SWIM USA is a family owned and operated swimwear company established in 1936. We are a global industry leader in the design, manufacture, and marketing of branded, licensed, and private label swimwear. We are seeking a dynamic Associate Raw Material Manager to join our team.
Job Summary
Partners with Sales, Design and Product Managers to develop/source fabric to execute the aesthetic expectations, appearance, hand feel and finish, as well as price point, quality, and testing requirements for each designated brand and division.
Primary Duties and Responsibilities
- Manage fabric development process, ensuring daily communication and deadlines are met for all developments and/or sourcing projects.
- Collaborate with manager to establish seasonal sourcing strategies. Work with mill partners and internal global sourcing team to effectively execute the plan.
- Establish close relationships with design team to understand and execute design intent for all developments. Determine needs for each development to ensure effective direction to the mills.
- Evaluate fabric submits against all required parameters for aesthetics, price, lead time, and physical properties.
- Request and assess raw material FDS for complete and accurate information.
- Responsible for creating and maintaining accurate and up-to-date seasonal development charts.
- Review and record development adoption ratios at the close of each season.
- Attend weekly CFT meetings and clearly communicate with various audience members on status of developments.
- Work closely with CFT partners to proactively identify potential material risks in development stage and arrange appropriate testing. Communicate results and potential solutions to internal partners. Provide support as need on bulk issues.
- Attend fabric trade shows and meet with core suppliers for new and existing raw materials.
- Contribute to ongoing Trend, Concept and Sustainability initiatives.
- Maintain fabric data entry and updates to internal PLM systems.
- Help to maintain and organize physical and digital fabric library and archive brand records.
- Support office maintenance and regular clean up of available storage and working spaces.
- Prep for design, sales and customer facing meetings via racks, binders, boards, etc. anything related to raw materials for presentation purposes.
- Send out and receive daily packages from global raw material office and/or mill partners.
- Support trim sourcing/development and tracking as needed.
- Provide support on special projects as needed.
Qualifications/Requirements
Education: College degree preferred; or relevant experience required
Experience: Minimum of 3-7 years’ experience (in fabric).
Skills: PLM, MS Office, Excel expert is a plus
Travel: as required
Working Conditions: Hybrid /office
Physical Demands: Must be able to stand, sit, and walk 8 hours/day.
Salary range based on experience - $75,000 to $80,000 per year.
Note: Manager reserves the right to modify job description base on business needs