The SVP, Product Strategy serves as a visionary and strategic leader, responsible for setting and guiding the creative, product, and merchandising direction across footwear and handbags for our diverse brand portfolio. This role drives the overall product strategy, integrating design and merchandising to build impactful product franchises, capitalize on market opportunities, and ensure long-term growth. By aligning design, merchandising, and go-to-market strategies, this leader shapes a cohesive approach to brand positioning and revenue targets, focusing on a 3-5 year strategy that supports sales and distribution goals. Reporting to the President, Brands, this role is pivotal in ensuring that our brands maintain distinct identities, meet consumer expectations, and achieve sustainable growth.
Reports to: President, Brands
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
Strategic Product and Merchandising Leadership: Connects design and merchandising insights, drives seamless product strategies that support business and growth objectives. Builds and expands product franchises that reinforce brand equity and generate long-term revenue streams, ensuring relevance and consistency across seasons. Defines and refines pricing architecture across brands, balancing competitive positioning with profitability.Design Direction: Provides strategic leadership to design team, ensuring product designs align with broader merchandising and brand strategy. Determines vision and direction, sets priorities, drives innovation and differentiation across product lines to enhance brand identity and market positioning.Market & Consumer Insights: Conducts and synthesizes market research, consumer insights, and industry trends to anticipate, capitalize on and drive change. Analyzes product performance and competitor offerings to make data-driven adjustments to the product mix and ensures alignment with category priorities.Cross-Functional Partnership & Alignment: Champions change and challenges the status quo to encourage product, marketing, and sales teams to ideate and provide new ways to improve product design, brand positioning, and go-to-market strategies. Presents product design concepts, strategies, and performance insights for all brands to relevant cross-functional partners and executive leadership, articulating the strategic value and competitive advantage of our collections.Team Leadership: Recruits, develops, and retains top talent, fostering a culture of creativity, critical thinking, and collaboration. Establishes clear workflows and best practices for efficient project execution across multiple brands, promoting a high-performing, innovative team environment.Required Skills and Competencies:
Creates competitive and breakthrough strategies that show connection between vision and actionExtensive experience in senior leadership roles within the fashion industry, with a strong background in market driven product strategyProven creative vision with strong strategic thinking skills to translate brand positioning and consumer insights into commercially successful design conceptsUnderstanding of footwear design principles, materials, construction techniques and manufacturing processesDemonstrated experience in leading and inspiring teams, with excellent communication, collaboration and interpersonal skillsResults oriented mindset with a focus on delivering high quality, commercially successful product offeringsTakes on new opportunities and tough challenges with a sense of urgency, high energy and enthusiasmDemonstrates resiliency and persists in accomplishing objectives; rebounds from setbacks and adversityCompetencies
STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP: Deliberately communicates overall business strategy and connects it to the work of the functional team. Anticipates future trends and implications accurately. Leverages market knowledge to anticipate, capitalize on and drive change.LEADING & MOTIVATING: Serves as a champion and driver of DSW Values and culture. Attracts and selects the best talent to meet current and future business needs.MANAGING FOR RESULTS: Establishes models and enforces accountability. Gets the most out of available resources and secures rare resources others cannot get.Qualifications
20+ years of progressive experience in the fashion industry, with a background in design, product creation and/or merchandising strategyPreferred Qualifications:
Experience within a diverse portfolio of footwear or apparel brandsEducation:
Bachelor's Degree in Design, Merchandising, Business or related fieldThe estimated pay range for this position is $375,000 to $435,000. The successful candidate's actual pay rate offer will take into account a wide range of job-related factors including skill sets, years and nature of relevant experience, training, pay rates of associates in similar positions, the candidate's location, and other organizational needs. This position is eligible for our Annual Corporate Bonus Plan.
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