Director, Technical Footwear

Explore the possibilities across our global house of brands.

Defined by inclusivity rather than exclusivity, Tapestry embraces the exploration of individuality and invests in helping you grow personally and professionally. Every individual in our global house has the opportunity to make an impact, learn and be part of our growing and unique story.

At Tapestry, we have the freedom to express ourselves and run with our best ideas across Coach and Kate Spade New York. We share a profound belief in both our individual and collective potential, and know that with hard work and dedication, anything is possible.

Position Overview:

The Director, Technical Footwear will be responsible for leading the technical design team and driving the development of footwear products from concept to production. This role requires a strong understanding of footwear construction, materials, and manufacturing processes, as well as excellent leadership and communication skills.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and manage the footwear technical design team, providing guidance, mentorship, and support to ensure the successful execution of projects.
• Collaborate closely with the design, product development, commercialization, and manufacturing teams to translate design concepts into technically feasible footwear products.
• Oversee the development of technical specifications, including construction details, material specifications, and fit requirements.
• Conduct thorough technical reviews of footwear prototypes and samples to identify and address any issues related to construction, fit, and quality.
• Partner with suppliers and vendors to source materials, components, and manufacturing processes that meet quality standards and cost targets.
• Conduct risk assessment of all aspect of product: materials, fitting, performance.
• Stay current on industry trends, innovations, and best practices in footwear design and manufacturing to drive continuous improvement and innovation.
• Establish and maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the technical design process, ensuring consistency and efficiency across projects.
• Collaborate with Fitting Models to evaluate fit, comfort, and performance of footwear prototypes and sales samples during development stages.
• New last/construction development, assessment, correction
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to resolve technical challenges and drive solutions that meet design, performance, and cost requirements.
• Smooth transferring tech pack from product development stage to commercialization and production teams.
• Provide leadership in identifying and implementing process improvements to enhance efficiency, quality, and innovation in footwear design and development.
• Foster a collaborative and inclusive team culture that promotes creativity, accountability, and professional growth.
• Drive product and process innovation in our best-in-class FTW platform.
• Build effective team. Foster an environment that encourage and enables team members to build skills and develop their careers, challenging themselves for finding solutions and accomplishing goals.

Team Management

• Strong team management skills
• Set clear priorities according to brands strategy and goals
• Hiring, training, retention of appropriate staff
• Give regular and constructive feedback
• Encourage team unity through sharing information, expertise, persuasive without being authoritative
• Development planning for high potentials
• Succession planning for critical positions

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Footwear Design, Industrial Design, Footwear Technology, or related field; advanced degree preferred.
• Minimum 8-10 years of experience in footwear design and technical aspect, with a proven track record of successfully leading teams and delivering innovative products.
• Expertise in footwear construction, materials, fit, and manufacturing processes.
• Strong knowledge on different footwear categories: women, men, kids’ footwear and typologies Dress, Casual, Sneakers, Jellies, Flip Flop, Vulcanized, Injected.
• ​Knowledge in reading and adjusting Blueprints for construction developments as molded outsoles, heels, uppers and ornaments.
• Strong technical proficiency in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and other design software.
• Excellent communication, leadership, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively collaborate with cross-functional teams, upper-level management, external patterns and suppliers.
• Detail-oriented with a passion for quality and craftsmanship.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment and manage multiple priorities effectively.
• Experience working in a global or multi-cultural environment is a plus.
• Fluent in English, both written and spoken.
• Drives for results; understands needs of the business and executes with excellence.
• Motivated, energized. “Hands on Attitude”
• Adaptable to the changing needs of the business; demonstrates problem solving attitude.
• Demonstrate effective track record of results delivered.
• Strong communication skills – written and verbal.
• Excellent organizational and record-keeping skills with attention to detail.

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.    

Tapestry 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.
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