Retail Subject Matter Expert

Job Description: Retail Subject Matter Expert (SME)

About Us

At Codvo, we are committed to building scalable, future-ready data platforms that power business impact. We believe in a culture of innovation, collaboration, and growth, where engineers can experiment, learn, and thrive. Join us to be part of a team that solves complex data challenges with creativity and cutting-edge technology.

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced Retail Subject Matter Expert (SME) who will provide deep domain expertise across grocery, specialty, and omni-channel retail operations. The ideal candidate has hands-on experience in merchandising, replenishment, store operations, supply chain, and retail analytics—and can translate this knowledge into actionable strategies, product requirements, and AI/technology-enabled improvements.

Key Responsibilities

Retail Domain Leadership

• Serve as the domain authority across Merchandising, Assortment Planning, Space/Category Management, Store Operations, Forecasting, and Supply Chain.
• Provide strategic guidance on retail processes, KPIs, data structures, and operational workflows.
• Translate business needs into detailed requirements, use cases, and process maps.

Product & Solution Contribution

• Work closely with Product, Engineering, CX, and Data Science teams to validate features, align solutions with retail realities, and ensure operational feasibility.
• Participate in backlog grooming, requirement reviews, and solution design workshops.
• Evaluate prototypes, AI/ML models, and analytics dashboards for business fit and accuracy.

Operational Intelligence & Process Excellence

• Identify improvement opportunities across inventory accuracy, promo efficiency, pricing, replenishment, and demand forecasting.
• Design workflows that optimize store labor, reduce shrink/OOS, and improve customer experience.
• Map "as-is" and "to-be" operational processes.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Conduct discovery sessions, interviews, and deep-dives with cross-functional business teams.
• Communicate insights, recommendations, and outcomes through clear storytelling and presentation skills.

Training, Governance & Change Management

• Help create SOPs, process documentation, and training assets for new systems.
• Drive adoption of new tools, dashboards, and AI-driven workflows.
• Support governance processes for data quality, performance, and retail compliance.

Must-Have Qualifications

• 12–15 years of experience in retail, grocery, CPG, supply chain, or omni-channel operations.
• Strong command over retail KPIs: sell-through, GMROI, OSA/OOS, waste, shrink, promo uplift, margin mix, safety stock, inventory turn, etc.
• Expertise in at least 2–3 retail domains:
• Merchandising
• Replenishment & Forecasting
• Category Management
• Store Operations
• Ecommerce & Omnichannel
• Supply Chain & Warehouse Ops
• Hands-on experience working with retail systems such as POS, ERP, WMS, TMS, Planograms, Plan/Promo/Allocation tools, or Demand Planning systems.
• Ability to define business requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, and operational workflows.
• Strong analytical, documentation, and communication skills.
• Experience working with analytics, dashboards, or AI/ML-enabled tools.

Good-to-Have Skills

• Experience collaborating with AI/ML, Data Engineering, or Product teams to build retail-focused solutions.
• Familiarity with retail cloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP) and data ecosystems.
• Comfort working with SQL, Power BI/Tableau, or analytical modeling.
• Exposure to Generative AI or agentic AI use cases in retail (merchant assistants, OOS prediction, forecasting, etc.).
• Experience with process standardization, SOP creation, and operational excellence initiatives.

Soft Skills

• Strong problem-solving and logical thinking.
• Ability to simplify complex retail processes for technical teams.
• High ownership, bias for action, and comfort operating in fast-paced environments.
• Excellent stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Supply Chain, Retail Management, or a related field.
• MBA or advanced certification in Retail/Supply Chain (preferred).