Timberland: Senior Manager - Quality

What will you do?

As the Sr. Manager, Quality Management for Timberland, you will uphold the quality and brand standards, while exercising a thorough understanding of Quality Assurance protocols. You will use data to identify and lead quality improvement initiatives. You will also serve as the first point of contact for all bulk production and market issues.  You are a leader and a brand ambassador; responsible for partnering directly with sourcing offices, vendors, product development, and cross functional departments across the business to quickly resolve and mitigate any quality concerns.

Partner with Product Development and technical teams to implement and execute new policies, procedures and standards to deliver high quality product and improve efficiency.  Help to employ metrics, analytics and KPIs to improve operations and optimize processes across the business process.  Play a critical role in a cross functional and diverse product environment.  Actively provide input on overall strategy formulation, demonstrating good business acumen that improves processes and delivers positive results. 

Let’s break down that day-in-the-life a bit more.

• Production Quality Issues & Customer Complaints:
• Responsible for all Timberland Product Globally: Footwear, Apparel, and Accessories
• Main point of contact between VF Quality Organization and Timberland. Provide support from a Product Development perspective in terms of validating Consumer Complaints versus confirmation specs and shoes. Quantify deviations from Timberland’s Standards, and support the Product Developers as needed.
• Manage Investigations, Root Cause Analysis, and Corrective Action Plans on Issues raised by All regions.  This Quality Expert role will be the conduit between the Regions, Development, Testing, Engineering, Technical Development, Sourcing, and Global Quality to provide root cause analysis for the PD and/or Production teams.

Development Quality / Production Alignment:

• Sit in ISR/FSR Initial & Final Season Review) Tear Down meetings with development and engineering to have full visibility of the line and determine Critical Points of Attention to address with the production teams. Handle creating acceptable ranges of production variation for sign off with Development and Engineering.  Facilitate clear standards, working with Sourcing, T1 and T2 factories, and Raw Material Quality Teams on determining clear guidance on acceptability.   Add clarity to ambiguous situations and product variation.  Example: The nature of Timberland product (natural leather) leads to situations where answers to quality issues are not always black and white.
• Lead and manage the End-to-End NPI (New Product Introduction) Risk based program for Timberland, designed to identify high risk products and evaluate the areas of importance to be audited. 
• Closely monitor collab launches from Development to Commercialization, to Production and Consumer Feedback.  Partner with Global Quality Management to ensure these programs are included in our Risk-Based system, with a heightened focus from end to end.  Member of the Collab PD Team from start of Development to Consumer Feedback.

How You Will Make a Difference:  

• Own the end-to-end planning and execution of quality programs for the Timberland Brand.  This includes the development of metrics to proactively identify trends and create a feedback loop to drive process improvements.
• Partner with Product Development to establish and maintain quality control standards and procedures to ensure quality requirements are met and/ or exceeded.
• Serve as the first point of contact for all bulk production quality issues. Build relationships and interact with sourcing teams, vendors, cross departmentally to quickly resolve and mitigate quality concerns.
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• Be the point of connection between the Brands, Customer Service, and Warranty teams. Facilitate weekly & monthly process to review all returns data.
• Establish strong working relationships with Global Quality, other Brand Quality leads and internal customers/stakeholders. Attend operational meetings, collect internal customers’ feedback.

Process Improvement & Analytics

• Lead third party negotiation initiatives to achieve cost savings from negotiation with third party repair facilities and facilitate chargebacks to factories.
• Examine, evaluate and delineate actual product integrity incident vs what is a minor issue. This is extremely valuable and allows Sourcing team to focus in managing genuine product quality issues.
• Revenue Protection to the Brand. Identify Quality Issues early, Investigate, Inspect, Rework, and Delivery to market with minimal/no impact to product launch or consumer perception.
• Close connection to DC allows Sourcing & Brand to quickly investigate potential issues (quick speed of investigation)
• Drive Consumer feedback loop which is valuable for the sourcing team to derive clear understanding of each issue including the magnitude of consumer sentiment.  Own Voice of Consumer Initiative for Timberland.
• Creating connections between risky overrides, risky design processes, poor process control vs each incident - helping to identify systematic root causes from the Brand’s perspective.
• Providing Continuous Perspective on where Brand can improve in quality mindset vs where Vendor need to improve.

Strategic Role Relationship Building & Leadership

• Be a business partner and thought partner with the Quality Management, Product Development, and Sourcing organization(s) and other key stakeholders.
• Establish personal credibility and strong working relationship across all Timberland Globally.
• Debates and provides authentic dialogue with stakeholders to achieve the shared goal.
• Contributes to the Quality Strategic plan, and Owns the Brand Quality Strategy for Timberland.
• Be an active partner in the Product Development team, providing direction and support to associates.
• Applies facts and adapts own communication style and language based on the audience and situation.
• Leads by example and acts as a role model in effective partnering across teams, locations and businesses.

What do you need to succeed?

We all have unique skills that we bring to work and celebrate every day. For this role, there are foundation skills you’ll need to succeed and excel. Additionally, while formal education in a related field is great to have, we are most interested in your 10+ years of experience and professional achievements.

The foundation skills you will need in this position are:

• A Bachelor’s degree in a related field (engineering, etc.) and a minimum of 10 years’ experience in Quality, Product Development, and /or Manufacturing field.
• Experience working in the Footwear and/or Apparel industry highly preferred.
• Proficiency in process implementation and demonstrated knowledge of quality metrics and testing methods
• Demonstrated analytical and mathematical skills with an aptitude for systematic work
• Exceptional interactive skills with ability to present and communicate at various levels
• Self-motivation and elevated level of initiative
• Travel by air and overnight, domestically and internationally: Up to 20%
• Location requirement: hybrid role in Stratham, NH at our Timberland HQ

Now WE have a question for YOU.

Are you in?

#LI-JB1

Hiring Range:

$116,000.00 USD - $145,000.00 USD annually

Incentive Potential: This position is eligible for additional compensation awards that may include an annual incentive plan, sales incentive, or commission potential. Specific details of the additional compensation eligibility for this position will be provided during the recruiting and interview process.

Benefits at VF Corporation: You can review a general overview of each benefit program offered, including this year's medical plan rates on www.MyVFbenefits.com  and by clicking Looking to Join VF? Detailed information on your benefits will be provided during the hiring process.

Please note, our hiring ranges are determined and built from market pay data. In determining the specific compensation for this position, we comply with all local, state, and federal laws.

At VF, we value a diverse, inclusive workforce and we provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees. All qualified applicants for employment will be considered without regard to an individual’s race, color, sex, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, physical or mental disability, medical condition, family care status, marital status, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, genetic information, military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by federal, state or local laws. If you require accommodations during the application process, please contact us at [email protected]. VF will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals to the extent required by applicable law.

Pursuant to all applicable local Fair Chance Ordinance requirements, including but not limited to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, VF will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.