Senior Materials Manager, Leathergoods and Shoes

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Develop and execute the seasonal and long-range leather and material strategy for Leather Goods and Shoes, ensuring alignment with brand, product, sourcing, and financial objectives.

Research and propose new novelty leathers and materials, finishes, animations, and material innovations through competitive market research, supplier engagement, leather library reviews, studio partnerships, local shows, and industry intelligence.

Influence category leather direction by providing strategic recommendations, competitive intelligence, article insights, and execution guidance to cross-functional leadership teams.

Lead end-to-end leather & material development initiatives, ensuring alignment with product requirements, quality standards, cost targets, testing requirements, and commercialization timelines.

Embed within product teams to build strong line knowledge and ensure leather and material decisions clearly support product needs, including alignment of trim leathers, body materials, constructions, and seasonal design intent.

Manage leather sampling, submit tracking, and prototype support to enable timely product development execution and informed decision-making throughout the seasonal calendar.

Establish leather & material sourcing strategies and partner with Global Sourcing, Raw Materials, regional offices, tanneries, and vendor partners to optimize quality, innovation, cost, lead times, and supply chain resilience.

Drive leather cost management and profitability initiatives through historical price reviews, costing parameters, benchmarking, analytics, strategic supplier negotiations, and alternative sourcing options in partnership with Category Management and Sourcing teams.

Serve as the primary escalation point for complex leather development, commercialization, testing, and production challenges, driving solutions and mitigating business risk.

Troubleshoot material execution concerns with Category Management, regional material teams, vendors, and tanneries during development and production to protect quality, timing, and cost objectives.

Lead leather governance processes, including article approvals, lab dip and color standard tracking, color and print approvals, testing, compliance, quality callouts, and commercialization readiness.

Oversee leather development workflows and tools, ensuring effective management of article details, costs, lead times, approvals, minimum order requirements, sample skins, submits, and key development milestones.

Leverage PLM to access and maintain mill cards, article records, material data, search tools, and development information required to support accurate execution and cross-functional visibility.

Partner with Sustainability, Innovation, Raw Materials, Product Integrity, and regional development teams to implement responsible sourcing strategies, testing requirements, and next-generation leather initiatives.

Build and maintain strategic relationships with tanneries, vendors, and material suppliers to drive innovation, elevate capabilities, and support long-term category growth.

Foster alignment across Leather Goods and Shoes to maximize leather consistency, cross-category material opportunities, apparel tie-ins, best practice sharing, and operational efficiencies.

Provide leadership and subject matter expertise to cross-functional teams, influencing leather decisions and supporting capability development across the organization.

Drive continuous improvement initiatives that enhance leather development processes, team effectiveness, calendar adherence, data accuracy, and speed-to-market.

Maintain and evolve leather libraries, core article boards and brand reference tools, seasonal approval records, animation libraries, final color palettes, and knowledge resources to support Design, Product Management, Merchandising, and global teams.