Celine Group Head, Women's Leather Goods

About Celine

CELINE is a Parisian luxury maison within the LVMH group, recognised for its modern, refined ready-to-wear and leather goods. The house combines rigorous craftsmanship with contemporary design sensibilities and operates in a fast-paced, highly collaborative creative environment.

Role & Responsibilities

• Lead and manage the Women's Leather Goods team (Large Goods and Mini Bags), ensuring on-time delivery of four seasonal collections per year and directing three product managers.
• Establish and maintain the collection calendar and detailed retro-planning, define merchandising milestones and allocate team workloads.
• Write and validate briefs for Large Goods (LG) and frame the collection using qualitative insight and quantitative analysis; set target prices and margin objectives.
• Drive end-to-end product development in close collaboration with studio and development teams in Italy, overseeing materials orders, prototype launches and sampling within collection budgets.
• Identify and mitigate risks during prototyping and sampling; convene and lead technical meetings through to production sign-off.
• Control collection size, assortment structure and the balance between carryovers and seasonal novelties; maintain up-to-date collection management tools (collection plan, product and pricing lists, sample reviews).
• Prepare and coordinate showroom and buying sessions with Visual Merchandising, Retail and Wholesale teams; ensure all showroom documentation (modelarios, SKU lists, compliance lists) is accurate and available.
• Ensure product information integrity in the PLM (names, descriptions, pricing) and deliver product content to Marketing & Press; support Retail and Wholesale during the purchase session.
• Monitor qualitative and quantitative performance (sell-in / sell-out analyses) with Retail Merchandising, collect regular feedback from central and regional retail and wholesale teams, and conduct regular boutique visits.
• Collaborate with Legal on product names and IP issues and provide training input to the learning team to ensure comprehensive product knowledge across channels.

Qualifications

• Business school degree or university degree in a relevant discipline.
• Minimum 7 years' experience in merchandising and/or product development for leather goods; 10+ years preferred for seniority and scope.
• Proven experience managing mid-sized teams and coordinating cross-functional stakeholders in a maison or luxury goods environment.
• Outstanding analytical skills with the ability to build assortment structures, price targets and margin plans.
• Excellent presentation and communication skills; strong commercial sensibility and product intuition.
• High level of autonomy, rigor and the ability to prioritise in a fast-moving context.
• Professional command of English (mandatory); Italian language skills are a strong advantage.

Skills

Experience

Minimum 7 years in merchandising and/or product development for leather goods, with progressive responsibility; 10+ years preferred for a role managing multiple product managers and cross-border development.

Education

Business school or university degree in business, fashion, merchandising or related field.

Workplace

Culture

CELINE offers a disciplined, design-led workplace where craft and contemporary aesthetics are paramount. The maison fosters an inclusive environment with equal-opportunity recruitment and a collaborative, cross-functional approach to product creation and commercialisation.

About Cerulean

Cerulean is the definitive career portal for the global luxury industry. We match exceptional professionals with exclusive opportunities at the world's most prestigious brands. From haute couture and fine watchmaking to prestige beauty, hospitality, and boutique retail, Cerulean centralises luxury employment to help you find the career for which you were destined.