Associate Buyer

About the role

The posting lists Cottonwood Heights, UT. You support category strategy, build your own vendor relationships, and develop the analytical instincts that define a great buyer - this is where buying careers are made at Backcountry. As Associate Buyer , you will own your PO process independently, contribute a meaningful point of view to assortment decisions, and represent Backcountry confidently in routine vendor conversations within your first 6-12 months. This is a lean team. You will own a lot, move fast, and make decisions with full end-to-end responsibility. On the team you would What You'll Do:.

Key facts

What you'll do

• You support category strategy, build your own vendor relationships, and develop the analytical instincts that define a great buyer - this is where buying careers are made at Backcountry.
• As Associate Buyer , you will own your PO process independently, contribute a meaningful point of view to assortment decisions, and represent Backcountry confidently in routine vendor conversations within your first 6-12 months.
• This is a lean team. You will own a lot, move fast, and make decisions with full end-to-end responsibility.
• You will What You'll Do:.
• Assist in seasonal assortment selection including pricing, category and brand mix, and inventory planning; analyze historical sales data and market trends to contribute a point of view to assortment decisions.
• Manage day-to-day vendor communication; participate in seasonal term negotiations, discounts, and promotional windows with guidance from senior team members.
• Mark vendor catalogs for SKU/PO worksheet creation; build POs (Qty/Dollar/Style Allocation, Size/Color Breakout) under tight deadlines and ensure on-time submission; manage PO edits, past dues, and pre-season and ASAP builds with growing independence.
• Support the promotional calendar with SKU selection, rules page review, and QA; react to promotional performance and contribute a point of view on what is and is not working.
• Work with the Planner on pre-season inventory allocation, in-season sell-through tracking, and pricing strategy for slow movers.
• Review and optimize product presentation on site pages including color thumbnails, boost and sort order, cross-sells, backorder management, and site taxonomy and facets.
• Use AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or similar) to analyze assortment performance, research competitive positioning, draft promotional briefs, and streamline PO workflows; validate outputs before applying them.
• Support Assistant Buyers on administrative and operational processes; collaborate with Buyers and Sr. Buyers to execute shared category goals.

Requirements

• Assist in seasonal assortment selection including pricing, category and brand mix, and inventory planning; analyze historical sales data and market trends to contribute a point of view to assortment decisions.
• Manage day-to-day vendor communication; participate in seasonal term negotiations, discounts, and promotional windows with guidance from senior team members.
• Mark vendor catalogs for SKU/PO worksheet creation; build POs (Qty/Dollar/Style Allocation, Size/Color Breakout) under tight deadlines and ensure on-time submission; manage PO edits, past dues, and pre-season and ASAP builds with growing independence.
• Support the promotional calendar with SKU selection, rules page review, and QA; react to promotional performance and contribute a point of view on what is and is not working.
• Work with the Planner on pre-season inventory allocation, in-season sell-through tracking, and pricing strategy for slow movers.
• Review and optimize product presentation on site pages including color thumbnails, boost and sort order, cross-sells, backorder management, and site taxonomy and facets.
• Use AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or similar) to analyze assortment performance, research competitive positioning, draft promotional briefs, and streamline PO workflows; validate outputs before applying them.
• Support Assistant Buyers on administrative and operational processes; collaborate with Buyers and Sr. Buyers to execute shared category goals.

Skills & tools

You will use react. You will use go. You will use rust.