Sourcing Production Manager FASHION

We look to secure a Sourcing & Production Manager for a mid sized fashion brand who are doubling in size in the next 2-3 years. Growing at pace, they have recently migrated their factory base from China to other locations.

Your strength here should sit within high street fashion apparel sourcing, however a full role description is shared as below. Ideally we week sourcing expertise from a retail or branded environment – ideally working with companies with financial turnovers of over $50 million.

This role is based in London (but involves travel, see below). This is a hybrid role with 3 days expected in the office.

We require an individual who has the rights to live and work in the UK.

Salary – £60,000 – £75,000 + bonus + health care + pension.

Sourcing & Production Manager Role overview

You will manage our global supplier base across all products and deliver the business sourcing strategy. This includes supplier on-boarding, factory research, audits, performance assessment, and third-party NGO testing and inspection relationship management. You will drive our sustainability strategy, define and continuously assess our product and sourcing standards and supplier requirements. Furthermore, you will autonomously identify and own sourcing initiatives to unlock efficiencies and savings.

Key responsibilities:

• Deliver and drive our sourcing strategy, diversifying our supply base with new suppliers, COOs while optimising existing relationships
• Lead our sustainability strategy and bring the business along the journey
• Conduct regular on the ground far east factory and supplier visits
• Leverage a data driven KPI focused supplier assessment framework to drive needle moving actions to unlock shared benefits with our supply base
• Develop and establish a fabric sourcing strategy and partner with product teams to optimise fabric and trim libraries to unlock efficiencies
• Supplier negotiations including but not limited to partnering with senior leadership in supplier commercial terms reviews, raw materials pricing and planning supplier strategies
• Proactive production critical path management
• Partner with Head of Buying to identify and implement new initiatives to improve speed to market
• Partner with Garment Technologist to deliver a robust and proactive testing, compliance and sustainability roadmap
• Contribute cost saving initiatives through unlocking product development, supply chain and critical path efficiencies
• Manage 3rd party relationships with NGOs, testing, audit and inspection providers
• Keep on top of all compliance requirements and proactively steer the business to success
• Develop a self-serve supplier certification and compliance library to manage internal and customer queries at scale

The ideal candidate

• Possesses deep understanding and rich experience of global and Far East fashion supply chains.
• Experienced at mid senior level as a sourcing and production manager or equivalent in lead-times of 6 months+
• Proven success in delivering effective sourcing strategies and supply base migrations
• Understands global fashion sourcing and supply chains
• In-depth practical knowledge of audit frameworks, certifications, product quality, testing and compliance within apparel
• Comfortable presenting and influencing senior leadership
• Comfortable travelling on approx. 5-6 sourcing trips annually, each ranging from 7-14 days in duration
• Genuinely thrives working through ambiguity and complexity in a fast-paced entrepreneurial start-up environment
• Best in class prioritisation skills and able to break down complex problems into simple solutions while delivering results
• Able to communicate concisely, influence and build relationships with a wide variety of internal and stakeholders quickly and fruitfully
• Passionate to build, simplify and improve processes
• Gets things done while bringing others along the journey