Director, Finance

Stuart Weitzman is a leading luxury accessories brand that is synonymous with strength in femininity. Defined by an energetic, modern and bold attitude, SW is known for its unique approach to melding fashion, function and fit in every silhouette. The brand’s focus on creating timeless, effortless shoes and handbags that are engineered to empower women with both confidence and comfort has resonated around the world, as SW is now available in all corners of the globe through an array of websites, boutiques and retail partners.

Primary Purpose:

The Director, FP&A, is responsible for financial planning and business analysis for the Stuart Weitzman business in China. This position is responsible for analyzing month end results, supporting corporate reporting requirements and managing the monthly and quarterly forecast, annual operating plan and long range planning process.  This role operates as the financial partner for SW China leadership team to provide analytical support, drive business initiatives and prioritize resources to achieve financial targets. 

The successful individual will leverage their proficiency:

• Forecast / AOP / LRP: Manage monthly and quarterly forecast, annual operating plan and long range planning processes for SW China.

• • Lead the monthly forecast process to update sales, gross margin and inventory to reflect current trends and develop a quarterly full financial forecast
  • Establish strong cross-functional business partnerships to identify sales and margin levers and cost savings opportunities to deliver results against the financial targets
  • Proactively identify and manage both risks and opportunities against the latest forecast
  • Lead planning process for AOP and LRP to deliver integrated financial business plan according to corporate deadlines
  • Incorporate current trends and external market analysis to support both short term and long term business strategies
  • Establish key metrics for business initiatives to track progress and measure success
  • Create supporting materials for the AOP and LRP presentation to Corp Executive Group
  • Drive initiatives to streamline the planning and forecasting processes, maintain and improve upon existing financial models

• Month End Close: Manage the close process through direct partnership with Accounting / Control to reconcile components of financial results, analyze variances vs. plan / LY and report consolidated financial results

• • Provide general oversight for Accounting / Control function and ensure alignment of accounting practices
  • Achieve SW Corporate deadlines for submitting results and reconciling financial accounts
  • Review and understand reporting of sales and margin, employee costs, selling, marketing advertising & promotion, distribution, occupancy, and operations accounts by channel
  • Analyze and present monthly and cumulative P&L variances; incorporate actual results into quarterly financial forecast
  • Consolidate and distribute month end close reporting package for global business units
  • Create Executive summary of month end results
  • Provide business insight to SW Corp Financial team as needed

• Reporting: Responsible for reporting sales and KPIs and evaluating current business trends

• • Review and analyze productivity reporting of all KPI Metrics: sales, traffic, conversion, ADT, AUR and UPT by geography and location
  • Develop channel level P&L reporting for distribution to business leaders
  • Provide ad-hoc analysis to prioritize business initiatives and support strategic decisions, as needed
  • Drive initiatives to streamline processes, maintain and improve upon existing reporting

• Financial Partnership:  establish strong financial partnerships across the business and provide analytical support to drive business initiatives and achieve financial targets

• • Focus on Retail and eCom channel sales planning for China market, through close partnership with retail management, marketing and merchandising teams
  • Enhance sales models and forecast methodologies to streamline and accommodate flexibility in planning, analysis and changes in strategic/tactical direction; support other Retail Finance/sales planning functions as needed
  • Detail data analysis on weekly basis to understand performance run-rate on store sales productivity and callout sales risk and opportunities to guide business sales landing on target

• Physical Assets  / Capital management and forecasting; quarterly impairment analysis

• • Liaison with Planning and Buying team to evaluate current inventory position, forecast quarter end inventory balances and review OTB for each market
  • Provide analytical support for Retail labor and commissions, as needed
  • Create pro-forma financial analysis to support new store openings and capital investments
  • Support leadership team on ad-hoc projects with various growth initiatives and task forces
  • Work with Technology team to ensure data integrity, set up and enhance reporting process, especially with system migration

The accomplished individual will possess...

• Self-starter with the ability to multi-task and prioritize workflow and time management in a fast paced, high growth environment

• Ability to identify business needs and process improvements based on trends, propose solutions and manage cross-functional projects to completion
• Outstanding analytical skills and proven track record of utilizing insights from data collection to create strategic initiatives and action plans
• Ability to clearly communicate ideas, build and maintain effective working relationships with team members and peers across the organization
• Demonstrate ability to exercise prudent judgment

• Positive, enthusiastic attitude
• Thorough understanding of retail and retail stores with a strong passion for the brand, product and customers
• Excellent Excel skills, and ability to work with Finance Information Systems
• Strong verbal and written communication skills in Chinese and English

An outstanding professional will have...

• 10+ years of experience in Financial Planning, Analysis or related field
• Advanced financial modelling skills required
• P&L Budgeting/Forecasting experience required, with an emphasis on building driver-based forecasts
• Working knowledge of GAAP and Regional Accounting Principals
• Outstanding organizational skills, with the ability to communicate across multiple levels of the business and develop effective global partnerships
• Experience in public accounting preferred; retail experience preferred but not required
• Proficiency in both Chinese and English

Our Competencies for All Employees

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Perseverance: Pursues everything with energy, drive, and a need to finish; seldom gives up before finishing, especially in the face of resistance or setbacks.
• 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.

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.
• Building Effective Teams: Blends people into teams when needed; creates strong morale
  and spirit in his/her 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.
• Managerial 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.

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.