Director of Buying

This position is responsible for creating and adapting the regional buying and merchandising strategy for US, Canada and Mexico, across 1st and 2nd choice channels, from the global vision. This role is the key link with the central team in Paris, to coordinate direction and assortments for the NORCAM region and create product requests as needed by the business. In charge of the regional buying team, based in NYC office, while working very closely with the planning, visual and business leaders across the different countries. Key focus will be creating new mutli-country processes and effective communication.

ESSENTIAL JOB DUTIES:

·       In partnership with VP of Buying and Planning, set buying strategy for Regional countries based on Global direction from HQ, across all channels.

·       Create buying and review process across the region’s to have 1 clear view point that can be presented back to central HQ

·       Manage team to create BTQ+ECOM assortment for all countries, partnering with local country business lead in creation.

·       Work in close partnership with planning, visual merchandising, and retail team 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.

·       Manage the buy during market; product selection and assortment, while managing the sku and merchandise plan and meeting financial objectives.

·       Manage the system creation and pricing control for all channels.

·       Strategize key items, promotions and mark downs with planning and retail team.

·       Partner with Merchandising teams in France regarding the construction of the seasonal line, addressing business needs defined by historical sales, productivity analysis, and the understanding of market trends that apply to the DNA of the brand.

·       Liaise with supply chain, as well as planning and allocation to ensure availability and the timely delivery of merchandise.

·       Partner with team to run analysis and prepare selling hindsight’s on weekly, monthly, quarterly, seasonal basis in order to help identify opportunities in the assortment.

• Manage 5-6 Team members.
• Pre-Covid travel was Bi-annual to Paris or as needed.
• All other duties as required.
  
  SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
  
  
• A minimum of 6-8 years experience.
• Multi-country experience a plus.
• Multi-Channel is a must.
• Strong analytical and organizational skills.
• Strong computer skills (MS Office, Excel). Must be able to compile large volumes of data on a spreadsheet with a high degree of accuracy. Expert in Pivot tables.
• Detail oriented.
• Four year College degree.
  
  
  CORE COMPETANCIES AND TRAITS:
  
  
• Initiative: Actively strives to achieve goals beyond the minimum level of performance. A self-starter who has the ability to work well without close supervision.
• Mathematical: Must be proficient working with numbers to ensure correctness of date produced when compiling large volumes of data on a spreadsheet for analysis.
• Analytical: Must be able to identify and react to business trends in various markets.
• Organized: Must be able to develop a system that will enable you to gather and retrieve information quickly.
• Communication: Able to communicate clearly and productively with various business partners to foster open communication and to establish good working relationships within the business. 

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.

This position is responsible for creating and adapting the regional buying and merchandising strategy for US, Canada and Mexico, across 1st and 2nd choice channels, from the global vision. This role is the key link with the central team in Paris, to coordinate direction and assortments for the NORCAM region and create product requests as needed by the business. In charge of the regional buying team, based in NYC office, while working very closely with the planning, visual and business leaders across the different countries. Key focus will be creating new mutli-country processes and effective communication.

ESSENTIAL JOB DUTIES:

·       In partnership with VP of Buying and Planning, set buying strategy for Regional countries based on Global direction from HQ, across all channels.

·       Create buying and review process across the region’s to have 1 clear view point that can be presented back to central HQ

·       Manage team to create BTQ+ECOM assortment for all countries, partnering with local country business lead in creation.

·       Work in close partnership with planning, visual merchandising, and retail team 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.

·       Manage the buy during market; product selection and assortment, while managing the sku and merchandise plan and meeting financial objectives.

·       Manage the system creation and pricing control for all channels.

·       Strategize key items, promotions and mark downs with planning and retail team.

·       Partner with Merchandising teams in France regarding the construction of the seasonal line, addressing business needs defined by historical sales, productivity analysis, and the understanding of market trends that apply to the DNA of the brand.

·       Liaise with supply chain, as well as planning and allocation to ensure availability and the timely delivery of merchandise.

·       Partner with team to run analysis and prepare selling hindsight’s on weekly, monthly, quarterly, seasonal basis in order to help identify opportunities in the assortment.

• Manage 5-6 Team members.
• Pre-Covid travel was Bi-annual to Paris or as needed.
• All other duties as required.
  
  SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:
  
  
• A minimum of 6-8 years experience.
• Multi-country experience a plus.
• Multi-Channel is a must.
• Strong analytical and organizational skills.
• Strong computer skills (MS Office, Excel). Must be able to compile large volumes of data on a spreadsheet with a high degree of accuracy. Expert in Pivot tables.
• Detail oriented.
• Four year College degree.
  
  
  CORE COMPETANCIES AND TRAITS:
  
  
• Initiative: Actively strives to achieve goals beyond the minimum level of performance. A self-starter who has the ability to work well without close supervision.
• Mathematical: Must be proficient working with numbers to ensure correctness of date produced when compiling large volumes of data on a spreadsheet for analysis.
• Analytical: Must be able to identify and react to business trends in various markets.
• Organized: Must be able to develop a system that will enable you to gather and retrieve information quickly.
• Communication: Able to communicate clearly and productively with various business partners to foster open communication and to establish good working relationships within the business. 

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.