Merchandise Manager

Work with a passionate, enthusiastic and talented team
- Elite working environment at The Hangar
- Additional annual leave days to coincide with Footy Department breaks

Are you passionate about footy, product management and merchandise? This is your chance to join a premier AFL team as Essendon Football Club (EFC) looks to appoint a Merchandise Manager.

**About us**

Essendon FC - “The Bombers” - are a professional sporting team in the Australian Football League. As home to 5 sporting teams, we run our AFL men’s and women’s programs, VFL women’s and men’s programs, and a wheelchair football team. But we’re more than the game. Not only do we exist to win premierships, we aim to give back to our loyal membership base, and importantly, our community. We understand and take seriously the impact we have on social outcomes and work tirelessly to ensure these are positive, from our partnership with The Long Walk, to our indigenous pathway programs. To do this, we have strong commercial partnerships and innovate with non-traditional ventures, such as our Essendon Education Academy and EFC Investment Fund, so that we can deliver world class events, give back to our fans, run community programs and ultimately, strive toward our next premiership.

**About the role**

As our Merchandise Manager, you will be responsible for developing and driving the Club’s merchandise and licensing strategy focusing on increasing sales and profitability of revenue streams, margin maintenance and growth, while overseeing merchandise and licensing operations including planning for the merchandise products, pricing, fulfilment and service. You will be responsible for managing and leveraging relationships with key stakeholders including merchandise partners, AFL Licensees and the AFL Consumer Products team.

Being responsible for leading our merchandise team, you will drive efficiency and success in pursuit of the Club’s strategic objectives. You will lead the team to deliver exceptional customer service through all communication channels and will enable sales and profitability to increase.

Day-to-day you’ll be managing retail product development, relationships with merchandise partner/s and AFL Licensees, and collaborating with digital, marketing and communication teams to drive growth in sales and revenue. You will also work with our data and insights team to ensure reporting tools are accurate and utilised to optimise revenue generation and efficiency.

**About you**

With a tertiary qualification in Sport, Business or Marketing and experience in a member based or sporting organisation, you’ll pride yourself in your ability to prioritise tasks and manage staff in a dynamic and fast paced environment. You’ll have experience with licensed consumer products including product development and procurement. Alongside your exceptional customer service skills, you’ll be confident to manage and maintain strong stakeholder relationships.

**The Perks**
- ** Our work doesn’t always fit the 9 to 5.** Your life doesn’t always fit the hours around it. We offer flexibility with hybrid office / home working arrangements and hours.
- **More annual leave? **Sure EFC People* will be gifted additional leave per year taken to coincide with Footy Department mini breaks or at the discretion of the CEO. EFC People may also choose to purchase up to 10 days per annum additional leave during the year for extra time off*.
- ** Parent friendly - **We put family at the centre of our work. We know they are the centre of yours. We offer paid parental leave to both the primary and secondary carer of a biological or adopted child*.
- Access to **our Wellbeing Partner - Converge **which supports a Healthy Mind, Healthy Body and Healthy Workplace.
- ** Continuous professional development**:

- to compete at our best we have to keep learning. It’s an expectation and a commitment we make to everyone at EFC. All EFC people will have access to the Essendon Leadership Academy which consists of formal learning, coaching and mentoring, to support you in achieving your career goals.
- ** But wait there’s more - **You will have access to great benefits and discounts through our Commercial Partners. Along with two x Flexi Home & Away memberships* giving you access to our Home & Away games at Marvel Stadium and the MCG. Free onsite parking at our premium workspace, The Hangar, and more.

**Please keep reading...**

We pride ourselves on creating an environment of shared spirit of passion, innovation, and inclusivity. As an Equal Opportunity employer, we firmly believe that diversity and inclusion is an important part of how we do business. We are united in upholding our Club-wide values and are consistently setting the benchmark both on and off the field as we strive to win our next premiership. And we wouldn’t be an elite footy club if we didn’t celebrate. All our win’s matter, on and off the field, we love to reward and recognise our peop