Contract Apparel Designer

Position Summary

The Designer is a hands-on creative contributor responsible for supporting apparel, graphic, promotional, and related business design needs while helping coordinate the day-to-day flow of work across the design function. This role operates as a player-coach, balancing direct design execution with intake coordination, prioritization, and delegation of production work so the business receives timely, accurate, and high-quality creative support during a team member's maternity leave.

Timing: Estimated start date of mid-late September - until early 2027.

Key Responsibilities

• Execute apparel, graphic, and related design work in support of customer programs and internal business needs.
• Serve as the first point of coordination for incoming design requests, special projects, and day-to-day creative needs.
• Review incoming work and assign tasks based on project type, urgency, complexity, and available resources.
• Provide day-to-day work direction to the offshore design resource for production proofs, revisions, and overflow graphic work.
• Monitor workflow and queue status in Facilis/Syncore and help ensure proof requests move through the system on time.
• Maintain quality control over creative output, file accuracy, branding consistency, and production readiness.
• Communicate proactively with internal stakeholders regarding status, priorities, capacity constraints, and timing changes.
• Partner with the e-commerce specialist as needed on graphics support while preserving e-commerce and website build priorities.
• Identify process improvements related to intake, handoffs, file management, templates, and workflow visibility.
• Escalate priority conflicts, quality issues, or bandwidth concerns to leadership in a timely manner.

Qualifications

• Experience in apparel, graphic, production, or related design work.
• Strong working knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite, especially Illustrator and Photoshop.
• Ability to manage multiple requests and changing priorities in a deadline-driven environment.
• Strong organization, attention to detail, and file discipline.
• Positive attitude, coachability, and willingness to grow into broader responsibility.
• Clear communication skills and comfort coordinating work across internal and external resources.

Success Measures

• Timely triage and assignment of incoming design requests.
• Proof queue turnaround time and backlog management.
• Accuracy and quality of production-ready files.
• Responsiveness to internal stakeholders and clear communication on timing.
• Effective use of offshore support to increase team capacity without sacrificing quality.
• Progress in strengthening design process consistency and workflow visibility.