Merchandising & Category Management Expert at Turing

Merchandising & Category Management SME | Contractor | 12-week remote engagement

About the role

Turing, an AI company, is looking for a Merchandising & Category Management Subject Matter Expert to design, evaluate, and calibrate high-fidelity retail tasks, scenarios, and benchmark solutions. Depending on your depth of retail experience, you will be considered for an Expert Contributor (Merchandising / Category Manager) or Senior Specialist / Reviewer (Senior Merchandising / Category Manager) track within a functional evaluation pod.

What you'll do

• Benchmark task authoring: design realistic, high-difficulty retail exercises, assortment planning scenarios, promotional strategy models, and planogram challenges with gold-standard solution sets.
• Rubric application & scoring: apply evaluation rubrics set by the Functional SME (Expert) Lead to systematically assess and score retail planning submissions.
• Review & calibration: participate in peer calibration sessions, incorporate structured feedback, iterate on task designs, and help resolve edge cases in retail math or allocation logic.
• Commercial modeling: build and evaluate scenarios using core retail KPIs, including sell-through rates, GMROI, open-to-buy (OTB), margin mix, and inventory turnover.

Requirements

• 3–15 years of hands-on experience in retail merchandising, buying, category management, or inventory allocation.
• Demonstrated expertise in assortment architecture, product allocation, and merchandise financial planning.
• Practical experience creating and analyzing assortment plans, visual planograms, and promotional calendars.
• Strong command of foundational retail calculations: GMROI, turn, markdowns, margin impact, and weeks of supply.
• Proven ability to work under peer review, adapt quickly to calibration feedback, and adhere to structured rubrics.
• Strong written communication skills to articulate clear solution rationales and step-by-step methodology breakdowns.

Education & experience

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience in any field.
• Experience in AI evaluation, data annotation, content review, quality assurance, or a related analytical role is preferred but not required.

Engagement details

• Engagement type: contractor.
• Engagement length: 12 weeks.
• At least 4 hours per day and up to 40 hours per week, with 4 hours of overlap with Pacific Time (PST).
• Pay rate not stated in the source listing.

Application process

Applicants must submit a job interest form and complete an assessment. Final selected candidates will be contacted with next steps and onboarding requirements.