Product Development Associate, Footwear & Raw Materials

Rag & Bone • New York, NY

108d • $70,000 - $80,000

About The Position

rag & bone is currently looking for a Product Development Associate, Footwear. In this critical role, the PD Associate will play a key role in making our design team’s footwear concepts come to life through a strong understanding of footwear from construction to materials and the ability to communicate efficiently with factories to make it happen. This person will support all product and sourcing functions from initial creation into final SMS approval. This role will collaborate daily with Design, Merchandising and Production to ensure all product information, deadlines and quality standards are being met.

Requirements

• Minimum 3 years experience in Footwear Product Development or Raw Material Sourcing for leathergoods
• Highly organized and able to work in a fast paced environment
• Able to effectively manage competing priorities with tight deadlines
• Excellent communication and follow up skills
• Driven and solution-oriented with new and challenging projects

Responsibilities

• Developing Samples
• Manage WIP files daily for prototypes, material trials and approvals, and SMS
• Manage Specs from SMS into Production, ensuring all information is accurate at all times
• Monitor SKU counts by category and update each sample round
• Participate in proto and SMS Fittings
• Recap Merchandising and Production on any Design/construction changes from SMS into production
• Attend cross functional meetings to ensure any changes to product are addressed in a timely manner
• Responsible for sample tracking and communicating delivery status to cross functional teams
• Participate in product reviews and note changes in design, material or cost
• Call out any product concerns to Merch and Design during development and production stage
• Manage Seasonal Product Knowledge for Market Wedge & E-commerce
• Responsible for developing and sourcing all raw materials, development through to production, including leather, textiles and trims
• Own daily communication with material suppliers
• Manage seasonal color standards and approvals from proto into production
• Prepare and own sending all color masters out to factories and suppliers
• Own organization of seasonal material books and ensuring references of all sample materials are received
• Order seasonal pantones
• Coordinate materials for trials and prototypes
• Own compiling all LDS/FDS info from suppliers and relaying to factories in a timely manner
• Counter source any materials that are out of price/moq targets
• Evaluate suppliers based on specialty, cost, quality, leadtimes and conduct cost exercises
• Pre-book sample materials for SMS and follow through on quality and color approvals into production
• Manage timeline for materials including when factories need materials on hand to meet sample/production deadlines
• Track certifications on all materials where applicable
• Meet with existing and new suppliers for research and development purposes
• Own maintaining material library and keep organized weekly with assistance from team and interns
• Ongoing research of new competitive suppliers for costing and quality
• Keep track of all sample liabilities
• Ensure swatches and quantities are up to date each season
• Code all Footwear sample and material invoices in Medius Flow and ensure invoices are submitted and paid on time.

Benefits

• Paid Time Off
• Clothing Allowance
• Generous Employee Discount
• Paid Parental Leave
• Membership to Calm and access to other wellness benefits
• Medical, dental, vision and ancillary benefits
• 401k

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level