Associate, Global Store Design Procurement and Operations

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.

Kate Spade New York 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: Global Store Design Procurement & Operations Associate

Purpose

The Kate Spade Global Store Design Procurement & Operations Associate plays a key role in supporting the Store Design group’s day-to-day operations and realization of retail environments in partnership with Visual Merchandising, ensuring the team is set up effectively to execute initiatives in each region.

The role is ideal for someone with a passion for retail, process improvement, production, organization, and cross-functional collaboration. The associate will contribute to many Global Visual Experience operations initiatives, including workstream planning and coordination, data/status tracking and reporting, procurement and billing, document organization, and integrating new tools and processes to drive optimization and automation across our team.

They are solution oriented, reviewing opportunities and collaborating closely with the Store Design & Visual Merchandising teams to understand issues at play.

Key Responsibilities

Budget Management

• •Support Store Design budget management and tracking.
• •Manage all Store Design and GVE purchase order creation, invoicing, and tracking for all external vendors for NA projects.
• •Initiate, manage, and track all Capital Expenditure Requests in partnership with Construction.

Procurement & Operations Management

• •Manage procurement of Fixtures and Finishes for NSO, Renovations, and other Store Design projects.
• •Manage Visual Merchandising Props/FRSO (Fixture & Replenishment Store Orders) for new store openings and relocations in partnership with the global VM team.
• •Create presentation decks for meetings to support Store Design initiatives.
• •Support during concepting and ideation of Store Design strategies and initiatives to improve efficiencies, communication processes, and better serve Store Design & Construction partners internally and externally, and in all regions.
• •Partner with global and regional teams on key Store Design initiatives, strategizing on cascading information at key times.
• •Manage and organize team SharePoint and Egnyte drives.
• •Assist with vendor sourcing, management, and bidding for Store Design initiatives.

Global Communications

• •Support the development, documentation, and maintenance of existing workflow processes and templates.
• •Develop clear, consistent, timely, and effective directives based on the needs of the business.
• •Contribute ideas for process improvements to enhance overall efficiency.
• •Responsible for the global communications around store design guidelines delivered monthly, staying aligned with the development of new store design strategies.
• •Manage tools, SOPs, and details around Store Design standards.
• •Assist in preparing for cross-functional and leadership reviews.
• •Assist with the management of the global photo review process, capturing existing conditions of all Outlet and Mainline channels.

Store Design Tracking

• •Manage Store Design tracking documents for all NSO and Store Renovation Projects across all global channels, to be used in key meetings to keep teams aligned with priorities and deadlines.
• •Input, track data, and update spreadsheet management systems.
• •Manage the Store Design team calendar and key meetings.
• •Manage the global Store Profile spreadsheet.

Role Logistics

• •Hybrid role, NYC based.
• •In office Tuesday through Thursday.
• •Occasional weekends as needed for special projects.

Qualifications

• •Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, Business, Project Management, or a related discipline.
• •2-3 years of relevant work experience, ideally in a Retail, Procurement, or Operations role with a similar brand in headquarters.
• •Self-motivated, passionate, detail-oriented, multi-tasker extraordinaire.
• •Proven ability to manage multiple projects.
• •Excellent communication skills, including interpersonal, written, and verbal communication. Ability to collaborate with team members and other departments.
• •Demonstrates willingness to learn on the job and has a growth mindset.
• •Advanced experience in Excel; additional experience in Smartsheet preferred.
• •Experience working on Microsoft Windows/PC, with the ability to pivot to Apple/Mac ecosystems if needed.
• •Operational mindset; enjoys this type of work and wants to grow within operations.

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 buil