Manager, AI and Data Innovation

Charm City Run is looking for a hands-on, results-oriented Director of AI & Data Innovation to lead the company’s data and artificial intelligence strategy. This is a foundational role: you will connect our data sources, surface insights that drive smarter buying and customer decisions, and build the tools and automations that help our teams work faster and better.

This is not a big-company program management role. You will do real work alongside a small, motivated team—writing queries, configuring tools, building automations, and delivering outcomes. You will also have a clear path to grow the role as the company’s AI capabilities mature.

What You’ll Own:

• Data Integration & Infrastructure
• Audit and connect Charm City Run’s data sources: POS, e-commerce, loyalty program, inventory, vendor portals, and customer interaction data
• Build a unified data foundation that gives leadership a single, reliable view of business performance
• Define data standards, naming conventions, and governance practices to ensure data quality across systems
• Identify and close data gaps; partner with vendors and internal teams to get the right data flowing
• Strategic Analytics & Investment Decisions
• Translate customer data into actionable recommendations on product assortment, category investment, and brand mix
• Build the framework that allows for dashboards and models that surface sell-through trends, margin performance, and demand signals by category, brand, and location
• Partner with the buying team to build a data-driven open-to-buy process grounded in customer behavior and inventory velocity
• Provide analysis and recommendations to support vendor negotiation and seasonal planning
• Buying & Inventory Automation
• Design and implement automation for the fill-in replenishment process—identifying low-stock SKUs, calculating reorder quantities, and generating draft purchase orders for buyer review
• Build tooling to streamline PO creation: pulling from historical sales data, current inventory levels, and vendor lead times to produce accurate, ready-to-submit orders
• Work toward full-cycle order automation: from demand signal to submitted PO, reducing manual effort for the buying team
• Integrate with vendor EDI or portal systems as relationships allow; build the internal infrastructure to support direct order submission over time
• Partner with buyers and the operations team to ensure automations reflect business rules, vendor constraints, and seasonal nuance
• AI Strategy & Prioritization
• Establish a clear AI roadmap with sequenced priorities—quick wins first, longer-horizon investments planned
• Evaluate and recommend AI tools, platforms, and vendors suited to a specialty retailer of our size and complexity
• Identify opportunities to use AI to improve customer experience: personalized recommendations, smarter outreach, loyalty program optimization
• Help the team work smarter using AI productivity tools; build internal capability without creating dependency on any single platform
• Security
• Monitors the security and integrity of AI platforms and data systems used across the organization, helping to identify and flag unusual activity or potential risks. Supports data governance practices to ensure customer, operational, and business data is handled responsibly and in accordance with company policies. Works with internal teams to maintain safe and reliable use of AI-powered tools, staying informed on relevant best practices as technology and data usage continue to evolve.

What We’re Looking For:

• Required
• Experience in data analytics, data engineering, or AI/ML—ideally in retail, e-commerce, or a multi-location specialty business
• Demonstrated ability to integrate disparate data systems and build reporting infrastructure from the ground up
• Hands-on experience with SQL, Python, or comparable tools for data analysis and automation
• Experience building or automating operational workflows—especially in buying, inventory, or supply chain contexts
• Strong communicator who can translate data into plain-language recommendations for non-technical stakeholders
• Self-directed, creative and comfortable operating with limited resources; you figure things out
• Preferred
• Experience in specialty retail, running, outdoor, or footwear
• Familiarity with POS systems (e.g., RunSignup, RetailPro, or similar), loyalty platforms, and e-commerce data pipelines
• Experience with EDI or vendor portal integrations
• Exposure to ML-based demand forecasting or automated replenishment systems
• Familiarity with modern data stack tools (e.g., dbt, Snowflake, Fivetran, Looker, or equivalents)
• Experience deploying LLM-based tools or agentic AI in a business context

What Success Looks Like:

In the first 90 days, you will have mapped our data landscape, connected our key sources, and delivered at least one concrete analytics output that changes how we make a buying or inventory decision.

Within six months, you will have an automated fill-in replenishment workflow running in production and a roadmap for PO automation with invoice integration that the buying and finance teams trust and use.

Within a year, you will have established Charm City Run as a data-driven retailer—where investment decisions are backed by customer data, buying is faster and more accurate, and AI is a genuine competitive advantage for the business.