Director, Costing - 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.

Primary Purpose

Lead footwear product costing across Asia, providing reliable cost analysis, transparent cost standards, and practical opportunities to improve product value. Build a capable costing team and work closely with Product Development (PD), Technical, Supply Chain Management (SCM), and global partners to support timely, well-informed commercial decisions while protecting product quality and delivery.

The successful individual will leverage their proficiency in material Technical to...

 Costing framework and execution

• Lead the footwear costing process from development through production handoff, including cost sheet preparation, review, validation, updates, and clear documentation of assumptions and approvals.
• Maintain consistent costing methods and benchmarks for materials, components, consumption and yield, labor, manufacturing processes, and overhead across factories and product categories.
• Review factory submissions for accuracy and completeness; challenge material usage, process assumptions, and cost changes with evidence, and resolve discrepancies with the relevant teams.
• Establish practical controls for costing milestones, version history, exceptions, and escalations so that decisions and approved changes are traceable.
• Analyze pattern consumption and material yield using available tools, including PROCAM or equivalent systems where applicable; validate findings with factory data and physical product construction.
• Identify cost and efficiency opportunities through material, component, construction, and process analysis; assess quality, aesthetic, capacity, and delivery implications with PD and Technical before recommending changes.

Cost Negotiation

• Lead cost negotiations with vendors/suppliers to achieve target IMU (initial markup) and AUC (average unit cost) goals
• Build and maintain benchmarking data (labor, trade, materials) at country, regional, and global level to strengthen negotiating position
• Establish LOP by product type matrix by factory, based on economic trends and brand health considerations (growth, efficiency, investments, development trends) 
• Tooling cost negotiation and amortization management 

FX & Commodity Fluctuation

• Monitor FX exposure and commodity price volatility, translating impacts into cost models and margin forecasts
• Forecast market labor trends to proactively flag risk
• Serve as subject matter expert on category-specific commodity cost drivers
• Recommend hedging or mitigation strategies for cost-increased risk tied to currency and raw material swing

 System Design & Operations Influence

• Support footwear specific needs in costing tool/system development to improve estimation speed and unlock system analytics.  Partner with IT/PLM teams to define footwear requirements for costing modules within operating systems
• Identify opportunities to streamline costing workflows, reduce manual rework/errors, and improve end-to-end system productivity
• Data integrity and governance
• RM and SP training and support for system interfaces

• Work with PD and Technical to connect design intent, product construction, development changes, and factory execution to accurate costing outcomes.
• Partner with SCM, Finance, and global stakeholders on costing decisions, sharing clear options, trade-offs, and recommendations; escalate issues requiring approval through agreed decision channels.
• People leadership
• Lead, coach, and develop the footwear costing team; set priorities, strengthen technical capability, and ensure consistent quality and timely delivery of work.
• Build effective working relationships with factories and regional and global teams, encouraging constructive challenge and shared problem-solving.

An outstanding professional will have…

• 10+ years of progressive experience in footwear product costing, sourcing, or manufacturing, including at least 5 years leading teams or multi-factory costing programs. Experience with premium or luxury footwear is strongly preferred.
• Proven ownership of end-to-end footwear costing across development and production, including cost sheet governance, factory cost validation, and direct cost negotiations that support AUC and IMU targets.
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• Demonstrated ability to build country, regional, and factory benchmarks; assess LOP by product type and factory; and negotiate tooling costs and amortization using sound commercial judgment.
• Deep technical knowledge of footwear materials, construction, pattern consumption and yield, production processes, labor, overhead, and cost modeling; able to challenge factory assumptions with evidence.
• Ability to interpret FX, commodity, trade, and labor trends, quantify their impact on product cost and margin, and recommend mitigation options in partnership with Finance and other accountable teams.
• Experience improving costing processes, data quality, and systems, including defining user requirements with IT or PLM partners and leading adoption across teams.
• Strong record of developing talent and influencing senior partners across PD, Technical, SCM, Finance, and global business teams. Advanced Excel and analytical skills, familiarity with PROCAM or comparable tools, and clear written and spoken English.

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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