Senior Lead - Footwear Material Sourcing

In short

• The Footwear Material Lead plays a pivotal role in ensuring that sourcing strategies align with business needs for all material categories. Reporting to the Head of Footwear Material Sourcing based in HCMC, this role focuses on fostering strong supplier relationships, ensuring supplier performance, and upholding the highest standards of quality, sustainability, and ethical sourcing. In addition, the Footwear Material Lead will drive process optimization and cross-functional collaboration to support product creation and manufacturing excellence.

Your Mission

• Lead and inspire a high-performing team of material sourcing specialists while nurturing people skills and cultivating a positive team environment

• Build and maintain robust relationships with material suppliers, ensuring alignment with sourcing strategies, operations, quality, and sustainability goals

• Partner with suppliers to drive efficiencies and optimize costs; while actively evaluating supplier performance to ensure continuous improvement

• Spearhead team in cross-functional collaborations to proactively address perceived risks, pre-production and production challenges and put in place contingencies to ensure brand delivery expectations are met

• Develop comprehensive reports and actionable strategic recommendations to drive material consolidation initiatives, enhance key performance indicators (KPIs) for improved efficiency, reduce lead times, and to ensure a resilient supply base that upholds quality standards and on-time delivery

• Own material-related execution from concept through production, ensuring smooth integration between T2 suppliers and T1 factories.

• Oversee rigorous material testing processes and collaborate with cross-functional teams to address material-related issues and implement corrective measures

• Drive material sustainability initiatives and partner with sustainability teams to set goals, track progress, and contribute to sustainability reporting

• Research and analyze market insights, stay abreast of material science advancements, emerging technologies, and market trends of innovative materials.

• Perform other duty as required/assigned

Your story

• Bachelor’s degree in Textile Engineering, Footwear Technology, Material Science, or a related field.

• 5+ years of experience in the global footwear industry or a related field.

• Strong experience working with material suppliers and manufacturing partners in Asia.

• Good understanding of footwear design, development, and technical performance materials.

• Strong knowledge of textiles, yarns, constructions, polymers, and material testing requirements.

• Experience managing material development and sourcing from concept to commercialization.

• Strong project management and cross-functional communication skills.

• Able to work independently in a fast-paced, international environment.

• Fluent in English; Mandarin is a plus.

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. If you're a good fit to the role, a recruiter will follow up with you directly. 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. If you're a good fit to the role, a recruiter will follow up with you directly. If you didn't receive a reply, or were unsuccessful this time around, we encourage you to look for other possible matches at On.