SVP, Global Merchandising, Footwear

Stuart Weitzman shoes are designed for high fashion and high function. Known for over 35 years for it's artisanal Spanish craftsmanship and precisely-engineered fit, the luxury footwear brand inspires women around the world to shine with confidence with every step.

Stuart Weitzman 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.

Job Title: Senior Vice President, Global Merchandising

Reports To: CEO & Brand President

Primary Purpose:

The Senior Vice President (SVP) of Global Merchandising is responsible to lead the product strategy. As the architect of the product offering, the SVP works closely with their partners across all areas of the business to ensure we develop and execute strategies with a deep understand our existing and potential customers to deliver high quality products and innovation that drives commercial success and brand growth. The SVP partners with the CEO to inform, involve and validate key strategic decisions.

The SVP partners with consumer insights, marketing, sales, design and supply chain to drive brand innovation and deliver an integrated go-to-market strategy across all channels and regions. They lead the cross-functional team to execute with excellence. The SVP is responsible to determine regional and channel focused assortments and product investments. They are the primary owner of the product investments (OTB) and ultimately the product performance, working closely with finance and the business unit leaders to ensure financial accountability and management.

The SVP leads, motivates and develops teams across the following areas of responsibility: Collection Merchandising, Merchandise Planning & Buying, and Product Development. The team includes more than 30 people; direct reports are:

• Senior Director, Global Planning & NA Buying

• Senior Director, Product Development
• Senior Director, Global Merchandising Strategy
• Director, Collection Merchandising
• Director, Merchandising/Planning, China (matrixed report)

The successful individual will leverage their leadership skills and proficiency in merchandising to...

Collection Merchandising

• Develop the Stuart Weitzman brand architecture & product strategy; communicate and align teams around the vision across channels and geographies.
• Develop the seasonal product brief to meet the commercial requirements by channel and region. Influence and align design & product development; lead team to execute against these requirements through the critical development milestones.
• Continuously brings new and relevant ideas to drive brand innovation; manages collaborations and partnerships with outside creators.
• Lead team across Merch x Design x PD to balance number of new constructions vs. development on existing/carryover styles.
• Partner with Design & Development to review and edit the line at key milestones in the product development timeline for both Spain and Asia development; ensure commercial needs are covered and product execution is on time to meet delivery expectations and meeting cost/mark up targets.
• Builds the line – creates the global product offering and owns global product assortment decisions in partnership with the commercial leaders and buyers. Determines delivery cadence and sets US pricing structure (global pricing owned by Tapestry pricing team).
• Determine product lifecycle by SKU to inform carry over and promotion decisions.
• Attend market or key appointments as requested to present the product, meet clients and discuss product strategy.

• Drive MFO “made for outlet” product strategy and execution.

• Leads team responsible to develop and issue companywide PDT calendar; facilitates cross functional teams responsible to deliver against key development milestones.
• Responsible for EC-Vision data warehouse and creation, maintenance, and accuracy of all style and sku master data to feed all downstream process execution.

Merchandise Planning & Buying (including Allocation)

• Drives the seasonal channel and region-specific assortment planning & product investments; Determines SKU breadth and depth collaborating with the leads of each business unit. Invests the OTB dollars to meet financial targets.
• Drives business performance against sales and margin targets; maximizes in-season opportunities and continuously monitors inventory across all channels and regions.
• Owns pricing, promotion and mark down decisions; facilitates across all channels and BUs to make best decisions for the business balancing short- and long-term objectives.
• Leads team to manage in season receipt/shipments and optimize business. Track and flow shipment and replenishment; Manage store and total inventory to target WOH. Manage flow or excess into outlet channel.
• Ensures effective allocation of product to stores to meet business needs; manages inventory levels by sku/store to support sales, inventory, marketing, and promotional strategies.
• Owns door profiling; works in partnership with business units to determine optimal store profile.
• Drive Outlet product assortment, pricing and promotional strategy to optimize the channel worldwide.
• Continuously hindsight and analyze the product and investment decisions against performance to incorporate learnings into future seasons.

Product Development

• Leads team responsible for the development of product from concept through production. Working closely with Design, Merchandising and our Supply Chain teams in NY and Spain, owning cross-functional facilitation and communication across the team.
• Responsible to ensure the product meets the aesthetic, quality, time, and cost requirements.
• Detail the collection to align final development to the commercial needs by classification.
• Liaise between Design and our development partners and sample rooms in Spain and APAC to deliver market samples and see final prototype development through to production ready.

The accomplished individual will possess...

• 15+ years of relevant experience, including executive level ownership of merchandising and merchandise planning; has driven a global line architecture, assortment strategy and product investments.
• Successful collaboration with teams in various regions and specifically NA and Greater China.
• Experience in luxury footwear, fashion, specific experience in sneakers and leather goods accessories is a plus. Must have experience with sized businesses and with both DTC retail, ecommerce, and wholesale business channels.
• Proven experience in collaborating with designers and external creators to innovate, to be different and create impactful ideas.
• Advanced financial and analytical skills; understands the critical levers to drive financial success; can develop strategic Insights and actions using data; can present financial data.
• Proven success building a highly commercial product line with commercial success in the market; put the customer first and possesses strong product sensibility and commercial acumen.
• Strong organizational skills.
• The ability to travel up to 40%.
• Equivalent combination of education and experience will be considered

An outstanding professional will have...

• Ability to see the business 360 from strategy through execution; highly agile to work high and low to make the business happen.
• Strong leadership skills including communication, Influence and facilitating cross-functional alignment. Can galvanize and lead teams from strategy through execution with high level of speed, agility, and quality.
• Entrepreneurial mindset and willing to take risks, learn from mistakes.
• Agility to set strategy and tactics to empower and supports the team to execute with excellence. Works to remove obstacles to keep team moving forward.
• Authentic passion to mentor and develop a strong team; inclination to surround themselves with individuals who bring complementary skills sets and views to the team.
• Collaborative, inclusive and team oriented work ethic with a proven ability to establish strong and productive cross-functional relationships. Can build relationships up, down and across the organization.
• Experience and passion to travel to our major markets/cities and stores worldwide to connect with our teams, understand the customer point of view and to stay abreast of global marketplace consumer and product trends.

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.

Stuart Weitzman 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. Visit Stuart Weitzman at www.stuartweitzman.com.

BASE PAY RANGE $380,000.00 TO $410,000.00
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