Junior Technologist - WW Footwear in Slough

Our client is a highly regarded fashion brand seeking a talented Junior womenswear Footwear Technologist to join their team. This is an exciting opportunity for someone looking to develop their career within a dynamic brand, working across the footwear product lifecycle to help deliver high-quality collections.

Salary: up to 39K, 4 days in the London office and 1 WFH - there is no negotiation on this.

What you’ll be doing:

• Strategic Contribution: Understands the business strategy and translates it into actionable quality objectives within the product category, contributing to the wider quality team and representing the team in cross-business forums.
• Customer & Market Insight: Uses customer insight tools, store and DC visits, and market benchmarking to understand expectations and competitor advances, driving continuous product improvement.
• Quality Management: Owns and embeds the Quality Framework, ensuring robust assurance processes throughout the value chain and compliance with legal and brand standards.
• BMD Collaboration: Works closely with the BMD team to align quality processes with the departmental critical path, support trading activities, and influence decisions to meet customer expectations.
• Product & Manufacturing Expertise: Applies specialist knowledge of materials, construction, pattern technology, grading, and supplier capabilities to deliver products right first time, balancing cost, quality, and commercial value.
• Risk Assessment & Continuous Improvement: Acts as the risk assessment ambassador for the category, implementing corrective actions where standards fall short and embedding risk assessment within all quality processes.
• Technical Leadership: Mentors and upskills the wider quality and BMD teams, sharing knowledge to improve decision-making, purchasing practices, and product consistency.
• Innovation & Best Practice: Drives adoption of new technologies, feedback loops, and frameworks to deliver consistent, high-quality products, including overseeing test-and-learn initiatives.
• Team Development: Motivates, coaches, and develops direct reports, supporting personal growth, skills transfer, and deputising for the Technical Manager as required.
• Operational Excellence: Ensures packaging, labelling, and transit methods maintain brand consistency and product value, while proactively challenging processes to uphold customer standards.

Who you are:

• Technical Knowledge: Assimilates and articulates a clear understanding of customer expectations and the importance of a Quality framework. Applies first-hand experience of manufacturing environments. Knowledge of product construction and material performance.
• Proficient in running a fit session (clothing/footwear) and pre-production meeting. Makes solution-based decisions from skilled interpretation of test reports.
• Understand open costing and able to support buying team through product engineering. Proactive in benchmarking product – production for consistency and competitors for innovation.
• Is able to specify packaging and presentation requirements of a product throughout the value chain. Understanding of the brand's and sub-brand strategy and actively participating in the development and delivery of department strategy.
• Actively implement regulatory requirements within their product area. Understand roles and responsibilities within the BMD team, using this to ensure impacts of decisions are widely considered and has developed networks.
• Assimilates KPI reports and responds appropriately and in a timely way to manage and implement change. Ability to convert product requirements into technical terms.
• Ability to conduct a technical factory audit, reporting non-conformances and agreeing corrective actions. Will demonstrate a natural tendency towards leadership in a team to achieve results.
• Growing knowledge and willingness to embrace new technologies. Clearly visible & vocal within the BMD team meetings; sign-offs, reviews, order signing etc.
• Excellent negotiation and influencing skills. Ability to initiate and build strong relationships with all suppliers.
• Makes decisions from an informed standpoint, and is confident and assertive, ensuring all decisions are solution-focused. Risk assessment and SWOT analysis skills.
• Ability to line manage, motivate and develop the team.

Knowledge and Experience:

• Previous experience as a Technologist within a major retailer.
• Product specialist in chosen category.
• Minimum level of education or qualifications: Appropriate Technical Qualification / Other degree.