Director, Licensing

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.

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 escalate 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/or home industries - Licensing experience required

Fluent in the tools needed to create presentations, reporting and workflows, including Microsoft Office, Workfront and Adobe InDesign.

People-management experience (this role has direct reports and oversees a team of 4 people)

A proactive, self-directed leader who brings sound judgment, curiosity and a solutions-oriented mindset.

Strong communicator who can build trust, influence cross-functional partners and navigate complex conversations with clarity.

Business planning and analytical skills.

Proficiency with legal documents and negotiations.

Excellent product sensibility with experience in fashion and home categories.

A collaborative, positive and adaptable working style, with the ability to bring teams together around shared goals.

Thrives in a fast-moving, creative environment that values high standards, accountability and a team-first approach.

Excellent organizational and prioritization skills with extreme attention to detail.

#LI-DC

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 solu