Director, Licensing

About the Role

Licensing plays an integral role at Kate Spade New York. This position will 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 dynamic department is core to Kate Spade New York’s heritage and future growth. The role reports to the VP of Americas Wholesale, Global Licensing & Collaborations/GM, Jewelry.

Responsibilities

• Act as the day-to-day point of contact for all licensees, focusing on business strategy, contract management, product development, marketing, and approvals.
• Manage day-to-day communications with partners.
• Develop, with manager, a long-range plan for the division and by category.
• Analyze and identify opportunities to drive and grow the business in both existing and new categories.
• Interface with the international division to maximize new business opportunities.
• Support and help lead the Japan local licensing team.
• Research and drive business development with licensees.
• Partner with legal to amend and update legal documents and work on contract renewals.
• Ensure clear, timely, and consistent communication between all licensee partners and management.
• Assist in preparation of business reviews, presentations, market recaps, and selling information.
• Develop working relationships with DTC teams; follow up on selling and request seasonal briefs.
• Share appropriate corporate communications with licensees and partners (e.g., new management hires, store openings, launches).

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 the internal marketing department and follow projects through to final approval, including marketing/PR needs, packaging, showrooms, POS, 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 for each partner.
• 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).
• Act as business lead with Tapestry Legal on all contract discussions with licensees.
• Create term sheets for and drive negotiation process.
• Coordinate with Tapestry Legal teams and manager on legal document creation and updates.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in fashion and/or home industries.
• Licensing experience required.
• Fluent in 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.

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; lets people know where they stand; faces up to people problems quickly and directly; is not afraid to take negative action when necessary.
• Creativity: Comes up with 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: Dedicated to meeting the expectations and requirements of internal and external customers; gets first-hand customer information and uses it for improvements; 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.

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 builder.
• 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.

Pay

Base Pay Range: $140,000.00 - $175,000.00

Benefits

• Medical insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• 401(K)
• Paid Paternity and Maternity leave
• Commuter Benefits
• Disability insurance
• Tuition assistance