Senior Group Director, Watches & Fine Jewelry Retail, East Coast

Senior Group Director, Watches and Fine Jewelry Retail, East Coast

At CHANEL, we are focused on creating an inclusive culture that nurtures personal growth, contributing to collective progress. We believe the uniqueness of each individual increases the diversity, complementarity, and effectiveness of our teams. We strongly encourage your application, as we value the perspective, experience, and potential you could bring to CHANEL

About The Role:

CHANEL is looking for a Senior Group Director of Retail for its Watches and Fine Jewelry (WFJ) activities on the East Coast. The role will be based in New York and report to the Head of Sales and Distribution for Watches and Fine Jewelry.

In a context of high growth ambition for the WFJ Division in the US market, our must have and priority is to “Drive Scale”, while maintaining an exceptional level of image and service, through a brand and client-centric approach in all points of distribution.

The core mission of this newly created role will be to lead the development of our WFJ business and teams in the region: the Head of Boutique (HOB) of our WFJ NY Flagship boutique will report directly to him/her. WFJ Associate Directors and Category Managers in the region will also function with a dotted line. Additionally, the Regional’s direct team will include a Group Director, East Coast to oversee all Strategic Account Management & Partnerships including Fashion, Multi Brand Business (MBB) and Multi Brand Select (MBS) across total distribution except for Specialty Retailers.  The other essential mission will be to partner closely with Fashion Leadership to grow the business penetration through WFJ focus and expertise across the Fashion network, including Fashion boutiques, Fashion MBB and WFJ MBS Point of Sale (POS) while ensuring an exceptional and seamless client journey.

The role will also work in close partnership with the Senior Manager in charge of the Specialty Retailer distribution in the Region (MBR).

This exceptional leader will partner closely with their peer, the Senior Group Director, WFJ Retail West Coast, to drive consistency in strategy, leadership as well as network development and harmonization as we strive to responsibly grow & expand WFJ penetration.

This role requires an ability to be agile with a strong aptitude for elevating the internal and external Client experience. The retail environment is filled with interesting challenges, and we seek a transformational leader to help continuously evolve CHANEL’s WFJ retail organization.

Our ideal candidate will have minimum 12 years of retail leadership and/or account development experience, ideally with expertise in the East Coast Region, have a passion for people leadership and business development across all channels and products categories, be comfortable with collaboration and cross-divisional partnership, as well as have an excellent client service mindset.

What Impact You Can Create:

• Drive scale and grow WFJ business across all segments (Watches/Fine Jewelry/High Jewelry (HJ), through direct leadership of WFJ network and leveraging engagement of Fashion and WFJ partners, to reach short- and long-term growth ambition. Facilitate dialogue between WFJ Heads of Boutiques and Merchandising & Planning Teams to define and follow up sales goals, as well as other KPIs (recruitment / retention / conversion, data capture, ...) for the East Coast region.
• Act as the voice of WFJ on the East Coast, making recommendations to best support all aspects of the retail business while working with the Head of Sales and Distribution to set strategic objectives and vision for WFJ in the region to drive focus on Client and commercial KPIs
• Liaise with People & Organization (P&O) partners on recruitment and development of the retail teams.
• Strong collaboration with counterparts from Fashion and Fragrance & Beauty, as well as WFJ MBR to ensure seamless and consistent client experience across all touch points.
• Partner with key stake holders from WFJ and Fashion to continue network optimization, including WFJ addition to Fashion MBB locations. Evaluate best WFJ business model and assortment for all department store locations.
• Champion a client-centric and service focused mindset across all levels of our WFJ Boutique organization and beyond, striving for a harmonized and symbiotic distribution network with a seamless client journey.
• Galvanize your WFJ Boutique and Fashion leaders around our vision and ensure a clear understanding of CHANEL’s priorities and strategic focuses to enable and empower them at the Boutique level.
• Work in partnership with the local High Business Development Team to define an implement a strategic High End Business Development plan and elevated client journey, supporting all distribution channels.
• Identify local industry and market trends, maintaining keen awareness of industry partner and competitor movements and activities on the East Coast
• Encourage individual empowerment and employee development by being a hands-on visible leader fostering both a learner’s mindset and a culture of inclusion and continuous improvement.
• Provide consistent vision on talent evaluation and performance management across all boutiques to ensure consistency with CHANEL brand values, driving leadership development and succession planning.
• Champion and drive D&I initiatives in partnership with D&I leadership and HRBPs
• Focus on aligning and reinforcing policies and best practices for WFJ Boutiques through coordination and creating consistency and supporting HOBs to drive their business. Instill an operational mind-set, and show visible support for operational efficiency, strengthening partnerships across all Boutique functions. Partner with stakeholders to identify opportunities to improve process efficiency that will enhance client experience and/or profitability. Support a permanent improvement of our policies and procedures in partnership with the Retail Operations teams, at Boutique and Corporate level.
• Ensure compliance with all internal and external constituents on areas such as: loss prevention, anti-diversion, employment laws, privacy laws, inventory counts, etc.
• Identify educational needs and partner with the Group Director of Education to map out the annual education plan for the East Coast region.
• Support any Boutique opening or renovation in the region. Support repair and maintenance follow up, as well as the implementation of new tools and systems, to help HOBs and Boutique teams focus on clients and sales.
• Reinforce VM compliance and accountability for all POS within the East Coast region.  Coordinate training and support if necessary.
• Support Events and key Brand moments.
• Regular in boutique presence.
• Partner with Head of Sales and Distribution in the relationship management of corporate executives for Department Stores (Saks Fifth Ave., Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, Nordstrom, Bloomingdales)

