About Kendra Scott:
We are a fun, talented and driven team dedicated to providing our customers with gorgeous products and a WOW! experience. Family, fashion and philanthropy are at the core of our company and though we move at a very fast pace, we are committed to maintaining a family-oriented work environment and giving back to our community. A passion for great design, dedication to innovation and a strong social media presence are our building blocks for creating a unique and engaging lifestyle brand across all channels, including retail stores, wholesale accounts and e-commerce. Our headquarters are located in the heart of Austin, Texas, and we embrace the unique vibe and energy of our hometown as an inspiration for our brand and company culture.
Position Overview:
We have an exciting opportunity to join the Kendra Scott Design team to manage innovative design within our core product category of jewelry and accessories. The Manager of Design Intent is a manager level position responsible for the physical design of new product collections by utilizing existing or self-sourced inspirational elements and leveraging new materials and design concepts. Managerial functions include trend analysis, market intelligence, mentoring of design staff and cross-functional collaboration. This role will help to build a cohesive team and proactively manage ongoing design initiatives within our core product category.
Our ideal candidate will possess a rare mix of creative ideation and a cultivated eye for design. Our ideal candidate will have the unique ability to lead from both a design and business perspective with the capability to apply strong product collection visualization and luxury aesthetic to designs while building a business through a high level of accountability and the drive to achieve tangible results.
Responsibilities:
Design
• Interpret the brand vision and fashion trends into successful product lines
• Drive conceptual design and development strategy with supporting execution plan for assigned categories and products
• Determine overall direction in the conceptual development of product lines
• Partner with category team and strategize on overall needs of the business
• Ensure brand clarity and consistency across assigned categories and drive the conceptual development of the product
• Lead the entire design process from ideation to execution for assigned product categories
• Partner with the Design leadership team to guide the design of timely and successful assortments that are aligned with the brand vision
• Execute regular design reviews with Design leadership team, Kendra, Executive team, and other stakeholders by creating and leveraging visual assortment decks, concept boards and other presentation tools
• Participate in sourcing initiatives by identifying new factories and new materials and review and refine prototypes
• Partner with Marketing team and other stakeholders to facilitate the vision and trends of product design into the marketing and creative strategy
• Interpret creative vision and direction into free hand sketches
Business Management
• Actively mentor, motivate and educate other team members
• Manage collection design efforts effectively to ensure Product Development deadlines are met and enable speed to market
• Manage other designers to assist with execution of SKUS and meet calendar deliverables
• Foster creativity to inspire ideas and new concepts outside current assortment
• Identify and recommend changes to drive processes efficiencies
• Evaluate product sales analysis reports to identify trends and adjust new Product Development assortment planning accordingly
• Collaborate with a variety of cross-functional team members including Merchandising and Marketing to successfully facilitate the launch of new products/categories
• Stay current with market and competitive trends for the home category and communicate trends through frequent communication & collaboration with Product Development, Quality Control, Merchandising and Marketing
Executive Leadership
• Influence others through education and collaboration
• Build and maintain honest relationships with fellow leadership team
• Partner with SVP of Design to develop strong partnerships with regard to design, vision and execution
• Drive market intelligence research on competitive lines: research, analyze and monitor fashion trends that influence design (color schemes, forms, materials, and other)
• Drive high performance by creating and delivering clear expectations, following through with all commitments and cultivating an environment which breeds open communication and employee growth
Our Ideal Candidate Will Have:
• Bachelor’s degree in design or equivalent experience in a related field
• 10+ years of jewelry product design/production experience is required
• 3+ years of experience working with overseas vendors and agencies is required
• 3+ years of experience in a leadership position directing design initiatives for a specific product line while coaching and developing a team of designers is required
• Experience in early conceptualization, design, development, and launch of multiple new collections is preferred
• Demonstrated eye for design of luxury jewelry/accessories combined with a high standard of quality for design detail and function
• Experience in a wide variety of styles & design processes
• Ability to evaluate new products conceptually, as well as understand the design and engineering
• A proven track record in leadership, strategic planning, and heavy cross-functional collaboration
• A high commitment to employee growth and development with the ability to empower and define success
• A growth mindset: a track record of leveraging past learnings, encouraging new ideas and smart risk taking in self and others
• High commitment to employee growth and development: empowers team and defines success as having a significant impact on others’ careers
• Ability to analyze, integrate and present data in an understandable and compelling and solutions-oriented manner
• Proficiency with Adobe Creative Suite is required/ CAD experience is a plus
• A shared appreciation for our 3 core values of Family, Fashion and Philanthropy