Associate Buyer, Handbags, Kate Spade Outlet

Since its launch in 1993 with a collection of six essential handbags, Kate Spade New York has always stood for optimistic femininity. Today, the brand is a global life and style house with handbags, ready-to-wear, jewelry, footwear, gifts, home décor and more. Polished ease, thoughtful details and a modern, sophisticated use of color—Kate Spade New York’s founding principles define a unique style synonymous with joy. Under the vision of creative director Nicola Glass, the brand continues to celebrate confident women with a youthful spirit.

Kate Spade New York is part of the Tapestry portfolio – a global house of brands powered by optimism, innovation, and inclusivity.

Primary Purpose:

The successful individual will leverage their proficiency in buying department to...

• Assist the Sr. Buyer in identifying future product opportunities, trends, and offerings which will impact the business
• Ensure all markdowns and weekly in-store promotions are entered and communicated accurately
• Manage the timely entry of markdowns to ensure seamless transitions and communications to cross-functional teams
• Manage OTB (open to buy) budgets, receipt reconciliation, purchase order maintenance, and product tracking
• Create, analyze and deliver business analysis on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual basis
• Utilize reporting to develop an in-depth understanding of product performance, customer base, and micro-assorting. Produce action plans with findings and present to cross-functional teams
• Proactively focus on the future of the business by thinking about trends and opportunities
• Partner with the merchandising team to develop and refine seasonal line architecture to maximize needs
• Facilitate all business ownership and relationship management with internal categories
• Partner closely with planning teams on seasonal budgets, monthly forecasting, and weekly business updates   
• Partner with visual merchandising team on monthly floorset walk-thrus and overall product placement in stores
• Analyze regional assortment opportunities by understanding their unique markets and develop strategies for the US market based on global nuances

The accomplished individual will possess...

• Bachelor’s degree preferred
• At least 3 years’ experience in buying.  Vertical retailer preferred
• Advanced proficiency in retail math and excel

An outstanding professional will have...

• Ability to multitask and focus in a busy atmosphere
• Ability to manage multiple projects and shift priorities
• Ability to build strong working relationships with cross functional teams
• Strong presentation, listening, verbal and written communication skills
• Demonstrated success in working on a collaborative team
• Demonstrated organizational skills
• Sense of urgency and passion to succeed
• Deep understanding of competitive handbag landscape

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 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.
• 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.

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-JG1 Visit Kate Spade at www.katespade.com.