Sourcing Manager - Footwear and Accessories

Role overview

This position is for an experienced sourcing professional to manage the complete sourcing cycle for footwear and accessories across men’s, women’s, and kids’ assortments. The role sits within the sourcing function and reports to the Head of Sourcing. You will be responsible for the supplier base, ensuring products are available on time, costs stay competitive, and quality and compliance standards are met for a high-velocity e-commerce business.

Key responsibilities

You will partner with buying, planning, design, operations, logistics, and warehouse teams to deliver seasonal and replenishment buying plans while keeping the critical path on track. The role also involves developing the vendor ecosystem, managing purchase orders, negotiating commercial terms, and monitoring supplier performance.

Vendor sourcing and onboarding

• Identify, assess, and add new suppliers for footwear and accessory lines spanning casual, formal, sports, ethnic, and fashion categories for all age and gender groups.
• Develop a broad supplier network across different locations to lower concentration risk and improve supply continuity.
• Carry out factory checks, production capacity reviews, and compliance audits for both new and existing vendors.

Purchase order and sourcing execution

• Run the sourcing process end to end, beginning with the category brief and vendor selection and ending with purchase order placement and delivery closure.
• Handle seasonal purchases as well as replenishment orders across men’s, women’s, and kids’ categories at the same time.
• Align sourcing actions with the open-to-buy plan and category assortment goals.

Negotiation, costing, and margin control

• Discuss unit pricing, minimum order quantities, lead times, sampling charges, and payment terms with vendors.
• Compare pricing across suppliers and regions to secure market-aligned cost prices.
• Support margin improvement efforts without affecting quality or delivery commitments.
• Keep accurate cost sheets, historical price records, and landed-cost calculations.

Product development and sampling

• Work with buying and design teams to translate trend direction into product briefs for footwear and accessories.
• Manage the full sampling calendar, including proto, fit, pre-production, and top samples, against milestone deadlines.
• Review samples against tech packs, footwear last specifications, and brand quality benchmarks.
• Coordinate fit approvals and sign-offs for men’s, women’s, and kids’ lasts and size sets.

Quality and compliance

• Ensure products comply with applicable safety, material, and labelling requirements.
• Coordinate with internal quality teams for in-line checks and final inspections.
• Drive corrective action plans when quality issues or vendor non-conformances arise.
• Maintain supporting compliance records such as test reports, factory audit certificates, and declarations of conformity.

Delivery and critical-path management

• Own the timeline for active styles across footwear and accessories.
• Spot possible delays, factory capacity issues, or raw material shortages early and work to minimize impact on launch dates.
• Coordinate inflow planning with logistics and warehouse teams.

Vendor performance and reporting

• Monitor sourcing KPIs including on-time delivery, acceptance rate, return rate by vendor, and cost variance against target.
• Conduct regular vendor reviews and share scorecards with stakeholders.
• Keep vendor master data, lead-time matrices, and sourcing trackers current.

Experience and background

The ideal candidate brings 10 to 12 years of sourcing experience in footwear and/or accessories, preferably from retail or e-commerce environments. Experience managing suppliers across multiple categories and customer segments is important, and exposure to men’s, women’s, and kids’ sourcing is especially valuable.

Technical knowledge

A strong understanding of footwear construction is expected, including upper materials such as leather, synthetic, mesh, and canvas, as well as sole types like EVA, rubber, and TPR, plus lasting and size grading processes. Familiarity with accessory manufacturing, including hardware, lining, stitching standards, and material grading for bags, belts, and fashion accessories, is also required. Knowledge of compliance and safety standards for these product groups is important.

Commercial and analytical capability

You should be confident using Excel for cost tracking, supplier comparison matrices, and delivery trackers. A solid grasp of cost price, landed cost, and gross margin concepts is necessary, along with the ability to interpret sales trends, return rates, and sell-through data to guide sourcing choices.

Soft skills

This role requires strong organization, the ability to manage several vendors and categories at once, solid negotiation and communication skills, attention to detail, urgency, and the discipline to follow through in a fast-paced environment. The ability to work independently and handle deadlines is essential.

Preferred experience

Added value will come from sourcing exposure in major footwear and accessories manufacturing hubs in India such as Agra, Chennai, and Kolkata. Prior private-label or own-brand development experience, familiarity with e-commerce metrics such as return rate, customer ratings, and size-curve analysis, working knowledge of ERP or sourcing systems, and an understanding of sustainable sourcing and ethical trade practices are all advantageous.

Eligibility

Any graduate can apply.

Additional information

Department: Sourcing. Reporting line: Head of Sourcing. Employment type: Full-Time. Location: Bengaluru, India.