Arc’teryx - Senior Technical Specialist, Footwear - Ho Chi Minh City

If you were the Senior Technical Specialist, Footwear now, here are some of the core activities you would be doing:

• Establishing quality standards for construction and manufacturing methods for all footwear factories in partnership with Quality, Advanced R&D, Design, Product Development, Industrial Engineering and Commercialization, Sourcing, and Production teams
• Supporting the ALO Quality Management in enforcing known quality standards for finished goods and raw materials from development to bulk inspection stages, with focus on preventative actions in pre-production
• Contributing to sourcing exploration, qualification assessment, education and training of new and existing factories to ensure Arc’teryx brand standards are met
• Providing technical expertise and guidance in Arc’teryx construction methods and quality standards for footwear to internal and external partners as required
• Conducting development samples’ reviews and collaborating with China Development Centre and Portland Creation Centre teams over buy-ready sign-off and other relevant meetings or reviews as part of the seasonal go-to-market (GTM) calendar work; Providing technical expertise on new models, new construction and new materials to achieve the consistent brand’s quality standards in both sample and bulk production stages.
• Collaborating closely with the Design, Development and Materials teams in Portland, North Vancouver, and Asia throughout the GTM process until bulk approval
• Reviewing tech packs, construction elements for accuracy and design for manufacturing (DFM), focusing on sampling challenges for all new, transition and dual sourcing models
• Supporting Portland and North Vancouver Product Integrity Teams and performing seasonal technical quality review (TQR) of prototypes and other types of samples
• Running risk assessments and overseeing high risk models from development to pre-production stage and beyond in bulk
• Preparing instructions (e.g. CTQ, QC Plan) for new models for the seasonal hand over to QC
• Conduct seasonal handover meetings to educate, train and align with fellow ALO Quality and vendor teams.
• Pursuing with factories on preventive actions such as pilot run / production trial, and top of production (TOP) run for high-risk models in preparation for bulk production
• Reviewing pilot run PO’s and sealed samples at size set stage to approve bulk production
• Maintaining frequent and regular connection with Arc’teryx teams in Asia and vendors to ensure protocols and practices are mutually understood and followed at all sample stages.
• Creating and updating protocols for known stitching, gluing, lamination and other critical to quality operations to enhance quality manuals
• Supporting Materials Development or Advanced Concepts teams during the R&D and development stages as required on offering technical advisory, flagging issues and concerns to ensure that new materials are meeting general quality standards and specific requirements for the intended application
• Partnering with Material Quality Specialist in ALO on reviewing and implementing any testing related tasks
• Carrying out quality inspection at various stages of bulk production when needed under the direction of ALO Quality Management
• Assisting ALO Quality Management, based on inspection result and on-site observations, to make quality decisions
• Monitoring and training vendor quality team in the understanding in quality standards and alignment of proper inspection method.
• Working with factory to prepare and review CAPA, and follow-up on site the respective implementation
• Participating with Quality and Sourcing leaders in new vendor’s on-boarding program.

Here are some of the things you could be working on in the future:

• Consolidating relevant documentation for standards, protocols and other product integrity and quality elements into a Footwear quality manual
• Building a library of defect code classification with photo and physical references
• Reviewing overall footwear quality program for evolution to cope with growth

Are you our next Senior Technical Specialist, Footwear?

• You have knowledge of footwear construction, material construction, material properties, manufacturing practices and quality management
• You have 7+ years of manufacturing experience in footwear industry
• You have strong communication and interpersonal skills
• You are proactive in identifying the root cause of issues and developing solutions
• You have proven ability to lead and motivate a diverse workforce
• You remain highly flexible and adaptable when faced with ambiguity
• You show initiative to balance and resolve competing interests and priorities within strict time constraints
• You have excellent organizational skills
• You effectively balance autonomy and collaboration
• You have good proficiency in written and spoken English; knowledge of Chinese would be a bonus
• You have the ability to travel
• You seek the best (sometimes not the easiest) solutions, with an unwavering commitment to do what is right
• Your passion for your work is paralleled by your passion for getting outside and living it