Director - Buying - Lacoste - New York

Job description

This position is responsible for leading the buying function for all Lacoste product lines including Men’s, Women’s, Kids, Accessories and E-Commerce. The director of Buying will be responsible for developing and driving appropriate assortments for our Lacoste Boutiques across the country, ensuring brand goals and objectives are met through analysis of trends, competitor product offerings, and the specific needs of our retail, wholesale and e-commerce customers. The Director of Buying will lead a team of four direct reports.

Essential Job Responsibilities:

In partnership with the SVP Merchandising, set buying strategy for our full price retail boutiques to realize brand goals and potential.
All retail buying accountability for all categories of business including Men’s, Women’s, Kids, Accessories, OLP and our E-commerce site.
Work in close partnership with merchandising, planning, visual merchandising to manage in-season business performance, as well as coordinate in advance for each seasonal delivery
Focus on future of business by identifying market trends, assortment opportunities and understanding the Lacoste customer.
Partner with the planning team regarding buying strategy and ensuring financial viability and excellence in execution.
Complete the buy during market; product selection and assortment, while managing the sku plan and meeting financial goals.
Strategize key items, promos and mark downs with planning team.
Liaise with merchandising and production to ensure availability and the timely delivery of merchandise.
Liaise with visual team to optimize product investments on sales floor.
Oversee and maintain vendor relationships for third party / licensed categories.
Collaborate with store team to refine knowledge of customer needs.
Ongoing development of buying team of 4 direct reports.
Desired Skills and Experience
Requirements/Qualifications:
Proven success buying and managing assortments for a retail organization, and, ideally, experience working with a European corporate office.
Strong analytical and retail math skills.
Strong communications, time management and presentation skills.
A critical thinker who drives solutions.
Exhibits strong leadership skills with ability to motivate a team.
Flexible team player, ability to work collaboratively across all departments.
8-10 years’ experience in a retail buying role. Department store or E-commerce experience is a plus.

Core Values and Traits:

Accountable:
Have the ability to take responsibility for results.
Be responsive and able to address questions and issues every day.
Be able to recognize the contributions of others.
Able to recognize success as well as failure and being able to learn both individually and collectively from past experiences, retaining best practices.
Audacious:
Willing to take risks and create new ways of working together.
Being capable of changing conventional ways and doing what makes sense even when faced with challenges.
The ability to take the road less traveled and going beyond current trends to achieve results.
Have the ability to excite our customers with innovation.
Collaborative:
Able to share opinions and information to work together differently.
Building trust and cooperation among associates to make important decisions.
Learning to execute solutions and face difficult problems together.
Cultivate strength and cooperative spirit.
Share achievements within and between teams throughout the organization.
Respectful:
Being considerate of other people’s point of view.
Recognizing that diversity in terms of opinions and approaches is an opportunity to explore new creative ways of thinking.
The ability to have open and direct communication that fosters people development.

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