Head of Merch Programs

About the role\nWe produce products for three brands: Supply, for the people building on Shopify. Shopify Rebellion, for players and fans of our esport team. And Shopify Racing, for our team and fans on and off the track. The common thread: we build these brands on Shopify and produce delightful commerce experiences to turn fans into brand ambassadors. Merch is the only advertising people pay for and choose to wear, making it one of Shopify impactful brand opportunities.\nWe're hiring a Head of Merch Programs to own the strategy and execution across the brands. This role reports to Shopify’s VP of Brand. The obvious version of this work is to source, design, produce, market and sell products that further the relationship Shopify has with its audiences. The goal is not to be a profitable retailer, it's to create commerce experiences in service of brand value, which means the decisions that matter most are the counterintuitive ones. What to make less of. What to give away rather than sell. What to never restock. Where to market. Which drop shouldn't happen at all. If your instinct is to optimize sell-through, this will be a frustrating role. If your instinct is to ask what would make people talk, it won't.\nYou'll own merchandise strategy for Supply and Racing. For Esports, you’ll partner with the team on all major merchandising strategies and consult on high value opportunities for the org. This is a net-new role. There is no shared playbook, calendar, vendor base, quality bar, or agreed way of deciding what's worth making. Building that system is as much the job as any single drop.\nWhat you'll do\nSet the merchandise aim for Shopify’s branded commerce experiences. One coherent point of view across three brands with genuinely different jobs: functional products to get the job done (team kits, jerseys, gear) and fan products to celebrate the brand.\nBuild the system, not just the seasons. Establish the drop calendar, brief standards, vendor base, quality bar, and decision framework for what earns a place in the assortment.\nOwn Supply and Racing end to end. Strategy, assortment, go-to-market, and the story each drop tells. Shape how each one earns attention.\nAdvise and interrogate Rebellion's aim. Bring a rigorous outside point of view to a program that already exists and already works. Make it better without owning it.\nOwn the storefront aim. Partner with Brand Design Studio to build delightful commerce experiences that flex Shopify’s product and feature set.\nCreate with taste and craft. Direct the decisions that determine whether product is desirable: materials, construction, fit, trims, graphics and printing, packaging, and overall quality. Get deep in the work.\nDrive alignment across the company. Merchandise touches brand, design, social, comms, finance, product, and multiple business owners. Build the relationships and the operating cadence that make launches worth noticing, buying and sharing.\nRead culture, and know when not to act. Stay close to merchant conversations, esports communities, and motorsport fandom. Spot the moments worth reacting to and hold a high bar on the ones that aren't ours.\nDirect a small dedicated pod plus embedded brand partners in each business who carry operational execution — sourcing, vendor management, production, and fulfillment coordination.\nMeasure what matters. Orders, repeat buyers, sell-through, and earned social buzz — read alongside the brand signals that GMV alone won't show you.