Senior Designer, Handbags

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.

The Senior Designer, Handbags is responsible for developing ideas and executing product design in line with the conceptual direction for a season. They partner with individuals internal and external to Kate Spade in Merchandising, and Product Development/Materials Development.

The Senior Designer, Handbags will work the Design team to initiate concepts each season that are fashion driven and reflective of the creative vision and Kate Spade aesthetic. You will be a part of a dynamic, creative environment where you will collaborate with talented designers and cross-functional partners in the business.

The successful individual will leverage their proficiency in design to...

Own design process from initial inspiration to final prototype, and is fully responsible for the entire product life-cycle including market trend research, inspiration, hand sketching, computer flat sketching, specifications, fit, and ensuring that product is designed to meet target customer needs.
Responsible for timeline adherence; ensure all design documentation is delivered to development partners on time; ensure all prototypes are available for product presentation and finalization.
Create and execute on the vision of the creative director, ensuring that the product is consistent with market trends, while maintaining the brand identity and overall business strategy.
Responsible for the specialty accessories assortment, but work closely with other members of the design team to ensure a cohesive product line is realized; provide recommendations regarding seasonal themes, edits to line.
Build strong relationships with the merchandising partners to define seasonal framework and ensure that creative ideas and business goals are aligned
Partner with product development team ensure design packages are complete and accurate and desired outcome of product is achieved.

The accomplished individual will possess...

7+years of design experience.
Bachelor's degree in design or design related field preferred.
Ability to sketch both technical drawings and freeform sketches and renderings.
Strong knowledge and understanding of the kate spade product and client, with a keen ability to make decisions and implement strategy based on new information and evolving trends.
Proficient in illustrator/Photoshop/InDesign.
Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
Experience in working with cross-functional teams.

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.