Footwear Product Engineer (12-Month Contractor)

GENERAL FUNCTION:
The Product Operations function at WWW owns end to end operations from product development through commercialization and production. The regional organization will be the key interface to the brand product teams on the sourcing strategy & allocation, aligning factory capabilities with the product categories and performance needs as well as ensuring the right products are placed at the right factories. The team will take product brief to box from each brand and ensure the product is on time, at cost, and to the highest level of quality through the various development cycles and into commercialization and bulk production. The Product Operations organization is accountable for ensuring the products are engineered with the design to cost, manufacturability, and efficiency (PPH) approach to enable factories in maximizing the value to the brands. This team will also be responsible for production output in terms of pairs produced per day that aligns with the commitments made by the factories.
KEY RESPONSIBLITIES
· Make the very Best branded product which meets or beats brand target costs, designed for manufacturing, engineered for PPH, with end to end ownership from product development through commercialization and first production.
· Be the 1 brand, 1 factory contact onsite ensuring high level of responsibility and ownership of all product designated by the Product Operations Manager.
· Ensure all designated workload is completed on time throughout the development through complete commercialization process at a single factory level and drive onsite process improvements.
· Ship samples on time, according to brand target costs, to the highest level of quality.
· Communicates with the factory, brand and company leadership, as well as Asia based counterparts in a timely manner.
· On site decision maker for the brand and works with Product Operations Manager to ensure all issues are socialized and addressed early on in the process.
Development / Commercialization:
- Responsible for all Development and Commercialization related responsibilities on designated workload in a brand at one factory cell and/or clusters associated with that factory group.
- Ensure his/her workload is maintained in a timely manner End 2 End process with a focus on Design to Cost, Design to Manufacturing, Design to Engineering, and to meet and beat PPH targets.
- Working with Product Operations Manager, ensure all designated model SOP's are up to date with regard to engineering, Design for "X", cost, and overall manufacturability.
- Partner with the costing and planning teams to ensure that each seasonal model can produced on time for Buy Readiness and ensure the workload is balance.
- Review, maintain, and execute the product according to the necessary brand specific timelines partnering with all necessary stakeholders in the process (i.e. Quality team in product teardowns, costing reviewing the current factory FOB).
- Seasonal product is developed and commercialized on time within the brand unit in a cell and has all necessary information within the PLM system updated and uploaded in a timely manner.
- Update the factory capability matrix to ensure that the product allocation process is current and model by model construction categorization is maintained within a specific factory group.
Production:
- Develop and align strategy with QA leadership to ensure that production footwear meets the highest brand quality standards.
- Review SOP's which are implemented at the Pre-production stage are verified and validated for each new strategic model alongside best in class processes.
- Review T4 timelines to ensure all product is on time and all issues resolved within the development and commercialization areas of the product creation timelines.