Retail Visual Merchandising

• This role is Must be able to go onsite 2 to 3 days a week in Mountainview, CA
• This role has a definite end date of January 29, 2027

Aquent Studios is seeking a detail-oriented, highly collaborative Retail Playbook & Merchandising Specialist to join our team in support of a leading global technology client. In this role, you will lead the creative development and operational tracking for comprehensive retail playbooks across major product initiatives and seasonal marketing campaigns.

Because every retail location features a unique architectural footprint and individual product assortment, you will be responsible for custom layout mapping and detailed instruction synthesizing to ensure flawless execution across all retail environments through January 29, 2027.

A retail playbook accompanies all new product initiatives (NPI) and seasonal marketing campaigns. These playbooks include store layouts, planograms, and instructions for the installation and use of 2D and 3D elements throughout retail environments. To add to the complexity, every retail location requires custom layout mapping and instructions to account for its unique architectural footprint and individual product assortments.

Working with Aquent Studios, you will assume full creative development and operational tracking responsibilities for synthesizing instructions and authoring retail playbooks for each upcoming NPI and campaign moment through the end of January 2027.

Managing this project requires working cross-functionally with Producers, Production, Creative, Merchandising, Retail Design and Development, Go-to-Market, and Operations teams. Strong partnership is required to synthesize and catalog complex, multi-layered store display data across six distinct categories:

• Demo Installations: Defining pedestal display logic, hardware configurations, and experiential testing setups.
• 3D Installation Elements: Mapping out modular product panels, floating platforms, mechanical hardware brackets, and custom fixture padding.
• 2D Installation Elements: Detailing print specifications for in-store brand signage, informational product cards, backlit wallpaper, and posters.
• Digital Elements: Coordinating companion screen asset mapping, attract loops, and content syncing parameters across active store displays.
• Window Displays: Conceptualizing localized 3D spatial window environments and localized store configurations.
• Detailed Store Layouts: Custom blueprinting and version control to account for localized footprints, ensuring an accurate source of truth for unique store architectures.

• End-to-End Playbook Development: Author, package, and distribute highly detailed, store-facing Retail Playbooks and visual guidelines mapping out spatial strategy, hardware placement, structural schematics, fixture guidelines, and graphic installation instructions.
• VMHub Database Management: Own the ongoing workflow of inputting, organizing, and maintaining all NPI and campaign assets, collateral, and layout variations within the dynamic VMHub platform, shifting away from legacy static slide layouts.
• Cross-Functional Coordination: Synchronize store design variations and fixture changes by managing active, open lines of communication with creative partners, project leaders, and external operational stakeholders.
• Multi-Layered Asset Synthesis: Coordinate and map requirements across six key store display facets: Demo Installations, 3D Elements (panels, platforms, brackets), 2D Elements (signage, cards, backlit wallpaper), Digital Content screen maps, Window Displays, and individual store-by-store layouts.
• 
  Skills & Tools
  
• Figma: Mastery of Figma for asset management, wireframing visual merchandising components, and collaborating on high-fidelity renders.
• VMHub (or equivalent CMS/Planogram Software): Proven experience managing dynamic, database-driven retail content management systems and digital planogram software.
• Experience with New Store Openings (NSO): Demonstrated competency in managing the high-pressure logistical and creative demands of launching fresh retail spaces and scaling layout frameworks across varied physical footprints.
• Visual Merchandising & Space Optimization: Expertise in translating marketing strategies into premium 3D physical retail environments, maximizing product visibility, and designing intuitive consumer experiences.
• Assortment & Revision Control: Dynamically adapt master planograms to accommodate late-stage changes in product assortments, supply chain shifts, localized store footprints, and specific fixture configurations (such as shallow/deep display padding).
• Compliance & Feedback: Review store photos after playbook resets for compliance and give feedback to Operations team for improvements.

• Figma: Mastery of Figma for asset management, wireframing visual merchandising components, and collaborating on high-fidelity renders.
• VMHub (or equivalent CMS/Planogram Software): Proven experience managing dynamic, database-driven retail content management systems and digital planogram software.
• Experience with New Store Openings (NSO): Demonstrated competency in managing the high-pressure logistical and creative demands of launching fresh retail spaces and scaling layout frameworks across varied physical footprints.
• Visual Merchandising & Space Optimization: Expertise in translating marketing strategies into premium 3D physical retail environments, maximizing product visibility, and designing intuitive consumer experiences.