Manager, Product Development and Sourcing
Hamilton, Ontario | Hybrid
Full Time
About Cakeworthy
Cakeworthy is a pop culture and fandom-inspired apparel and accessories brand known for creating officially licensed collections that celebrate the stories and characters people love. We partner with major entertainment brands and retailers to bring unique products to fans across North America.
We're looking for an experienced sales professional to help expand our wholesale and corporate partnerships, identify new business opportunities, and drive revenue growth.
The Role
We are seeking an experienced Product Development and Sourcing Manager to identify, qualify, and manage overseas manufacturing partners. This role will oversee factory relationships from initial sourcing and costing through sampling, production, quality control, and shipment.
The successful candidate will have strong experience working with overseas manufacturers and be able to ensure products are delivered at the required cost, quality, and timeline.
Key Responsibilities
- Research and identify qualified factories for apparel, accessories, bags, headwear, home goods, plush, and other consumer products.
- Evaluate factories based on capability, pricing, quality, capacity, lead times, communication, and compliance.
- Onboard new factories and maintain a reliable, diversified supplier network.
- Negotiate pricing, minimum order quantities, payment terms, lead times, and production capacity.
- Compare quotations and identify opportunities to improve product costs and margins.
- Serve as the primary point of contact for assigned factories.
- Manage product sampling from initial development through pre-production and production approval.
- Ensure factories follow approved specifications, materials, colours, artwork, packaging, and construction requirements.
- Manage production calendars and track all purchase orders through production and shipment.
- Monitor factory capacity, material ordering, production progress, inspections, and completion dates.
- Proactively identify delays, quality concerns, and production risks and develop recovery plans.
- Maintain factory scorecards covering cost, quality, delivery, communication, capacity, and compliance.
- Ensure factories maintain required audits, certifications, testing, and social-compliance documentation.
- Verify the accuracy of packing lists, carton markings, quantities, invoices, and shipping documents.
- Provide internal teams with accurate production updates and promptly communicate risks or delays.
Qualifications
- Five or more years of experience in factory sourcing, overseas production, or supplier management.
- Experience with apparel, fashion accessories, bags, headwear, home goods, plush and/or consumer products is strongly preferred.
- Strong understanding of costing, sampling, production processes, quality control, and shipping documentation.
- Proven ability to evaluate, negotiate with, and onboard new factories.
- Experience managing multiple factories, product categories, and production timelines.
- Knowledge of factory audits, social compliance, product testing, and ethical manufacturing requirements.
- Strong negotiation, problem-solving, organizational, and communication skills.
- Proficiency in Microsoft and Google suite.
Pay: $80,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Casual dress
- Discounted or free food
- On-site parking
- Paid time off
- Store discount
- Work from home
Application question(s):
- Do you have five or more years of experience in factory sourcing, overseas production, or supplier management?
- Do you have experience with apparel, fashion accessories, bags, headwear, home goods, plush and/or consumer product sourcing?
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Hamilton, ON (Hamilton District)
