Director, Item Data Operations and Strategy

Job description

With a career at The Home Depot, you can be yourself and also be part of something bigger. Position Purpose: We're looking for a Director to lead our Product Information & Interconnected Enablement organization — the team responsible for the item data management platform that powers our ecommerce channels. This leader will own the strategy, roadmap, and operational excellence of the systems and processes that ensure product data is accurate, complete, and available at scale across every customer touchpoint. This is a highly visible leadership role at the intersection of data, platform engineering, and ecommerce operations. You'll manage a large, multi-disciplinary team responsible for item data (data operations, data governance, and enablement functions) and partner closely with merchandising, ecommerce, supply chain, and technology stakeholders to ensure product data drives a seamless customer experience. This role will lead a team, including people managers, building strong succession planning, career development, and a high-performance culture. The team will drive data quality and governance — ensuring consistent SLAs, and controls that ensure product data is accurate and consistent across systems. This leader will partner cross-functionally with merchandising, ecommerce/digital, supply chain, IT/engineering, and vendor/supplier teams to align data enablement work with business priorities. You’ll help modernize and automate item data workflows — reducing manual touchpoints, improving throughput, and enabling faster time-to-market for new and updated products. You will report on key operational and platform health metrics to senior leadership and champion change management as the team adopts new tools, processes, or organizational structure. Key Responsibilities: 40% Uses independent thinking and judgment to identify and implement sustainable process improvements, organizational and systems enhancements that enable improved quality and efficiencies for Merchandising Operations. 20% Project Management - Lead cross functional projects ensuring that projects are on time, on budget, within scope and on target for successful implementation 20% Work across the organization to understand opportunities for business process improvement and how to better support Home Depot's stores and merchandising groups 20% Selects, develops and directs a high performing team Direct Manager/Direct Reports: Typically reports to Sr. Director Merchandising Operations Accountable for the management of a department or functional group through subordinate supervisors/managers and for all personnel issues - including selection, termination, performance appraisal and professional development of subordinates. Travel Requirements: Typically requires overnight travel 20% to 50% of the time. Physical Requirements: Most of the time is spent sitting in a comfortable position and there is frequent opportunity to move about. On rare occasions there may be a need to move or lift light articles. Working Conditions: Located in a comfortable indoor area. Any unpleasant conditions would be infrequent and not objectionable. Minimum Qualifications: Must be eighteen years of age or older. Must be legally permitted to work in the United States. Preferred Qualifications: 10+ years of progressive experience in product/item data management, master data management (MDM), PIM platforms, ecommerce operations, or related data/platform disciplines. 5+ years of experience leading large, multi-layered teams (60+ people preferred), including managing managers. Experience owning a platform or system at scale — ideally item/product data management, digital asset management, or a similar data-intensive ecommerce platform. Strong understanding of data governance, data quality frameworks, and how product data flows into and powers ecommerce/digital experiences. Experience partnering with technology/engineering teams on platform roadmaps Excellent stakeholder management skills — comfortable operating cross-functionally with merchandising, digital, supply chain, and executive leadership. Experience in retail or ecommerce strongly preferred; familiarity with big-box or omnichannel retail data complexity is a plus. Strong analytical and communication skills — able to translate complex data/platform topics into clear business narratives. Experience leading operational change management or large-scale process automation initiatives. MBA or advanced degree a plus. Minimum Education: The knowledge, skills and abilities typically acquired through the completion of a bachelor's degree program or equivalent degree in a field of study related to the job. Preferred Education: No additional education Minimum Years of Work Experience: 7 Preferred Years of Work Experience: No additional years of experience Minimum Leadership Experience: None Preferred Leadership Experience: None Certifications: None Competencies: Ability to work with business stakeholders to identify opportunities for process improvements and organize into initiatives that are prioritized based on business need and the delivery of other strategic initiatives across merchandising. Provide direction and leadership on all aspects of business process improvement efforts Expertise in designing, developing, and managing large cross functional projects which includes developing the communications strategies, stakeholder engagement, end user training programs, and driving relevant change management activities with the affected business partners both in and outside of merchandising Working knowledge of the technology project lifecycle and ability to partner with IT on large scale initiatives to lead the business team through requirements, design, construction, testing and deployment of solutions. Familiarity with the organizational change impacts of business process improvements and ERP systems General understanding of systems and processes that support merchandising as well as other related functional areas such as Supply Chain, Finance and Store Systems Strong presentation and group facilitation skills Ability to negotiate and influence others at all levels of the organization Ability to develop a structure and processes that support users post system implementations providing a high level of customer service