Director, Product Development, FTW

Tory Burch•New York, NY

About The Position

The Director, Product Development, Footwear is a strategic cross-functional leader responsible for driving the development, engineering, sourcing, costing, and commercialization of footwear collections from concept through production. Partnering closely with Design, Merchandising, Technical Design, Materials, Production, Quality, and global sourcing teams, this role ensures products are delivered on time and to the highest standards of quality, performance, and brand integrity while achieving margin and cost objectives. The Director leads seasonal development execution, manages key supplier relationships, drives process improvements, mitigates risk, and develops high-performing teams to successfully bring innovative products to market.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required
Minimum 12 years of experience in footwear product development, sourcing, and/or production
Experience working with PLM or other product lifecycle management systems
Strong organizational, interpersonal, negotiation, and communication skills
Strong analytical, problem-solving, and collaboration skills
Ability to work in a fluid, fast-paced, multi-channel environment
Ability to travel as needed

Nice To Haves

The Product Development and Production team is a talented group of problem-solvers who work diligently to bring our beautiful collections to life.
Our focus is on fulfilling Tory’s creative vision and supporting our Design team in delivering extraordinary collections each season.
We also collaborate closely with our internal partners and build strong relationships with premier manufacturers and luxury suppliers globally to ensure that our products are flawlessly executed and delivered on time.
If you are a team player with a passion for product and an eye for detail, come join us!

Responsibilities

Lead all product development activities partnering with Design, Materials Team, Merchandising, Tech, and Global Sourcing.
Partner with Technical team to assess and approve the engineering of all new constructions. Identify and understand technical issues and drive them to closure. Escalate to Sr Director as needed.
Review and oversees issuance of all specs (BOMs/tech packs) for accuracy, completeness, quality, affordability, and compliance prior to release.
Recommend enhancements, construction, and material options to elevate our brand, aligning with financial goals. Resolves engineering that does not meet design, merchandising, production, or department IMU targets.
Manages the pass-off of clean specs to manufacturing partners on behalf of design; communicates daily with overseas offices and direct suppliers on questions and changes to specs and standards; assists in interpreting design intent.
Ensure critical fields are populated in PLM in support for KPI reporting. Ensure Data integrity
Review all prototypes and market samples to ensure accuracy in execution to spec.
Reports on sample status throughout the development process.
Oversee the maintenance of all standards issued for brand consistency.
Supervise confirmation samples to ensure exact execution of final design; reviews and approves all colors and materials, addressing variances with vendors and Merch team.
Formalize and escalate issues to Sr. Director and Vice President, ensuring timely and accurate communication of critical matters for efficient resolution.
Participate in on-going factory based performance reviews, and recommends improvements to factories, vendor base, and geography.
Make recommendations on factory allocation in alignment with department sourcing strategies.
Collaborate cross-functionally on seasonal offering needs to provide options in materials, suppliers, techniques, and costs that are on brand.
Work closely with merchandising, design, and production to identify and address delivery and material issues affecting production schedule.
Partner with design, merchandising, and production to manage liability inventories via special cuts and/or liquidation.
Lead seasonal costing strategy across multiple footwear categories and product lines.
Follow cost targets and deliver margin expectations in partnership with merchandising and sourcing.
Drive year-on-year cost savings through supplier negotiations, material optimization and manufacturing efficiencies.
Benchmark factory and supplier pricing across different countries, constructions and production methods.
Develop costing strategies for new footwear technologies, materials and construction techniques.
Present cost, margin and savings analysis to senior management and cross-functional teams
Aims to instill quality in the product from onset of development through final production.
Review all components with an eye for quality and performance.
Ensure all components and constructions used are compliant for performance and restricted substances prior to production. Work in tandem with quality, technical, and compliance to achieve these ends.
Ensure testing of questionable materials and components for performance and compliance to prevent a lapse in production.
Work across various footwear design teams to ensure logo usage compliance
Manage and flexes calendar, supervises milestone completion, and mitigates risk.
Monitor calendar daily to promote flow of development; reviews and resolves calendar variances with team and management.
Assist with new employee onboarding and training
Maintain consistency with process execution and raise concerns to Vice President
Drive process improvement and effectively communicate/manages changes to direct reports
Allocate work according to skills and knowledge level of direct reports
Identify and address development needs of direct reports
Provide effective feedback and coaching to direct reports