Manager, Global Licensing & Collaborations

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. 

A member of the Tapestry family, Kate Spade New York is 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.

Licensing and Collaborations plays an integral role at Kate Spade New York.   Both represent brand extensions, customer acquisition opportunities and revenue drivers.  This is a dynamic department core to Kate Spade New York’s growth. 

The Manager – Global Licensing and Collaborations  (dual report into the VP, Global Licensing and to VP of Americas Wholesale, Travel Retail, Global Licensing & Collaborations) will be responsible for managing, driving and growing a select group of licensees and collaborations. With this manager role reporting to TWO Vice Presidents, the exposure to leadership and a broad part of the comapny will be extensive. The future for someone in this role within the company will be bright. 

This individual will lead development of the strategy to grow the existing licensing programs through untapped growth and/or expanded global reach, as well as researching, initiating, and executing on new merchandising opportunities to build the brand and drive volume.   They will also research, propose and manage collaboration partners that align to the overall brand collaboration strategy.

This person will serve as the brand ambassador and primary contact for our licensees and collaboration partners.  Responsibilities include overseeing the day-to-day management of our partners, analyzing business needs, and leading communication with cross-functional teams including design, buying, wholesale, finance, legal, international, marketing/creative, and public relations. In addition, identifying, negotiating, and executing agreements as needed.

Our Licensing team is looking for someone creative, driven, self-motivated, collaborative, and passionate about our brand and our categories.  This person should have excellent leadership, organizational and presentation skills, as well as excellent project management abilities. Very solid experience in legal document work and contract negotiation is required. 

Areas of Responsibility

Business Development and Analysis

• Partner with the VP on strategic planning/business development as well as deal structures, and implementation.
• 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. 
• Manage ongoing contractual requirements – partner with legal to amend, update, and evaluate agreements.
• Track and present financial performance quarterly and annually

Sales/Distribution

• Monitor retail sales and bookings to LY and plan seasonally.
• Lead quarterly business reviews with licensees and key cross-functional teams.
• Research and approve new account requests as well as highlight additional distribution opportunities.
• Work closely with Kate Spade omni buying teams to monitor and analyze licensed category performance and opportunities for growth.
• Visit DTC and wholesale accounts to monitor in-store presentation, pricing, competitive set, and product trends.

Marketing/PR

• Serve as brand ambassador, ensuring our licensees are updated on brand guidelines and are adhering to all brand standards.
• Coordinate seasonal marketing plans in conjunction with licensees, highlighting key opportunities and ensuring execution globally.
• Key interface with internal Marketing teams and licensees to ensure licensed products are included in seasonal initiatives.

Merchandising/Design

• Manage the seasonal development process and attend all development meetings.
• Build strong partnerships with internal and licensed design partners.
• Develop and approve all seasonal merchandising plans in conjunction with licensee and key internal Global Merchandising stakeholders.
• Highlight potential line extensions and new business opportunities.
• Monitor seasonal retail selling and summarize results quarterly, implement action plan for merchandising opportunities.

Legal 

• Manage licensing contracts, renewals, and amendments, including interfacing with finance and legal departments.

Collaborations

• Ideate on & propose new collaboration partners that align to the overall brand collaboration strategy
• Source contacts and conduct introductory calls
• Partner with Global Merch, Planning & Finance to aggregate projections and determine appropriate GMR for Term Sheet
• Negotiate terms with partners, working closely with Legal to finalize agreements 
• Work closely with Compliance to gain approvals on factory audits and product testing

Skills and abilities required:

• 5+ years of experience in fashion, consumer products and/or home industries - Licensing preferred.
• Proficient with legal documents and negotiations.
• Self-starter who can work autonomously at times with a strong sense of initiative and critical thinking.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Well versed in business planning and analytics.
• Excellent product sensibility.
• Able to travel if requested.
• Highly collaborative and optimistic nature.
• Desire to work with a highly talented group of individuals in an environment of growth and high standards, and a willingness to work hard and have fun.
• Proficient in Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, Workfront, InDesign, Teams.

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 the 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.  #LI-RE1  #HYBRID

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 employeerelations@tapestry.com

Visit Kate Spade at www.katespade.com.                                                                                                                                   

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BASE PAY RANGE $98,000.00 TO $122,000.00 Annually                                                                     

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