Director, Marketing

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.
Primary Purpose: We are seeking a strategic, innovative, and culturally attuned Marketing Director to lead Kate Spade's brand and marketing strategy in Japan. As the senior marketing leader for one of our most influential markets, you will translate global and APAC brand direction into locally resonant strategies that elevate brand desire, deepen consumer engagement, and drive sustainable growth.
This role oversees integrated brand marketing, full-funnel media, social and digital engagement, retail marketing activation, PR and influencer programs, and omnichannel experiences across Japan. You will collaborate closely with APAC and Global teams to ensure the Japan consumer voice shapes the evolution of the brand.
The successful individual will leverage their proficiency in Marketing to...
Brand Strategy & Market Leadership

• • Lead the development of Japan's brand vision, positioning, and long-term marketing strategy, grounded in deep cultural and consumer insights.
  • Translate global/APAC brand priorities into impactful local plans that strengthen relevance and accelerate customer acquisition.
  • Represent Japan in APAC and global forums, influencing brand direction through market insights.

Integrated Marketing & Campaign Execution

• • Drive integrated marketing plans across media, social, PR, retail, CRM, digital, and experiential channels.
  • Localize global concepts and deliver culturally relevant storytelling that brings Kate Spade's joyful, optimistic brand identity to life.
  • Develop best-in-class creative briefs and guide local asset adaptation to ensure high-quality, consistent brand storytelling across paid, owned, and earned channels.
  • Partner cross-functionally to ensure marketing supports brand equity and business objectives.

Media Strategy & Digital Performance

• Oversee the end-to-end media strategy, including demand generation and demand capture across paid digital, social, search, programmatic, and offline media.
• Lead media planning, buying, and optimization in partnership with global and local media agencies.
• Track media KPIs, optimize in-flight, and ensure investments deliver measurable ROI and support brand and commercial KPIs.

Digital, Social & Consumer Engagement

• Drive digital acceleration, ensuring innovative approaches to social content, influencer programs, community building, and omnichannel experiences.
• Identify new digital growth opportunities, including emerging platforms and Gen Z-focused strategies.
• Oversee content development tailored to local trends, ensuring creative assets reflect brand DNA while resonating with local consumers.

PR, Influencer, & Earned Media

• Lead PR and earned-media strategies that enhance brand desirability and cultural relevance.
• Manage VIP, celebrity, KOL/KOC partnerships and seasonal seeding strategies with clear ROI expectations.
• Manage seasonal gifting, product seeding, fittings, store visits, and talent collaborations with clear guidelines and ROI measurement.
• Identify new initiatives to elevate brand visibility and cultural relevance.

Consumer, Market & Performance Analytics

• Leverage analytics and market research to drive insights, action, and business impact (IABI).
• Monitor brand health, campaign performance, competitor activity, and consumer trends across Japan.
• Lead analysis of consumer behavior across the 5 P's, especially focusing on Gen Z acquisition drivers and customer lifecycle strategies.

Leadership & Budget Management

• • Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing Japan marketing team.
  • Manage agencies and partners to deliver best-in-class execution.
  • Oversee marketing budget with disciplined resource allocation and ROI focus.

The accomplished individual will possess...

• 10-15+ years of progressive marketing experience within fashion, luxury, lifestyle, or premium consumer brands.
• Minimum 5 years in senior roles leading large-scale brand or integrated marketing strategies in Japan.
• Strong track record driving brand growth, integrated campaigns, and media strategies in the Japanese market.
• Experience navigating a global matrix organization and influencing cross-regional stakeholders.

Skills & Competencies

• • Deep understanding of Japanese consumer, cultural dynamics, retail landscape, and media ecosystem.
  • Expertise across brand storytelling, integrated campaigns, digital & social strategy, media planning, and omnichannel marketing.
  • Strong analytical mindset with ability to translate insights into actionable strategy.
  • Excellent communication, collaboration, and stakeholder management skills.
  • Fluency in Japanese and English.
  • Passion for fashion, creativity, and joyful, consumer-centric brand building.

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 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.

Kate Spade is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer and we pride ourselves on hiring and developing the best people. All employment decisions (including recruitment, hiring, promotion, compensation, transfer, training, discipline and termination) are based on the applicant's or employee's qualifications as they relate to the requirements of the position under the consideration. These decisions are made without regard to age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic characteristics, race, color, creed, religion, ethnicity, national origin, alienage, citizenship, disability, marital status, military status, pregnancy, or any other legally-recognized protected basis prohibited by applicable law. Visit Kate Spade at www.katespade.com .
General Description of All Benefits: Our company offers a number of benefits to eligible employees, including health benefits (medical, dental, vision), life insurance and disability insurance. Eligible employees are also able to enroll in our company's 401(k) savings plan and take paid time off for wellness needs and vacations. For additional information about our benefits Click Here - U.S Store Compensation & Benefits
General Description of Other Compensation: Eligible employees will be able to receive discounts on certain products and incentive compensation.