Wholesale Sourcing Director
Aeropostale, New York, NY, United States
Overview
The Wholesale Production Director leads end-to-end production strategy and execution for the company’s wholesale business. This role is responsible for managing vendor partnerships, cost negotiations, production calendars, quality standards, and on-time delivery to wholesale partners while protecting margin and supporting brand standards.
Responsibilities Team Leadership & Organizational Management
Direct Leadership: Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing sourcing team, managing workload allocation and professional growth.
Operational Agility: Maintain business continuity by providing high-level coverage for Senior Product Manager/Product Manager duties during peak seasons or staffing gaps.
Strategic Initiatives: Spearhead specialized sourcing and product development projects that align with enterprise-wide business priorities and drive continuous process improvement.
Ensure organizational resilience through succession planning and scalable team structures.
Product Lifecycle & Process Engineering
End-to-End Ownership: Orchestrate the full product lifecycle from initial concept through production execution in collaboration with Sales, Merchandising, Planning, and Design.
Process Standardization: Establish and enforce product development requirements and workflows for both internal teams and external vendors.
Calendar Management: Synchronize complex production calendars across diverse brands, channels, and categories (e.g., Club vs. Discounter cycles), ensuring tailored Time & Action for every program.
Sourcing Strategy & Vendor Relations
Strategic Allocation: Oversee sampling and counter-sourcing strategies, optimizing for Country of Origin (COO), vendor core competencies, and landed cost.
Vendor relations: Schedule in-office and virtual appointments with new and existing vendors to build business relationships. Follow up on next steps after appointments on development and cost.
Global Footprint Management: Drive vendor and mill consolidation strategies, including COO risk management, performance recaps, and continuous improvement plans.
Supply Chain Integration: Partner with Demand Planning to align vendor capabilities with seasonal product strategies and long-term capacity planning.
Ensure adherence to retailer routing guides, labeling standards, ticketing, and EDI requirements; actively manage compliance performance to minimize chargebacks and penalties.
Develop agile sourcing strategies to support reorder and chase programs, including greige goods positioning and quick-turn vendor capabilities.
Partner with Sales and Merchandising pre-market to validate costing, capacity feasibility, and margin targets prior to account commitment.
Lead proactive risk management across vendor portfolio, including country diversification, tariff mitigation, and contingency production planning.
Costing, Quality & Fabric Development
Financial Stewardship: Direct all costing negotiations to drive competitive pricing and identify cost-saving opportunities that consistently meet or exceed margin targets.
Fabric Innovation: Strategically manage fabric counter-development; leverage existing approved mills from mainline collections to increase efficiency and speed-to-market.
Data Analytics: Maintain comprehensive historical records of fabric utilization to inform year-over-year material strategies.
Product Integrity: Collaborate with Quality Assurance (QA) to proactively resolve factory-level issues, ensuring high product standards and minimizing future quality risks.
Develop channel-specific margin architecture, balancing IMU targets, retailer pricing ladders, and cost-engineering strategies to protect profitability across wholesale accounts.
Production & Logistics Oversight
Execution & Fulfillment: Manage the bulk order lifecycle, monitoring raw material/trim deliveries and factory production to ensure on-time shipping and QA compliance.
Maintain sourcing standards & approvals: Manage manuals, testing/compliance, and inspection processes.
Crisis Mitigation: Lead the resolution of delivery delays by negotiating with vendors and international teams to minimize lead-time impact and presenting viable solutions to business stakeholders.
Core Competencies Communication, organizing work, strong understanding of international manufacturing, material, fabric and/or garment construction, and possess personal strengths in negotiating strategy and analytical skills.
Qualifications
10+ years of production/sourcing experience within a retail or wholesale environment
5+ years of leadership experience managing production teams
Knowledge of Clubs (Costco, Sam’s BJ’s) & Discounters business is required
Strong vendor negotiation and cost management expertise
Deep understanding of global manufacturing (Asia, Central America, domestic production, etc.)
Experience working with major wholesale accounts and their compliance requirements
Knowledge of ERP/PLM systems
Strong analytical and financial acumen
Pay Range USD $128,700.00 - USD $234,000.00 /Yr.
