:

Lead diagnostic analysis to identify the root causes of inventory and availability outcomes, including issues arising from forecasts, parameters, master data, constraints or system configuration.
Oversee the development of dashboards and analysis covering measures such as availability, forecast bias, safety stock, service levels, replenishment efficiency, excess inventory and promotional performance.
Evaluate system-generated recommendations and ensure optimization outcomes are understood, challenged and improved where required.
Lead the functional design, testing and optimization of inventory policies, planning logic, workflows, parameters and automation within RELEX and related systems.
Ensure analytical outputs are accurate, clearly interpreted and translated into practical recommendations for business stakeholders.
Establish clear process documentation, controls, parameter-governance routines and standard operating procedures for approved ways of working.
Contribute directly to complex analysis, problem-solving and quality assurance where additional judgement or experience is required.

Transformation Delivery and Adoption:

Convert approved opportunities into practical delivery plans covering requirements, functional design, testing, implementation and adoption.
Coordinate Inventory Optimization Analysts and business subject-matter experts through analysis, process mapping, requirements definition, scenario validation and user acceptance testing.
Partner with functional owners to ensure solutions reflect operational requirements and can be embedded into day-to-day planning.
Monitor implementation risks, dependencies and readiness, and intervene where delivery, solution quality or adoption is at risk.
Establish benefit measures and assess whether implemented changes deliver the intended availability, inventory, efficiency and control outcomes.
Capture lessons and apply them to future initiatives, analytical methods and implementation approaches.

Stakeholder Partnership and Governance:

Act as the primary interface between the Inventory Optimization and Australian inventory, replenishment and merchandise planning leaders.
Build shared understanding of business problems, priorities, decision rights and expected outcomes before work commences.
Work with Supply Chain, Finance, Category Management, Technology and Data teams to address cross-functional issues affecting inventory performance.
Provide concise reporting, insights and recommendations to support portfolio governance and inventory decision-making.
Manage relationships with RELEX and other planning-system vendors or delivery partners where required.

How you will lead:

Line Manager:

Leads a culture based on our Officeworks values and behaviours.
Provides functional leadership across inventory optimization, setting clear standards and accountability for inventory policies, parameter governance and system-driven outcomes.
Builds team capability through coaching, constructive challenge and active involvement in complex inventory optimization and planning-system decisions.
Demonstrates resilience, has determination and drive to persist through challenge
Is self-aware; has humility and is self-reflective; understands how to bring out the best in self and others
Strong sense of personal and team accountability, drives a genuine commitment to their teams and individual development
Proactively contributes to a safe working environment, escalates appropriately if there are unsafe conditions or inappropriate behaviour
Operates in line with applicable Officeworks company policies and Code of Conduct
Builds inclusive teams and creates an environment where diverse perspectives, equitable opportunities and respectful behaviours enable team and business performance

Qualifications and work experience:

Essential:

8+ years experience across inventory optimization, replenishment, supply planning, demand planning or inventory management in a complex, high-SKU environment.
A tertiary qualification in engineering, supply chain, operations, mathematics, statistics, data analytics or a related discipline.
Deep expertise in inventory optimization, including service-level strategies, safety-stock calculations, demand and lead-time variability, inventory segmentation, replenishment parameters, excess inventory and working capital.
Strong understanding of how advanced planning systems translate demand, supply, inventory policies and operational constraints into inventory and replenishment recommendations.
Demonstrated ability to configure, tune and govern inventory optimization parameters, analyze system-generated recommendations and diagnose issues arising from parameters, master data, forecasts, constraints or system configuration.
Experience leading highly analytical and technically capable inventory optimization professionals by setting standards, reviewing analysis, challenging assumptions, developing team capability and resolving complex problems.
Strong scenario-modelling capability, with the ability to evaluate trade-offs between product availability, service levels, inventory investment, cost, risk and operational capacity.
Experience improving inventory policies, optimization processes, parameter-governance routines, system usage and data quality.
Strong analytical capability using advanced planning systems, business intelligence tools and large, complex datasets to identify root causes and improve inventory outcomes.
Ability to translate complex analysis and system behaviour into clear risks, options and recommendations for senior stakeholders.
Strong cross-functional influencing skills and experience working across planning, commercial, technology, data and operations teams.

Preferred:

Experience in omnichannel retail, particularly fast-moving technology products.
Experience with RELEX or a comparable planning and inventory optimization platform.
Working knowledge of SQL and Power BI, Tableau or comparable analytical tools; exposure to Python would be advantageous.
Experience supporting planning-system implementations, inventory optimization transformations or major parameter redesigns.

Associate Merchandise Optimization Manager