Director, Licensing

Kate Spade New York Director - Global Licensing

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 decor, 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.

Licensing plays an integral role at Kate Spade New York. This will be an opportunity to help lead and manage the 15+ licensed portfolio with categories including : eyewear, fragrance, watches, tech, swim, sleepwear, tabletop / kitchen, stationery / gift, table linens / kitchen textiles, bedding / bath and lighting. The Director, Global Licensing must possess core leadership competencies in order to meet goals and objectives annually as well as lead yourself, navigate through the organization and manage your licensing partners. You must have excellent organizational and prioritization skills with extreme attention to detail. Taking initiative, following through and problem-solving skills are a must. We want someone with strong business acumen and contract skills who is approachable, empathetic, fearless, accountable, creative, collaborative and customer focused.

The principal role of the Kate Spade New York Director - Global Licensing is to act as the day-to-day point of contact for all licensees, focusing on business strategy and results, contract management, product development, marketing and approvals with external and internal partners. The successful individual will leverage their proficiency in brand licensing, contract negotiation, and product management to...

Day-to-Day, Business Development and Analysis

• Manage day-to-day communications with partners. Cultivate trusted partnerships between Design, Global Merchandising, Global Marketing, Visual Merchandising and Legal to develop and implement strategies for Licensed categories to maximize sales growth and profitability, while keeping in line with the brand vision.
• Develop with manager long-range plan for division and by category.
• Continually analyze and identify opportunities to drive / grow the business in both existing and new categories.
• Interface with international division to maximize new business opportunities.
• Support and help lead Japan local licensing team.
• Research and drive business development with licensees.
• Partner with legal to amend and update legal documents and work on any contract renewals.
• Ensure clear, timely and consistent communication between all licensees partners and management.
• Assist in preparation of business reviews, presentations, market recaps and selling information.
• Develop working relationship with DTC teams; follow up on selling and request seasonal briefs.
• Share appropriate corporate communications with licensees and partners (new management hires, store openings, launches, etc).

Sales / Distribution

Marketing

Product Development & Merchandising

Legal

The accomplished individual will possess...

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