You Are Energized By:

• The history and heritage of The House of CHANEL
• The idea of driving scale for WFJ business in the US Region
• Building collaborative partnerships
• Fostering a meaningful and exceptional client experience centered around inclusion and connection.
• Being comfortable with complexity and change
• Creativity and innovation by testing, learning, and taking risks.

Position Logistics:

• Minimum of 12 years of leadership in a multi-boutique or store environment and/or account development experience
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience preferred.
• Located in New York with ability to frequently travel up to 50% – the position entails frequent and extensive travel, including at times, international travel.
• Partially Remote: Role requires a minimum of three days in-person office presence at the designated location/office.
• Must be able to use MS Office applications – Word, Excel, and Power Point to a competent standard.

Additional Information:

The anticipated base salary range for this position is $175,000 - $225,000. Base salary is one component of the total compensation for this position. Other components will include additional compensation, benefits and perks.

Chanel is a private company whose values are grounded in creating the conditions for people to perform at their best and feel fulfilled and confident in their work. We offer a unique work environment where individuals are encouraged to better understand the brand, the business, and motivations, so that together we can unlock the possibilities of growth. This is reflected in:

Diversity and Inclusion:

• At CHANEL, we are intentional in promoting Diversity & Inclusion. We foster respect, empathy, and dignity for all.  We believe strongly that the diversity of our people across the full spectrum of human differences is essential to our organization and the connections we have with each other and our clients.
• We offer Employee Resource Groups in the US that are voluntary, open to all, employee-led groups formed around a shared identity or lived experience, whose aim is to foster a diverse, inclusive, and equitable community aligned with the values and missions of the communities they support.

Chanel Community:

• CHANEL Community empowers our employees to channel their passions, talents and sense of purpose to contribute to and learn from our communities.
• Employees are encouraged to take time off annually to volunteer through CHANEL Community. CHANEL also matches employee donations to select charitable organizations.

Fondation Chanel

• Since 2011, Fondation CHANEL’s mission is for women and girls to be free to shape their own destiny.  Through multi-year partnerships with financial and technical support, Fondation CHANEL is committed to improving the safety and autonomy of women and adolescent girls around the world, impacting over a million women and girls in its first 10 years.   
• For more information, please navigate to the Fondation Chanel website here

Sustainability:

• CHANEL Mission 1.5° is our climate action plan. It is focused on transforming the business in line with the ambitions of the Paris Agreement on climate change to limit the average global mean temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.
• Employees are encouraged to contribute to our US Sustainability efforts at the corporate level and within the divisions, through organized taskforces and initiatives.

Arts and Culture:

• We are committed to extending our legacy of cultural engagement. Global support includes the CHANEL Culture Fund, which supports a select group of leading art culture institutions across the globe, and the CHANEL Next Prize for the next generation of creative talent.  US support currently includes Annual sponsorship of the MoMA film program, Tribeca Film Festival programs and Through Her Lens, Support of the Academy Gold Fellowship for Women and Sponsorship of the BAAND Together Dance Festival at Lincoln Center.

Career and Leadership Development:

• We have dedicated in-house teams focused on supporting the onboarding of employees, developing leadership skills via custom programs like Imagine Chanel People, Heart of Leadership and group and individual coaching, and blended online and live classes offered on our Bloom platform and by skilled trainers, such as Shape Your Career, to develop career building skills.

*Chanel, Inc. reserves the right to edit, change, or make exceptions on designations where circumstances where deemed appropriate.

Salary : $175,000 - $225,000