Associate Manager, Product Development

Responsibilities

• Owns maintaining product development dates within the Product Lifecycle Calendar; Ensure accuracy, update daily with any changes, communicate any risks associated with the shift and issue remediation when off calendar.
• Supports Product Development Manager or Director in rebuilding any dates from Design Concept to Launch.
• Champion for adherence to all applicable product development dates, and team needs to execute product on time, and per our quality standards.
• Coverage with Materials & Product Integrity team to ensure material sourcing timelines, product specifications, sample orders, approvals and all steps of development align in total according to established calendar.
• Build and maintain all sample development information in PLM across all categories.
• Coordinate with Product Development Manager, Sourcing Team and Materials & Product Integrity Team on vendor placement based on development capabilities, sample lead times, and development capacity.
• Oversee tracking of all sample phases and proactively inform internal departments of delays by outlining reasons for the delays and solutions.
• Partner with Product Development Specialist to enforce sample ship dates according to the Product Development calendar and communicate priorities to our vendors. Is solution oriented when requested ship dates cannot be met.
• Reviews, approves, and tracks all sample invoices from the vendors, and works closely with accounting to issue payment in partnership with the Product Development Specialist. Is mindful of total sample budget.
• Coverage with Product Development Manager or Director on cost presentations to internal cross-functional teams pre-market, and work through any design edits needed to achieve target margins.
• Create, maintain, and finalize Style BOMs in PLM with design supplied mockups, and product details to provide comprehensive instructions and specifications to aid factory in development, sampling, and production.
• Ensure there is communication and documentation of any changes, updates, or elimination of styles to vendors & cross-functional partners.
• Manage development sample communication and tracking with vendors to ensure quality and on time shipments throughout all development sample phases. Ensure all products are vetted for engineering, quality, functionality, and risk.
• Evaluate development samples and materials for accuracy against product specifications and established standards. Ensure the factories are also documenting sample inspection comments at time of sample shipment.
• Engage design or merchandising teams with findings to determine, document, and communicate next steps.
• Request and negotiate costs through all development phases and manage up target IMU risks to Product Development Manager or Director for alignment at each stage of development. Ensure Design and Merchandising are aware of any IMU risks and proactively present cost engineering solutions to the team.
• Alert cross functional teams and manage up to Product Development Manager or Director any product risk to eliminate roadblocks and mitigate any risks in production.
• Complete on time product information handoff to Production once an assortment is finalized.

Leadership & Relationship Management

• Build strong cross functional partnerships with Design, Merchandising, Production, Vendors and Agent, and intuitively know when to effectively engage teams to support department needs.
• Provide productive feedback to vendors and agencies when needed, and track downfalls & wins including, but not limited to, lead times and on-time delivery, throughout the quarter to aid in the completion of the partnership survey for the quarterly scorecards.
• Representation of functional area when management is unavailable or traveling.
• Directly oversee, manage, and coach the Product Development team Specialist in alignment with Manager or Director, team goals, and individuals’ areas of focus.
• Work with teams to outline new vendor onboarding plans to ensure smooth and successful onboarding. Manage up vendor relationship roadblocks to leadership with solutions.

Operational Excellence

• Identify areas of opportunity and align with key cross functional partners on solutions to remove any roadblocks or to improve ways of working.
• Produce seasonal hindsight's, including total styles sampled, style adoption, total team workload and total costs accrued, presenting risks and opportunities, and reporting on the evolution of the season.
• Provide and communicate additional standards documents to vendors to further guide the development process. Ensure all vendors and factories have the most updated accurate information for quality assurance.
• Document and communicate product details needed by cross functional teams to ensure accurate stream of product specifications to the customer. This includes educational content on materials, techniques, aesthetics, or quality.