ABOUT THE ROLESteve Madden is seeking a Director, Amazon, Digital Marketing & Analytics to serve as the single-threaded leader for Amazon, Zappos, and wholesale digital marketing across its full brand portfolio - Steve Madden Women's, Madden Girl, Betsey Johnson, Anne Klein, Blondo, Dolce Vita, and Steve Madden Kids. This is a hands-on role for someone who runs the plays, not just calls them. You will personally own the P&L, manage key account relationships, get into the data, oversee agency performance, build the reporting infrastructure, and develop the team - while setting strategy and presenting to the President. The right candidate is an experienced operator with deep Amazon and digital wholesale platform expertise, a bias for action and practical solutions, and the commercial instincts to drive results in a fast-moving, multi-brand environment.
WHAT YOU'LL DOChannel Strategy & Commercial Leadership- Define and own the digital wholesale strategy across Amazon, Zappos, and wholesale digital marketing; align channel priorities, promotional cadence, and investment levels across all brands and accounts
- Personally lead multi-year negotiations with Amazon; leverage platform expertise to secure favorable terms, and know when to push and when to trade
- Own the Zappos relationship end-to-end; manage assortment, content standards, promotional strategy, and joint business planning with the account team
- Drive wholesale digital marketing strategy across key accounts; ensure brand presentation, content quality, and campaign execution meet Steve Madden standards across all digital wholesale touchpoints
- Build and present seasonal business plans, Prime Day strategies, and performance recaps directly to the President and executive leadership
- Drive alignment with DTC and wholesale teams on shared KPIs, go-to-market timing, and coordinated budget allocation across channels
- Manage cancel and order flow processes end-to-end across Amazon and Zappos; own the order calendar, flag risks early, and drive resolution before they impact the business
P&L Ownership & Financial Rigor- Own the P&L across Amazon, Zappos, and digital wholesale; personally manage revenue, margin, promotional funding, and cost-to-serve - not just report on them
- Dig into inventory across accounts; identify dead and at-risk SKUs before peak events, push through clearance strategies, and optimize sell-through at the style level
- Build the business case for increased digital wholesale marketing investment yourself - pull the data, do the analysis, and present the recommendation
- Enforce SKU discipline across accounts; push back on assortment expansion pressure and concentrate support on priority trend and evergreen styles
Media, Advertising & Agency Management- Own Amazon retail media strategy hands-on; set ROAS targets, review campaign performance directly, and make real-time optimization calls across Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, video, and DSP
- Oversee wholesale digital marketing execution across Zappos and other key accounts; ensure brand-aligned creative, coordinated promotional timing, and measurable campaign outcomes
- Manage the agency relationship personally; review deliverables, enforce SLA compliance, and make the call on whether to stay, restructure, or replace
- Get into the PDPs across Amazon and Zappos; assess content quality yourself and drive improvements on A+ content, bullets, and brand store before scaling ad spend
- Build independent attribution tracking so you are not relying solely on agency-reported numbers
Business Intelligence & Reporting- Build and own the digital wholesale reporting infrastructure; produce a unified weekly package covering sales, traffic, glance views, conversion, inventory, and ad performance across Amazon, Zappos, and key accounts
- Work directly with Data and Reporting to integrate Amazon Vendor Central and Zappos data into the enterprise BI environment - understand the data flows, not just the outputs
- Write the executive dashboard yourself; translate platform data into clear, action-oriented insights for the President and CEO
- Deliver post-event recaps within 5-7 business days; be in the data during peak events, not waiting for a summary afterward
Team Leadership & Development- Lead and develop the digital wholesale team directly; own hiring decisions, give real feedback, manage performance, and build a succession bench
- Do the work alongside the team - set the standard by example, not by memo
- Close org gaps in advertising, customer service, and account management; make the case for headcount when the data supports it
- Conduct interviews yourself using behavioral criteria - assess trust, curiosity, platform depth, and ability to manage up; do not delegate hiring to HR alone
- Cross-train the team, document critical workflows, and eliminate single points of failure before they become crises
Operations & Platform Excellence- Own the item setup and order flow calendar across Amazon and Zappos; get into the internal bottlenecks - content entry, NIS templates, approvals - and compress them
- Implement catalog hygiene and automation tools yourself where possible; do not wait for the agency to fix what the team can solve
- Evaluate content syndication tools (Salsify, Akeneo, or comparable) hands-on; make a recommendation and own the implementation path
WHAT YOU BRINGRequired- 3-5+ years of hands-on Amazon Vendor Central or Seller Central experience; former Amazonian or equivalent depth strongly preferred
- Proven P&L ownership across Amazon and digital wholesale accounts - you have personally managed revenue, margin, ad spend, and inventory, not just supervised others doing it
- Experience managing Zappos or comparable digital wholesale accounts; familiarity with joint business planning, content standards, and promotional execution at scale
- Deep fluency in Amazon Retail Media and wholesale digital marketing; you build and optimize campaigns yourself and understand attribution mechanics at a granular level
- Track record managing Amazon agencies directly; you have enforced contracts, pushed back on underperformance, and made the call to change partners when necessary
- Strong analytical skills; you pull your own data, build your own models, and do not wait for someone else to package the answer
- Demonstrated team leadership; you develop people, give direct feedback, and build cultures of accountability - not just consensus
- Bias for action and practical solutions; you move fast, make decisions with imperfect information, and solve problems rather than escalate them
- Located in or able to commute to the New York Metro area; on-site presence required
Preferred- Background in footwear, accessories, or fashion; familiarity with seasonal buying cycles and style-level P&L
- Familiarity with enterprise BI environments (BigQuery, Google Data Studio, or comparable)
- Working knowledge of content syndication platforms (Salsify, Akeneo, Productsup, or similar)
- Experience managing a multi-brand portfolio with competing resource priorities
WHY THIS ROLEThis role is an opportunity to define how one of the most recognized footwear brands in the world competes and wins across Amazon, Zappos, and the digital wholesale landscape. You will have direct access to the President, a mandate to build the team and infrastructure, and the freedom to shape the strategy rather than execute someone else's playbook. This is not a coordination role. It is a doing role - for someone who wants to be in the business, not above it.
