Associate Manager, Sourcing Development, Footwear

Role & Responsibilities:

Position Definition (Key Purpose of the Position): 

• This role is responsible for managing the relationship with VF FTW factories in the assigned factory by focusing on adherence to quality standards, on time performance, automation and manufacturing efficiency during development while ensuring compliance with VF Responsible Sourcing principles.

• Become integrated into every aspect of assigned partnered factories. Lead the execution of VF Product strategic initiatives in the nominated factory with special emphasis on ensuring compliance with Brand SOP and “on-time performance” obligations are being met.

• Lead and develop his/her direct reports under the guidance of VF Guiding Principles. Embrace and foster One VF culture in every interaction with his/her direct reports, internal stakeholders and cross-functional Teams.

• Ensure quality of development samples and meet milestone dates according to the published product creation calendar

• Openly seeks and adopts ideas that help create improved business outcomes and customer experiences willing to take challenges and stretch projects that benefit business objectives

• Effectively implements work plan s with regular monitoring against the direction and prioritize s actions with the team

• Maintain and track the commercialization timeline and additional reporting needs, and share out with FTW Functional Teams

• Ensures VF CSR standards are being maintained and continually elevated for the betterment of people and the planet.

Key Result Areas:

• Support to manage the daily activities and routines in the assigned factories.

• Supervise and evaluate the competencies of team members under his/her structure regularly and provides prompt feedback and guidance to drive high performance and improvement.

• Work closely with Global Supply Planning to validate product allocation, enable OTP in Comm to ensure factory capacity booking and production plans to ensure that they are viable and realistic.

• Verify the execution of T2 trials to ensure Brand standards and requirements for the engineering and manufacturing of footwear.

• Manage all Commercialization related activities within his/her assigned factories to ensure adherence to SOP and that “on-time performance” obligations are being met.

• Work independently and have strong communication skills to deal with all departments within VF, including Global Material Supply, Regional Office, and VF QA along with factory

Product Development / Commercialization:

• Manage the development process with Tier 1 and Tier 2 vendors across prototype, line close, salesman samples, Tech 1 confirmation samples and SMU requests, ending with Tech 2 confirmation.

• Partner with cross functional teams including Costing, Global Supply Planning, QM and Global Material Supply to meet strategic objectives.

• Manage and support continuous improvement projects for Development and Commercialization activities

• Work closely with and develop meaningful relationships with the vendors and factories to adapt and communicate our strategies to deliver top quality product that meets VF’s and customers’ performance requirements.                                                                                      
• Maintain strong connectivity with Brands daily to meet product creation calendar stage gates and milestones.

Pre-production / Production:

• Associate to support activities where needed

Competency Requirements:

Behavioral Competencies

• Executes business strategy and vision
• An advocate of change initiated by leaders by role modelling and assisting team members to embed the changes required
• Be accountable for delivering consistently high-quality output from the team within personal domain. Possesses thorough understanding and curiosity of the operational activities, measures and initiates timely improvement actions
• Actively anticipates challenges and actions solutions without prompting
• Possesses deep functional subject matter knowledge to guide the team in a day-to-day, meticulous manner
• Effectively breaks down complicated information into logical points, clearly conveying messages to influence and persuade within the team
• Provides team members with timely, constructive feedback and coaching
• Understands immediate team’s career aspirations, strengths, areas for development and leverages the resources available to support their growth
• Supports continuous learning
• Ensures effective internal and external communication
•   Works to build stakeholders’ confidence by communicating progress of work and related issues. Identifies the development areas for collaboration, related to efficiency and effectiveness.

Functional Competencies

• Effective interpersonal and communication skills, ability to lead and manage a team across multiple locations

Experience

• Minimum Relevant Experience: Production Management experience in footwear or related field with a multinational company

• Minimum Supervisory Experience: Management experience including leading, coaching, mentoring, and building effective team within a department

Academic Qualifications

• Minimum Degree Held: University Degree, Bachelor level
• Subject Expert In: Strong technical background and knowledgeable in all footwear constructions, footwear engineering and mold making. Possesses deep functional subject matter knowledge. Be able to guide the team in a day-to-day, meticulous manner

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