Production Buyer in London

We are looking for a full-time Production Buyer to join our team, with experience buying own-label / own-brand fashion, accessories or home goods directly from manufacturers. Applicants should be self-starting and excited to take on the responsibility of owning this department. The right applicant will have experience both on strategic buy side as well as proof of ability and attention to detail to manage complex projects, and should be motivated by being a big part of the growth of a scale-up brand!

Location: Hybrid - minimum of 1 to 2 days per week in our Central London office

Type: Full-time, permanent (open to part time for the right candidate)

The Flat Lay Co. is a London-based beauty accessories brand founded in 2017 with a mission to transform daily routines through innovative design. Starting with the original Flat Lay Makeup Bag, the brand has grown from a single product to an international business trusted by millions of customers worldwide. Its award-winning designs are stocked by leading retailers such as Boots, Sephora UK, and ASOS, and have been featured in publications including Vogue, Elle, and Sheerluxe. Each product is created in the London studio, focusing on practical, thoughtful solutions that bring organization and calm to everyday beauty routines.

We're an ambitious, collaborative team where great ideas can come from anywhere, and each person's contribution makes a real difference to the business. Everyone has an entrepreneurial mindset, always looking for ways to improve their department and often lending a hand to improve someone else's too. It's a warm, welcoming team that backs each other, and truly an exciting and rewarding place to work.

This is both a strategic buyer role and a production coordination role. You will own the full commercial and operational journey of our products, from factory sourcing and cost negotiation, design specifications and sample procurement, through to manufacture, compliance and collection. You'll work as a part of our design team on new product development from a costing and manufacturability perspective, and also closely with our Supply Chain Manager.

You'll be involved with developing and managing around 7-10 collections of NPD throughout the year, between our own launches and also exclusives or collaborations with retailers or other brands. We often need to adapt and move quickly to meet exciting opportunities that come in, so the critical path is always changing and you'll need to be ready to think creatively on how to meet tight timelines when they come around.

Compliance and quality are core parts of this role. You'll own both end to end, keeping a clear picture at all times of where every product stands on testing and certification, and making sure our factories are delivering the quality standard we require.

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic Buying & Commercial Ownership
  • Own supplier relationships end to end, negotiating cost, payment terms and delivery schedules that improve our margins as we scale.
  • Build genuine commercial partnerships with factories, understanding their business and finding win-win terms rather than simply placing orders.
  • Own component-level cost breakdowns (BOMs) and identify opportunities to improve cost without compromising quality.
  • Source and vet new factories where needed, bringing options and recommendations.
• Production & Critical Path Management
  • Manage the critical path for all production, including new product development, working closely with our design team.
  • Be ready to rework the critical path regularly, and come up with creative ways to meet unexpected deadlines or new opportunities.
  • Organise product and packaging testing for chemical and other compliance in the markets we sell to.
  • Track quality control at our factories, making sure it's being carried out effectively.
  • Track and resolve quality and delivery issues, escalating early and clearly rather than after they've become a retailer-facing problem.
• Compliance & Regulatory Ownership
  • Own product and packaging compliance end to end: coordinate all required testing, and keep an accurate, up to date record of which products are currently compliant and which are due, or overdue, for retesting.
  • Stay current on product, packaging and import/export regulations across our markets, and proactively flag where our products or processes need to change ahead of new requirements.
  • Complete retailer requirements and information requests on product, packaging and regulatory composition.
• Departmental Excellence
  • Continuously review and improve the processes around sourcing, production and compliance tracking, proposing changes where they save cost, reduce risk, or close a gap.
  • Bring well-reasoned proposals for improvement, with a business case where relevant, rather than raising problems without solutions.
  • Build reporting and visibility that lets the wider team understand production status and risk at a glance.

You Are:

• Able to balance both a commercial mindset with attention to detail required to manage production. You think in terms of margin, leverage and supplier relationships, not just purchase orders.
• Someone who takes full, visible ownership of outcomes, including the uncomfortable ones, and never assumes someone else is checking your work.
• Comfortable holding a hard line on compliance and quality even when a deadline is tight or a factory is pushing back.
• A self-starter always looking for a better way of doing something and comfortable proposing it to the team.
• Highly organised, with excellent attention to detail across multiple live projects and stakeholders at once.
• Excited by the idea of full autonomy in a role, in a business where your decisions have a direct, visible impact on whether we succeed.

You Have:

• 5+ years of experience in a buying, sourcing or production role for a consumer product brand, ideally with own-label or private-label experience.
• A track record of negotiating with factories on cost, terms and delivery, not just managing existing supplier relationships.
• Strong working knowledge of product and packaging compliance and regulatory requirements.
• Experience managing quality control and critical path across multiple concurrent product lines.
• Experience and understanding of product and chemical compliance in UK, EU and US markets.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to manage several stakeholders and projects at once.
• Cherry on top: experience sourcing new factories, and exposure to bonded warehousing or international stock strategies.