Director Product Development and Materials

ROLE OVERVIEW

The Director, Materials & Product Development leads the Asia (Bangkok) PCC Product Development and Materials functions. This role is accountable for translating creative and commercial direction into technically sound, cost-effective, manufacturable product while ensuring fabrics, color, trims, components, construction, fit, decoration, and product specifications are developed and approved on calendar.

The Director owns regional execution from concept handoff through prototype, sampling, costing, risk assessment, Production Buy Ready, and production handoff. The role connects Design, Merchandising, Technical Design, Sourcing, Operations, Product Integrity, Sustainability, vendors, and material suppliers to resolve risk early and improve speed, quality, margin, flexibility, and on-time performance.

This leader also drives Tier 2 material strategy in alignment with Tier 1 garment sourcing, optimizes the supplier base, builds development and commercialization capabilities, and provides clear seasonal dashboards, financial outlooks, and recommendations to address cost, capacity, quality, and lead-time headwinds.

HOW YOU WILL MAKE AN IMPACT:

Product Development & Commercialization

• Lead the regional Product Development team and the end-to-end development process across assigned Fanatics and partner-brand product categories, from design handoff through production approval and handoff.
• Translate design intent, athlete and fan needs, and merchandising strategies into clear, executable product specifications, bills of materials, construction details, and supplier direction.
• Drive prototype, sample, fit, wear-test, costing, and approval milestones; ensure product is manufacturable, commercially viable, and ready to scale before Production Buy Ready.
• Partner with Design, Merchandising, Technical Design, Sourcing, Operations, and Product Integrity to balance aesthetics, performance, quality, cost, margin, speed, and capacity.
• Lead product and material risk-assessment gates, identify issues early, assign owners, and drive timely resolution with suppliers and cross-functional teams.
• Champion product engineering, platforming, value engineering, and process innovation that reduce development cycles, complexity, cost, and lead time without compromising consumer experience.

Materials Development & Execution

• Lead fabric, color, trim, component, and branding development, sampling, testing, approval, and commercialization for seasonal and carryover product needs.
• Provide deep technical direction on yarns, knitting, dyeing, finishing, coloration, trims, components, and material-decoration compatibility.
• Drive color accuracy and team-sport color consistency while leveraging suppliers, rationalizing color assortments, and minimizing MOQ and material liability.
• Maintain accurate and complete material specifications, RMDS records, standards, quality hangers, development trackers, and PLM data.
• Build a balanced material portfolio of proven platforms and purposeful innovation, with clear adoption criteria and scalable production pathways.

Calendar, Buy Readiness & Execution

• Own regional development calendars and drive Product Development and Materials teams to meet sample, testing, costing, approval, and Production Buy Ready milestones.
• Establish escalation protocols for late, incomplete, or failed approvals; lead root-cause analysis and corrective action plans to prevent recurrence.
• Monitor development workload, sample-room and supplier capacity, critical paths, and dependencies; rebalance resources to protect launch dates and priority programs.
• Improve development speed and first-time-right execution through standardized workflows, decision rights, disciplined data management, and clear handoffs into production.

Material Sourcing, Cost & Supplier Strategy

• Execute Tier 2 material sourcing strategies aligned to Tier 1 garment sourcing, regional capacity, duty, speed, sustainability, and business-continuity requirements.
• Source, evaluate, negotiate with, and onboard material suppliers based on capability, innovation, quality, service, cost, lead time, compliance, and geographic strategy.
• Lead counter-sourcing, material consolidation, pre-positioning, and supplier-base optimization to improve margin, responsiveness, and flexibility while managing liability.
• Provide quarterly regional material cost and market outlooks, quantify business exposure, and recommend actions to mitigate raw-material, currency, capacity, and lead-time headwinds.
• Build strong relationships with key Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 partners and ensure efficient communication across all Fanatics offices and functions.