Wholesale Sourcing Director

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.

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.

· 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