Director of Raw Materials

Responsibilities

• Strategize souring with Sr. Director for both nominated and factory sourced materials across wovens, cut & sew, and leather to align with design vision and financial goals.
• Lead fabric R&D and color execution, ensuring excellence from concept to bulk production.
• Foster cross functional collaboration to translate creative concepts into scalable, commercially viable solutions and mentor cross-functional teams on material construction, technology, quality, and costing.
• Work closely with Design team on fabric selection process and partner with global sourcing to ensure alignment of fabric and material choices with consumer and brand needs.
• Manage all overseas full package programs and push vendors for newness in raw materials.
• Spearhead sustainability opportunities at the onset of the season while working within price matrix.
• Manage and strengthen strategic mill and raw materials supplier partnerships, driving accountability and continuous improvement.
• Oversee raw material quality and assurance programs aligned with VB standards.
• Manage the maintenance of generic fabric library as well as seasonal fabric research.
• Place sample POs and coordinate sample shipments to both domestic and overseas factories.
• Attend weekly meetings with Product Development team on all development groups and manage fabric mill dates to meet milestone calendar dates.
• Partner with Print Designer each season to identify basecloth and repeat limitations of each print base in development stage and maintain calendar deadlines.
• Maintain financial tracking for spending per season and reduce budget where possible.
• Attend PD WIP meetings with up-to-date status for all materials.
• Confirm system accuracy and documentation across platforms.
• Manage bulk projections, negotiations and final order placements with mill partners and ensure target delivery dates.
• Manage risk mitigation for materials through country and supplier diversification.
• Contribute to creating seasonal GTM calendar and manage seasonal calendar deadlines for materials.
• Manage materials costing and minimums to hit FOB and IMU targets.
• Lead and negotiate material lead times to support speedy delivery to market.
• Partner with the production team to manage capacity planning and material staging.
• Partner with the Design team on material innovation ideas and roadmap and partner with the material suppliers on new material techniques and innovation.
• Manage and approve material development and production tests to meet our material test standards.
• Support production and quality teams on any material issues during production.
• Manage PLM System and data integrity for materials, manage fabric/yard detail sheet, create material codes and maintain PLM material library.
• Establish, report and analyze material KPI’s.
• Lead, manage, develop and coach the materials team.
• Attend fabric shows and independent agent fairs seasonally.
• Build a culture of collaboration, innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of raw materials and textiles sourcing and development experience with 3+ years of management experience.
• Bachelor’s degree in apparel, textiles, materials manufacturing, design or related field; preferred.
• Deep understanding of textile construction and ability to cost engineer.
• Strong knowledge of all aspects of material sourcing, development and production.
• Proactive, extremely organized and detail oriented.
• Strong cost negotiation skills.
• Proactive, extremely organized and detail oriented.
• Exceptional follow-up skills.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Proficient in PLM, Excel, Outlook.
• Self-motivated, collaborative, positive minded, passionate about material development and willing to take on challenges and problem solve.
• Ability to travel domestically and globally, up to 10% of the year.

Pay

The base salary range for this role is between $130,000 and $150,000. The relevant base salary will vary depending on wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions, including but not limited to, skill sets, experience, training, degrees, and certifications.