Material Production

Role: Material Production

Team: Material Production

Scope: Individual contributor

Years of Experience: 2+

Location: Ventura, CA

Patagonia’s Material Production team is responsible for building and maintaining vendor relationships, negotiating raw material costs (fabrics and trims), minimum orders, lead times, capacity, and ensuring that sufficient materials are reserved to support Patagonia’s monthly production plans. In conjunction with Supply Planners and Sourcing and Production Managers, you will confirm the seasonal capacity plans with material suppliers to support Patagonia’s production and delivery goals.  You will work closely with Material Development and Production to develop the most effective costing strategies for raw materials each season. You lead the efforts in material consolidation, capacity plan monitoring, and delivery and quality performance of material suppliers. In addition, you will work closely with Material Development and SER in the training and on-boarding process for new suppliers, as well as in the exiting process for existing suppliers.  

What You’ll Do

• Take responsibility for day-to-day communication with Patagonia’s suppliers, provide detailed assistance, and work through any issues suppliers may have.
• Actively work with Production and Material Development to develop raw material costing strategies.
• Negotiate raw materials costs, minimum orders, lead-times, and capacity with suppliers.
• Work cross-functionally to ensure Departmental Calendar Milestones are achieved and executed on-time.
• Upon Bill of Materials (BOM) completion and forecasting deadlines each season, identify and assess raw material or supplier capacity limitations.  Partner with Supply Planning to build and maintain monthly forecast plans that incorporate supplier capacity criteria.
• Actively work with Product Line Directors, Material and Product Development, and Sourcing Managers to develop alternative plans for specific materials and/or suppliers that have insufficient capacity to support the season’s forecast and anticipated growth.
• Prior to the bulk production timeline, build and maintain seasonal greige plans to support the finished goods forecast, working within confirmed capacity agreements by material and/or supplier.
• Prior to sales sample material reservations and the first buy of each season, partner with Material Development to ensure that raw materials are commercially ready and in approved production status.
• Support Sales Sample Team to ensure that sample yardage is reserved and delivered on time.
• Actively work with Sourcing and Production Managers to support the bulk production supply plan with on-time delivery of materials within confirmed lead times.  Help resolve supplier delivery performance issues to ensure agreed lead-time is adhered to in sales sample and bulk production.
• Work with Product Development to ensure that BOMs reflect accurate yields.
• Maintain open and frequent communication with Patagonia’s Material Development, Production, Product Development, Textile Design, Color, Material Quality, Supply Planning, and Product Line Management teams on issues related to raw material costing, quality, capacity, delivery, and supplier performance.
• Act as a liaison between raw material suppliers and garment factories when there are disputes over issues that fall outside of the normal scope of business. 
• Monitor, mediate, and direct communication between the suppliers and Patagonia’s Quality and Production teams when issues are discovered after fabrics arrive at garment factories, to ensure that problems are resolved promptly and those on-specification replacement materials are delivered to minimize delays in garment production and delivery. 

Who You Are

• Passionate: about material logistics and saving our home planet
• Team player: comfortable within a team-based work structure
• Adaptable: able to work in a dynamic environment
• Resilient: composed while working through change management
• Motivated: demonstrating initiative on projects
• Conscientious and organized: providing complete follow-through on all levels of responsibility
• Strategic: with the ability to streamline and continually improve processes

Experience You Bring

• B.A. / B.S. degree required
• Experience working in the apparel industry, with a preference for experience in material planning, production planning, accounting, or data analysis
• Advanced proficiency in Excel, PLM systems, Word, PowerPoint, and database systems, with Alteryx experience a plus
• Strong customer service and communication skills, including an ability to write clearly and persuasively in addition to defining problems and articulating solutions within a group setting and via emails

Employee Conduct

It is the responsibility of every employee to contribute to a positive, inclusive work environment through cooperative and professional interactions with co-workers, customers and vendors.

Equal Employment Opportunity

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other factors prohibited by law.