Program Manager 2, Inventory Visibility & Controls - HYBRID

Since 1901, Nordstrom has been committed to delivering exceptional customer experiences, with a relentless focus on exceeding expectations. As a leading fashion retailer in a digitally connected world, Nordstrom continues to invest in the capabilities that allow us to move faster, operate smarter, and serve customers across both physical and digital channels. Within this context, Inventory Operations plays a critical role in optimizing how we order, place, move, track, and exhaust inventory across the enterprise—acting as a bridge between Merchandising, Supply Chain, and Stores to deliver speed, accuracy, and financial integrity. The Inventory Visibility & Controls (IV&C) team was established to strengthen enterprise‑wide inventory transparency, traceability, and controls—scaling data, analytics, and AI‑powered capabilities that enable proactive decision‑making, prevent loss and unsellable inventory, and support foundational enterprise capabilities such as RFID and inventory lifecycle management. 
 

We are hiring a Program Manager 2 for Inventory Visibility & Controls within Inventory Operations. In this role, you will support the delivery of complex, cross‑functional programs that advance enterprise inventory visibility, traceability, and controls—helping translate strategy into execution across business, product, data, and technology partners. You will help coordinate the work required to move IV&C from manual, reactive investigation to proactive, system‑driven controls—ensuring projects are well‑sequenced, risks are identified and escalated appropriately, and dependencies across teams are actively managed. As automation‑first and AI‑enabled capabilities scale, this role supports ensuring the right requirements, documentation, and adoption plans are in place so new capabilities deliver real, sustained business impact. This role is ideal for a program manager who is developing their ability to navigate ambiguity, operates at the intersection of operations, technology, and controls, and is motivated by contributing to durable enterprise capabilities that improve confidence in inventory and enable faster, better decisions at scale. 

A day in the life… 

• Support the delivery of projects that drive inventory visibility and control capabilities across the inventory lifecycle, from concept through launch and adoption, with increasing independence. 

• Develop and maintain program roadmaps, breaking down large, ambiguous problem spaces into sequenced initiatives with clear scope, milestones, and success measures. 

• Coordinate across business, product, engineering, data, finance, and operations partners—aligning priorities, surfacing dependencies, tracking progress, and escalating decisions needed to maintain momentum. 

• Support product and technology partners to ensure new capabilities strengthen inventory controls, increase enterprise‑wide signals and visibility, and align physical, logical, and financial views of inventory. 

• Contribute to program governance and execution discipline, including intake, prioritization, risk identification, dependency tracking, and executive‑level status communication. 

• Partner closely with analytics and product teams to ensure automation‑first and AI‑enabled capabilities are designed with clear requirements, operational readiness, and human‑in‑the‑loop controls where needed. 

• Identify downstream impacts and change‑management needs, working with stakeholders to ensure new tools, processes, and insights are adopted and embedded into day‑to‑day workflows. 

• Navigate ambiguity and escalate trade‑offs appropriately, supporting decisions that balance speed, risk, and long‑term enterprise value. 

• Flex across initiatives as needed to support IV&C priorities and enterprise commitments. 

You own this if you have… 

• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or relevant Master’s degree a plus. 

• 3+ years of experience in program management, product management, management consulting, strategy, finance, or operations, with experience supporting cross‑functional teams. 

• Demonstrated success supporting or leading cross‑functional programs in ambiguous, fast‑paced environments. 

• Ability to build relationships and partner across multiple functions, with growing skill in aligning stakeholders without direct authority. 

• Experience contributing to roadmap development, dependency tracking, and delivery of measurable outcomes. 

• Comfort partnering with product, engineering, analytics, and business teams to deliver technology‑enabled capabilities. 

• Strong business acumen, with the ability to understand operational, financial, and risk considerations and incorporate them into program decisions. 

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to tailor communication to different audiences and synthesize information into clear narratives and recommendations. 

• Highly organized with strong judgment, able to balance competing priorities while maintaining delivery focus. 

• Experience with inventory, supply chain, merchandising, or operational domains is a plus.