#J-18808-Ljbffr
The Wholesale Production Director leads end-to-end production strategy and execution for the company’s wholesale business. This role is responsible for managing vendor partnerships, cost negotiations, production calendars, quality standards, and on-time delivery to wholesale partners while protecting margin and supporting brand standards.
Responsibilities Team Leadership & Organizational Management
Direct Leadership: Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing sourcing team, managing workload allocation and professional growth.
Operational Agility: Maintain business continuity by providing high-level coverage for Senior Product Manager/Product Manager duties during peak seasons or staffing gaps.
Strategic Initiatives: Spearhead specialized sourcing and product development projects that align with enterprise-wide business priorities and drive continuous process improvement.
Ensure organizational resilience through succession planning and scalable team structures.
Product Lifecycle & Process Engineering
End-to-End Ownership: Orchestrate the full product lifecycle from initial concept through production execution in collaboration with Sales, Merchandising, Planning, and Design.
Process Standardization: Establish and enforce product development requirements and workflows for both internal teams and external vendors.
Calendar Management: Synchronize complex production calendars across diverse brands, channels, and categories (e.g., Club vs. Discounter cycles), ensuring tailored Time & Action for every program.
Sourcing Strategy & Vendor Relations
Strategic Allocation: Oversee sampling and counter-sourcing strategies, optimizing for Country of Origin (COO), vendor core competencies, and landed cost.
Vendor relations: Schedule in-office and virtual appointments with new and existing vendors to build business relationships. Follow up on next steps after appointments on development and cost.
Global Footprint Management: Drive vendor and mill consolidation strategies, including COO risk management, performance recaps, and continuous improvement plans.
Supply Chain Integration: Partner with Demand Planning to align vendor capabilities with seasonal product strategies and long-term capacity planning.
Ensure adherence to retailer routing guides, labeling standards, ticketing, and EDI requirements; actively manage compliance performance to minimize chargebacks and penalties.
Develop agile sourcing strategies to support reorder and chase programs, including greige goods positioning and quick-turn vendor capabilities.
Partner with Sales and Merchandising pre-market to validate costing, capacity feasibility, and margin targets prior to account commitment.
Lead proactive risk management across vendor portfolio, including country diversification, tariff mitigation, and contingency production planning.
Costing, Quality & Fabric Development
Financial Stewardship: Direct all costing negotiations to drive competitive pricing and identify cost-saving opportunities that consistently meet or exceed margin targets.
Fabric Innovation: Strategically manage fabric counter-development; leverage existing approved mills from mainline collections to increase efficiency and speed-to-market.
Data Analytics: Maintain comprehensive historical records of fabric utilization to inform year-over-year material strategies.
Product Integrity: Collaborate with Quality Assurance (QA) to proactively resolve factory-level issues, ensuring high product standards and minimizing future quality risks.
Develop channel-specific margin architecture, balancing IMU targets, retailer pricing ladders, and cost-engineering strategies to protect profitability across wholesale accounts.
Production & Logistics Oversight
Execution & Fulfillment: Manage the bulk order lifecycle, monitoring raw material/trim deliveries and factory production to ensure on-time shipping and QA compliance.
Maintain sourcing standards & approvals: Manage manuals, testing/compliance, and inspection processes.
Crisis Mitigation: Lead the resolution of delivery delays by negotiating with vendors and international teams to minimize lead-time impact and presenting viable solutions to business stakeholders.
Core Competencies Communication, organizing work, strong understanding of international manufacturing, material, fabric and/or garment construction, and possess personal strengths in negotiating strategy and analytical skills.
Qualifications
10+ years of production/sourcing experience within a retail or wholesale environment
5+ years of leadership experience managing production teams
Knowledge of Clubs (Costco, Sam’s BJ’s) & Discounters business is required
Strong vendor negotiation and cost management expertise
Deep understanding of global manufacturing (Asia, Central America, domestic production, etc.)
Experience working with major wholesale accounts and their compliance requirements
Knowledge of ERP/PLM systems
Strong analytical and financial acumen
Pay Range USD $128,700.00 - USD $234,000.00 /Yr.
#J-18808-Ljbffr