Senior Associate, Planning

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.

**The successful individual will leverage their proficiency in Planning to...**
- Maintain and develop seasonal Open to Buy (OTB) including sales, gross margin, shipment receipts, inventory turn and W-O-H targets at dept/class/channel level.
- Directly liaise with Global Inventory Planning team to ensure action points are clearly communicated.
- Manage and maintain all KPIs including but not limited to (AUR, AUC, DR%, Sell Thru, W-O-H, inventory turn, Gross Margin, IMU%) that drive toward AOP/LRP targets.
- Collaborate with Regional merchandising teams to understand seasonal strategies and priorities, to provide guidance on key investments and growth strategies by category/class/sku-level.
- Liaise with key partners in Finance, Retail Management and Merchandising to manage monthly and quarterly reforecasts based on latest estimates.
- Create and publish monthly inventory reports to Regional and Global teams; support retail teams with in-season inventory reports at store-level.
- Oversee topline tracking of receipts/deliveries to ensure timely fulfilment; provide action plans to help mitigate risk.
- Propose end of life inventory disposition plan and collaborate with cross functional teams to help liquidate aged inventory.

**The accomplished individual will possess...**
- 2-3 years’ experience in retail
- Proven track record of merchandise planning for a multinational brand/company
- Analytical skills and ability to translate data into action points
- Ability to perform well under pressure with multiple deadlines

**An outstanding professional will have...**
- Clear written and verbal communication skills
- Comfortable in presenting and communicating to key stakeholders
- Self-starter and able to work independently and as a team player
- Intermediate to Advanced Excel (vlookups, pivot tables, macro building, etc.)
- BA/BS university degree or its equivalent in merchandising, business, finance or economics

**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**: Se