Director, Licensing

Tapestry (Coach/Kate Spade); New York (NY); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Kate Spade New York is seeking a Director, Global Licensing to lead and manage a 15+ licensed portfolio across multiple categories. The role focuses on business strategy, contract management, product development, and marketing with external and internal partners.

The position reports to the VP of Americas Wholesale, Global Licensing & Collaborations/GM, Jewelry, and requires strong leadership, business acumen, and collaboration.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in fashion.

Responsibilities

• Act as day-to-day contact for licensees, focusing on strategy, contract management, product development, marketing and approvals.
• Manage day-to-day communications with partners and develop long-range plans by category.
• Analyze opportunities to drive growth in existing and new categories and collaborate with international division.
• Support and help lead Japan local licensing team; research and drive business development with licensees.
• Coordinate with legal to amend/update documents and handle contract renewals; ensure clear communication with licensees.
• Assist in business reviews, market recaps and selling information; develop relationships with DTC teams.
• Share corporate communications with licensees (new management, store openings, launches).
• Monitor monthly retail sales and coordinate monthly financial reviews and quarterly business reviews.
• Research and approve new accounts; highlight additional distribution opportunities; prepare seasonal marketing plans.
• Initiate marketing projects with internal teams and manage end-to-end execution; collaborate on seasonal trends and color/print standards.

Job description

Primary Purpose:

Licensing plays an integral role at Kate Spade New York. This role 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. Our licenses represent brand extensions, customer acquisition opportunities and revenue drivers. This is a dynamic department core to kate spade new york's heritage and future growth. This role will report to VP of Americas Wholesale, Global Licensing & Collaborations/GM, Jewelry.

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. 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 Licensing to:

Manage day-to-day communications with partners.

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

Monitor monthly retail sales.

Coordinate monthly financial reviews and quarterly business reviews with licensees.

Research and approve new account requests as well as highlight additional distribution opportunities.

Marketing

Key interface with corporate marketing.

Prepare seasonal marketing plans in conjunction with partners, highlighting key opportunities, presenting to internal marketing teams and ensuring execution.

Initiate all incoming marketing project requests with internal marketing department and follow projects through to final approval. This includes marketing/PR needs, packaging, showrooms, POS and In-store visual/fixture needs, vendor guidelines and seasonal advertising requests.

Product Development & Merchandising

Review and develop with licensee seasonal line plans

Collaborate with Design on seasonal trend information and color/print standards packages prepared by in-house design lead to each of the partners.

Conduct research on concepts, color and trends in the market to facilitate the design process with each partner.

Schedule and attend all seasonal development reviews from initial concepts to final approvals for each category based on development calendars.

Help facilitate communication between both internal and external design leads.

Legal

Working knowledge of contract terms, with the ability to identify key issues and elevate to Legal as needed

Ensure proper documentation for all licensees (e.g. renewals, amendments etc.)

Act as business lead with Tapestry Legal on all contract discussions with licensees.

Create term sheets for and drive negotiation process.

Coordinating with Tapestry Legal teams and manager on legal document creation and updates.

What we're looking for:

8+ years of experience in fashion and/