Sourcing Manager – South India (Founding Team)

About Tradio

Tradio is reshaping textile sourcing for global fashion and home brands through an end-to-end model that combines sourcing, vetted manufacturers, quality control, and logistics. Rather than operating as a marketplace, the company focuses on dependable execution powered by technology and a trusted supplier ecosystem. The team is built around ownership, independence, and a hands-on approach to getting things done.

This opportunity is for someone who wants more than a routine role and is excited to help define how India exports to global markets.

Role Overview

As part of the founding team, you will help develop South India’s manufacturing network, especially in a region that contributes more than 40% of India’s textile exports. The position goes beyond conventional sourcing by involving you in building the sourcing backbone of the platform, with meaningful ownership and influence as the business expands from Karnataka into pan-India operations.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the identification, vetting, and ongoing management of manufacturers across Tamil Nadu, including Tiruppur, Coimbatore, Karur, and Erode, as well as Karnataka locations such as Bengaluru and Hassan, and textile clusters in Andhra Pradesh.
• Develop a dependable network of dyeing units, printing facilities, embroidery vendors, and raw material suppliers serving knitted garments, home textiles, and technical fabrics.
• Create structured audit methods to assess production capacity, quality practices, and compliance standards such as OEKO-TEX, GOTS, WRAP, and ZDHC.
• Align factory strengths with demand from buyers in Europe, North America, GCC countries, and Southeast Asia.
• Track production schedules, quality outcomes, and delivery performance, while stepping in to remove bottlenecks across the chain.
• Share pricing insights, capacity movement, and new capability trends to help shape platform direction and strategy.

What You Need

The ideal candidate brings strong textile sourcing or production experience, a solid factory network, and the ability to operate independently in a fast-moving environment. You should be comfortable creating processes from the ground up, working through ambiguity, and taking broad ownership beyond a narrow job scope.

Experience with factory audits, supplier negotiations, and relationship building is important, along with familiarity with compliance systems such as SEDEX, BSCI, and the Higg Index.

Preferred Background

• 5 to 8 years of experience in textile sourcing, merchandising, or production management, with a track record of onboarding at least 15 export-focused manufacturers.
• Hands-on knowledge of knitted garments and home textile production, including spinning, weaving or knitting, dyeing, printing, and finishing.
• A well-established network of manufacturers, processors, and suppliers across Tamil Nadu’s textile hubs.
• An entrepreneurial, self-directed mindset with the confidence to build systems from scratch and take responsibility beyond formal role boundaries.
• Strong capability in factory audits, compliance evaluation, negotiation, and supplier relationship management.

Good to Have

• A bachelor’s degree or diploma in Textile Technology, Apparel Management, or a related discipline.
• Ability to communicate in Tamil, Telugu, or Kannada along with English, and working knowledge of Excel and supplier management tools.

Why Join

• Founding-team stock options linked to the company’s growth.
• Direct involvement in product direction, expansion planning, and the overall business model.
• The chance to help build infrastructure that can open global markets for more than 10,000 textile MSMEs in South India.
• A defined growth path from regional leadership to national operations leadership over years 2 to 5 of scaling.

Application Note

Applicants should share a resume along with a short note covering their manufacturer network, one difficult sourcing challenge they handled, and their motivation for joining the founding team. Contact details provided in the source have been intentionally omitted.