Apparel Product Developer

A large fashion company are looking for an Apparel Product Developer to join their London team, based in the West End. This role is fully office based and would be ideal for a candidate with a few years' experience in a similar role within the sportswear, activewear, and athleisure industry across both men's and womenswear.

Requirements:

• In-depth knowledge of garment construction techniques with a good understanding of pattern cutting. 
• Experience in technical fabrics and performance garment constructions 
• Experience in dealing with suppliers based in the Far East. 
• Extensive background in fit, fabric development, finishes, and construction details. 
• Experience working on a wholesale business model.  
• Experience in sport accessories development is a plus. 

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Participate in creating the seasonal calendar.  
• Develop the assigned styles/collections in cooperation with Designers, internal teams, and suppliers of approximately 200 SKUS per season.  
• Work on multiple seasons at once across a large collection both men’s and women’s.  
• Source and develop new fabrics seasonally ensuring they are within cost using your knowledge and fabric sheets are completed.  
• Day-to-day factory liaison.  
• Coordinate and monitor all activities regarding the development, approval, and communication of all fabric, trimming, and accessory suppliers.  
• Give clear instructions to the factories and ensure the samples are made to the correct specifications.  
• Be responsible for creating measurements charts, measuring garments for UK and Global teams. 
• Organise and manage fitting session and provide fitting comments to the suppliers from the proto stage till production orders.  
• Contribute to the development process actively by proposing alternative garment execution, to fully optimize garment targets of design, quality, and price.  
• Manage and execute time and action plans and ensure on time delivery of samples in good execution, quality and fit. 
• Ensure on time product finalization and approval prior to bulk order placement.  
• Be responsible for Line list creation and management throughout the season.  
• Be responsible for preparation, maintenance and follow up of all work documents (e.g. tech pack, workbooks, measurements chart, fabric, and trim selection, fitting and sealing comments, etc.). 
• Chase suppliers to submit cost prices and ensure new fabric costing sheets are completed.  
• Be updated with the exchange rates and wholesale pricing to ensure formulas are correct within the line list.  
• Help ensure FOB prices meet targets and required margins.  
• Manage and keep the WIP report updated.  
• Responsible for managing the critical path from initial prototypes through to bulk production managing the timeline strictly to ensure the samples are delivered on time.  
• Send out the PP & shipment samples to the buyers for approval or reference.  
• Investigating and resolving QC issues if any arises.  
• Sample management, housekeeping of samples and submissions/filing in the office.  
• Attend photo shoots for sales and lookbook organising samples at the photo studio. Also sharing the WIP report to ensure all samples are received for photo shoots on orders.  
• Arrange DHL sending samples to be sent to agents, licences, customers, and the brand owner. 

The scope of the roles and responsibilities may expand or be varied dependent on the needs of the Company’s business to adapt to changing market conditions.