Quality Assurance Manager - Women’s Apparel (QA Import)

The Role

The Manager of Quality Assurance is responsible for driving product compliance and quality consistency across core QA processes — care label approvals, third-party inspection report review, fabric and garment testing, and high-return investigations for internationally produced product. This is a report-driven role: you are managing quality outcomes mainly through analysis and vendor communication, not physical warehouse inspection. You are the key communication link between overseas vendors, third-party inspection partners, internal QC, and the Production, Tech Services, Fabric, and Merchandising teams.

What You’ll Do

• Overseas Inspection & Audit Management (~65%): Review 3rd-party reports (QIMA, Intertek, Baak, etc.). You will release passing shipments, troubleshoot workmanship/measurement issues for failures, and hold shipments missing approved TOP samples. This is a report-based function — you are managing quality outcomes through analysis and vendor communication. You’ll also manage the 3-week audit plan and follow up on unscheduled vendor audits.
• Care Label Compliance (~12%): Verify vendor-submitted labels against BOM, PIM, and Tech Packs. You’ll identify discrepancies, request vendor corrections, and update PIM layouts to ensure total accuracy.
• Fabric & Garment Testing (~11%): Manage the end-to-end testing process. This includes reviewing overseas fabric reports, processing internal test requests (preparing yardage/forms), managing retests, and communicating rejection or replacement instructions to suppliers.
• Planning & QC Capacity (~2%): Track TOP/Tech sample arrivals and build weekly QC capacity vs. demand charts to ensure the team stays ahead of incoming volume.
• Returns & Escalation Analysis (~4%): Partner with Merch/Production to investigate high-return items. You’ll coordinate inventory pulls, conduct measurement checks against original inspection results, and prepare samples/findings for executive review.
• Special Call-Outs (~2%): Investigate escalated issues from Import Production, coordinate re-audits, and ensure vendors implement corrective actions to close out quality gaps.

Who You Are

• Detail-Obsessed: You notice the small discrepancies in a care label or a lab report that others might miss.
• A Clear Communicator: You can provide concise, actionable feedback to overseas vendors and internal cross-functional partners.
• Data-Driven Decision Maker: You use standards and evidence to decide when to approve a marginal improvement or reject a lot. You make sound judgment calls independently, balancing quality and timelines — and you own those decisions.
• High-Volume Pro: You thrive in fast-paced environments and can manage multiple deadlines and hundreds of reports without breaking a sweat.
• Self-Directed: You manage your workload proactively, anticipate what's coming, and act before things become problems.