Director – Merchandising - Outlet Leathergoods

Since its launch in 1993 with a collection of six essential handbags, Kate Spade New York has always been colorful, bold, and optimistic. Today, it is a global lifestyle brand that designs extraordinary things for the everyday, delivering seasonal collections of handbags, ready-to-wear, jewelry, footwear, home décor, and more. Known for its rich heritage and unique brand DNA, Kate Spade New York offers a distinctive point of view and celebrates communities of women around the globe who live their perfectly imperfect lifestyles. 

Kate Spade New York is part of the Tapestry portfolio – a global house of brands committed to stretching what’s possible.

A member of the Tapestry family, we are part of a global house of brands that has unwavering optimism and is committed to being innovative and wholly inclusive. Visit Our People page to learn more about Tapestry's commitment to equity, inclusion, and diversity.

The successful individual will leverage their proficiency in Merchandising to…

• Develop, lead and communicate the merchandising product and assortment strategy for Outlet Handbags and Small Leathergoods
• Create relevant, cohesive and compelling brand-right product assortments that drive business, building newness while not excluding the needs of current customers
• Partner with Design and Product Development to build and execute an assortment that addresses brand strategies and customer needs. Drive communication of costing needs to maintain margin targets.
• Partner and build effective relationships with Global Merchandise Planning (GMP) and Business Units to effectively influence and drive objectives/customer needs and identify product opportunities globally.
• Actively partner with merchandising peers to ensure synergy across the total product strategy and execution.
• Analyze sales on a weekly basis to gain comprehensive understanding of the state of the business and make recommendations to drive business growth. Provide global analysis that drives decisions and overall strategy
• Identify product opportunities through regular hind-sighting that incorporates consumer research, business feedback and sales performance analysis and trends. 
• Maintain an in-depth and up to date awareness of the competitive landscape through store visits, on-line review, events, markets, and other means to identify opportunities for future growth and opportunities for the category.  
• Maintain updated knowledge of key competitor distribution and pricing strategies.
• Manage team to meet key deliverables, while successfully supporting their growth and development.

The accomplished individual will possess... 

• Excellent product sensibility and conceptual ability with on-trend vision, balancing high taste level and data points with gut instinct
• Demonstrated experience partnering closely with internal Design teams to translate brand vision, customer insights, and business objectives into compelling product assortments and category strategies.
• Previous experience owning product assortment and development
• Comprehensive understanding of retail math and financial acumen
• Strong analytical, communication, and presentation skills
• Experience driving process improvements
• Ability to take initiative, ownership and accountability for business
• An exceptional communicator up, down and across the organization
• Strong sense of teamwork and ability to multi-task
• Strong leadership and managerial skills with ability to motivate, develop a team and influence partners
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and experience will be considered
• 10+ years merchandising/buying experience with a focus on Leathergoods
• Minimum 4+ years people management experience

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Our Competencies for All Employees

Courage: Doesn’t hold back anything that needs to be said; provides current, direct, complete, and “actionable” positive and corrective feedback to others; lets people know where they stand; faces up to people problems on any person or situation (not including direct reports) quickly and directly; is not afraid to take negative action when necessary.
Creativity: Comes up with a lot of new and unique ideas; easily makes connections among previously unrelated notions; tends to be seen as original and value-added in brainstorming settings.
Customer Focus: Is dedicated to meeting the expectations and requirements of internal and external customers; gets first-hand customer information and uses it for improvements in products and services; acts with customers in mind; establishes and maintains effective relationships with customers and gains their trust and respect.
Dealing with Ambiguity: Can effectively cope with change; can shift gears comfortably; can decide and act without having the total picture; isn’t upset when things are up in the air; doesn’t have to finish things before moving on; can comfortably handle risk and uncertainty.
Drive for Results: Can be counted on to exceed goals successfully; is constantly and consistently one of the top performers; very bottom-line oriented; steadfastly pushes self and others for results.
Interpersonal Savvy: Relates well to all kinds of people, up, down, and sideways, inside and outside the organization; builds appropriate rapport; builds constructive and effective relationships; uses diplomacy and tact; can diffuse even high-tension situations comfortably.
Learning on the Fly: Learns quickly when facing new problems; a relentless and versatile learner; open to change; analyzes both successes and failures for clues to improvement; experiments and will try anything to find solutions; enjoys the challenge of unfamiliar tasks; quickly grasps the essence and the underlying structure of anything.
 
Our Competencies for All People Managers
Strategic Agility: Sees ahead clearly; can anticipate future consequences and trends accurately; has broad knowledge and perspective; is future oriented; can articulately paint credible pictures and visions of possibilities and likelihoods; can create competitive and breakthrough strategies and plans.
Developing Direct Reports and Others: Provides challenging and stretching tasks and assignments; holds frequent development discussions; is aware of each person's career goals; constructs compelling development plans and executes them; pushes people to accept developmental moves; will take on those who need help and further development; cooperates with the developmental system in the organization; is a people builder.
Building Effective Teams: Blends people into teams when needed; creates strong morale and spirit in their team; shares wins and successes; fosters open dialogue; lets people finish and be responsible for their work; defines success in terms of the whole team; creates a feeling of belonging in the team.                                                                                                    
 

Kate Spade. is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and we pride ourselves on hiring and developing the best people. All employment decisions (including recruitment, hiring, promotion, compensation, transfer, training, discipline and termination) are based on the applicant’s or employee’s qualifications as they relate to the requirements of the position under consideration. These decisions are made without regard to age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic characteristics, race, color, creed, religion, ethnicity, national origin, alienage, citizenship, disability, marital status, military status, pregnancy, or any other legally-recognized protected basis prohibited by applicable law.

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Tapestry, Inc. will provide applicants and employees with reasonable accommodation for disabilities or religious beliefs. If you require reasonable accommodation to complete the application process, please contact Tapestry People Services at 1-855-566-9264 or [email protected]

Visit Tapestry, Inc.

Base Pay Range

$160,000.00-$185,000.00

Here are some of the benefits that we offer: Medical insurance, Dental insurance, Vision insurance, 401 (K), Paid Paternity and Maternity leave, Commuter Benefits, Disability insurance and Tuition assistance. Please click here for a complete list of U.S Corporate Compensation & Benefits.