Head Of Sourcing Strategy

In short

This role's mission is to bridge the gap between global sourcing and product development, ensuring sourcing is a strategic enabler from the outset. By fostering strong partnerships across Innovation, Creation, Quality, Supply Chain, and Sustainability teams, you'll drive a learning culture that enhances quality and on-time delivery. Ultimately, your success hinges on delivering a sourcing roadmap that enables the flawless execution of our product portfolio, balancing cost, quality, and delivery objectives.

Your Mission

• Strategic Alignment: Drive close collaboration between the sourcing organization (primarily based in Vietnam) and the wider product organization (based in Switzerland)
• Integrate Sourcing Considerations: Ensure sourcing requirements are strategically embedded into the product roadmap, enabling all projects to be fully ‘sourcing ready’ by the time of product freeze
• Stakeholder Management: Act as a strategic partner across cross-functional teams including Innovation, Creation, Quality, Supply Chain, and Sustainability
• Learning Culture: Embed a ‘learning culture & process’ within our product development process to structurally enhance quality & on-time delivery
• Portfolio Execution: Deliver a sourcing roadmap that supports flawless execution of the product portfolio, balancing cost, quality, and delivery objectives

Your story

• 8+ years of progressive experience in strategic footwear sourcing, production operations (apparel & accessories experience is a plus)
• Product Development Acumen - strong understanding of the product development lifecycle, from concept to commercialization, with a specific emphasis on the points of integration for sourcing, experience across upstream product strategy, innovation, product creation, and quality management
• Strong ability to ‘connect the dots’ across functions, ability to navigate ambiguity and adapt to changing priorities
• Strong leadership skills to manage a portfolio of cross-functional projects
• Strategic Thinking & Execution - proven ability to translate strategic objectives into actionable plans and drive their successful execution within a complex organizational structure
• Cross-cultural Collaboration - experience working in a global organization, demonstrated experience in fostering effective collaboration between geographically dispersed teams (e.g., Europe and Asia)
• Stakeholder Management - exceptional ability to build and maintain strong relationships with diverse internal stakeholders at all levels, influencing outcomes and driving consensus
• Continuous Improvement Mindset - experience in implementing continuous improvement methodologies and fostering a learning-oriented environment
• Analytical & Problem-Solving Skills - strong analytical capabilities to evaluate complex trade-offs (cost, quality, delivery) and develop effective solutions, strong ability to synthesize, structure & simplify complex problems
• Excellents Communication Skills - ability to articulate complex ideas clearly and persuasively to various audiences; engaging, influencing and aligning with senior leaders

What to expect

We want to set everyone up for success, so here’s the lowdown on how we hire. Our process is a two-way street – bringing you into our culture, while helping us learn how you think.

Our full process can last about eight weeks from application to offer, because we care about getting it right. These steps explain how we usually do things.

Before you get started, feel free to consider if you want to work with us. Strange question? Well, we give people a lot of space to navigate their day-to-day and that style isn't for everyone. We want you to be passionate about what you do and be sure this is the right fit. Because when skills and passion combine – it creates that 'Wow' moment.

• Step One

  It starts with you...

  You'll start by submitting your application to a specific role. We try to keep this step as simple as possible. We do get a lot of applications, but we review them all. We ask that you allow around 14 days for us to come back to you with a response. If you are a good fit to the role, someone will follow up with you within that window. If you didn't receive a reply, or were unsuccessful this time around, we encourage you to look for other possible matches at On.

• Step Two

  Interview with a recruiter

  What ignites your spirit? This is where we’ll start getting to know all about you and what makes you tick – and it’s your first chance to get a feel for our culture. Chatting with a member of our talent team, you’ll learn more about On and how we work. We’ll learn about what motivates you and what you could bring to the team.

• Step Three

  Interview with a hiring manager

  Ready to dig into the details? This second interview will be held with your future manager and will focus on the specifics of the job. Together you’ll delve into your unique skills and experiences and how they could be relevant at On. It's also a time to assess how you might feel working side-by-side. Bring any questions you have about the job, the team or anything else you might like to know – this is an open forum.

• Step Four

  The Case Study

  What's your style? This task will help us understand how you think, face a challenge and give insight into your novel ideas. Designed to give everyone their best shot, your case study is based on something you might typically experience on the job. This is your chance to show us what you’ve got. So express yourself. Be you.

• Step Five

  The Experience Day

  Your first taste of the Oniverse. This is a time to meet some of the people you'll be working closest with. In person or virtually, you'll get a feel for the day-to-day at On and the people who make it happen. You'll chat with a few potential teammates - the conversations will be as equally driven by the role and your experience as by our values. We believe how you do things is just as important as what you do.

• Step Six

  The Result

  Are we a good fit? We’ll get together internally to share our feedback and decide if we’re a match. We know that job searching is a big time investment, so it’s not a decision we take lightly. It’s also time for you to reflect on the experience – are we the right place for you? No matter the outcome, we’ll give you meaningful feedback.

Step One:

It starts with you...

You'll start by submitting your application to a specific role.

We try to keep this step as simple as possible. We do get a lot of applications, but we review them all. We ask that you allow around 14 days for us to come back to you with a response. If you are a good fit to the role, someone will follow up with you within that window. If you didn't receive a reply, or were unsuccessful this time around, we encourage you to look for other possible matches at On.