Erin Ryan
About Erin Ryan
Erin Ryan serves as the Sr. Director of Category Management for the Battery & Ecommerce Merchandising Team at Advance Auto Parts, where she has worked since 2021. With extensive experience in inventory management and category strategy, she has held various roles at Advance Auto Parts and General Parts Inc. / CARQUEST over the past two decades.
Current Role at Advance Auto Parts
Erin Ryan serves as the Sr. Director of Category Management for the Battery & Ecommerce Merchandising Team at Advance Auto Parts. In this role, she provides strategic leadership in developing and implementing category strategies aimed at enhancing customer value. She manages a team that includes Category Managers, Assistant Category Managers, and Merch Coordinators. Her responsibilities include overseeing monthly promotions, analyzing sales reporting, and ensuring accurate gross margin reporting and inventory accuracy.
Previous Experience at Advance Auto Parts
Prior to her current position, Erin Ryan held several roles at Advance Auto Parts. She worked as the Product Solutions Director from 2018 to 2021 and served as Sr. Manager of Inventory Management from 2016 to 2018. Additionally, she was the Manager of Inventory Management from 2014 to 2016. Each of these roles contributed to her expertise in inventory management and category strategy development.
Career at General Parts Inc. / CARQUEST
Erin Ryan has extensive experience at General Parts Inc. / CARQUEST, where she worked in various capacities from 1999 to 2014. Her roles included Regional Purchasing Assistant, Corporate Purchasing Assistant, Replenishment Buyer, Inventory Methods & Applications Lead, and Programmer Analyst in Business Intelligence Services. This diverse background provided her with a strong foundation in supply planning and inventory management.
Education and Professional Development
Erin Ryan studied at UNC Greensboro, where she completed the Procurement & Supply Management Advanced Program in 2018. She also attended the Jack Welch Management Institute, earning a certificate in Organizational Leadership through the Becoming a Leader Certificate Program in 2014. Her educational background supports her expertise in category management and leadership.
Skills and Responsibilities
In her current role, Erin Ryan focuses on continuous improvement of assigned categories to increase market share and profitability. She monitors and manages accounting procedures for assigned vendors and reviews company sales reporting to identify solutions for performance shortfalls and successes. Her dotted line supervisory responsibility extends to the Manager of Inventory Management and aligned Inventory Analysts.