Coach is a global fashion house founded in New York in 1941. Inspired by the vision of Creative Director Stuart Vevers and the inclusive and courageous spirit of our hometown, we make beautiful things, crafted to last—for you to be yourself in.
Coach is part of the Tapestry portfolio – a global house of brands committed to stretching what’s possible.
Primary Purpose: At Coach, we believe better-made things can help create a better-made future-and this starts with how we design, develop and plan for our products. Though we’ve always prided ourselves on creating high quality product crafted to last, we know we must go further and build a more circular future for fashion. With this responsibility in mind, we are launching a new initiative focused on circularity with an innovative business model that reimagines product “end of life” and Coach’s impact on the environment.
The Planner, Global Merchandise Planning will analytically support the formulation of the global product assortment and the phases of product life cycle (pre-season product line planning and in-season global trend analysis and inventory management). The position will partner with Merchandising and other key project team members (Design, Product Development) to set and ensure growth targets are achieved and will own all buying aspects for its categories (Leather Goods, Ready to Wear, Footwear). This position will report to the Director of Global Merchandise Planning for this initiative.
The successful individual will leverage their proficiency in Merchandise Planning to...
- Provide seasonal, global financial framework for the assortment that realizes business objectives across sustainability, growth/profitability, and customer acquisition goals
- Leverage analysis, product trends, and productivity to inform global plans and assortments across all categories with a focus on Leather Goods, Footwear and Ready-to-Wear
- Analyze and identify global and regional product trends, through key weekly reporting, that drive incremental growth to core businesses
- Measure new trends, and apply them to buys, projections, and in-season actions
- Drive global investments against key product and circularity strategies across markets and maximize sales opportunities
- Conduct buy reviews with Sustainability team partners, highlighting sales and investment strategies
- Manage OTB by anticipating needs to support seasonal newness investment, in collaboration with the Global Inventory Management team
- Action on shipment re-routing, BU inventory sharing, and global chase opportunities based on early reads on newness sales
- Drive global product lifecycle guidance for both core and drop assortments
- Foster effective teamwork and communication with key business partners (i.e., Global Merchandising, Product Development, Supply Operations, Global Inventory Management)
- Effectively prioritize and coordinate deadlines with cross-functional partners
- Work in agile methodology with a focus on empowered, self-organizing teams, an iterative approach that allows for rapid experimentation with continuous feedback loops in short time-boxed sprints, and mindful adaptiveness to change
- “Think outside the box” breaking from traditional planning practices when needed and demonstrating ability to challenge the status quo to drive a cradle-to-cradle mindset
The accomplished individual will possess...
- Bachelor’s Degree in business administration, finance or similar field
- 3-5 years of experience in planning and/or buying
- Sharp business acumen, strategic thinking, and analytical skills; proven ability to drive both brand and commercial outcomes and deliver on program KPIs and ROI goals
- Demonstrated ability to leverage real-time customer insight and analysis to drive planning strategies
- Strong self-starter with action-oriented drive; excels in fast-paced, start-up type environments
- Superior written, verbal communication skills to effectively communicate across all levels of management
- Strong degree of accountability and attention to detail
- Excellent Microsoft Excel / technical skills; experience in Microsoft PowerPoint
- Passion for sustainability
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.
Coach 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 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. #LI - YA1 Visit Coach at www.coach.com.
