City : Toronto, Ontario

Category : Full time

Industry : Product Development

Employer : Shoppers Drug Mart®

Referred applicants should not apply directly to this role.

All referred applicants must first be submitted through Workday by a current Loblaw Colleague.

Founded in 2006, Joe Fresh is a leading source for modern style and accessible design, offering comprehensive lifestyle collections for men, women and children. Joe Fresh delivers quality and compelling value in categories spanning in apparel, accessories, and footwear. Joe Fresh collections are polished and sophisticated, with a focus on essential designs that appeal to a broad range of style-savvy consumers. With more than 350 Joe Fresh departments from coast to coast, the Joe fresh network is more than a great place to shop, it’s a great place to work. We’re committed to building our talented team who champion collaboration, kindness, and inclusivity. We are looking for innovative, hardworking, and collaborative team members for our Joe Fresh team. Join our team in our goal of helping Canadians Live Life Well®.

In addition, we believe that compliance with laws is about doing the right thing.  Upholding the law is part of our Code of Conduct – it reinforces what our customers and stakeholders expect of us.

Position Title: Manager, Technical Design

Reports To: Director, Technical Design

Direct Reports:

Sr. Technical Designer

Technical Designer

Associate Technical Designer

Job Summary:

The Technical Design Manager is a leader in the department and manages both their own workload as well as their assigned team. They are accountable to deliver both Design’s creative vision and Joe Fresh’s customer expectations through the fit, construction and quality of our product.  This is accomplished through excellent leadership and management skills, excellent pattern making capabilities, manufacturing knowledge, and proactive and collaborative communication with our internal cross functional partners and external vendor base.

The expectation of the Technical Design Manager is to be accountable for the ongoing development of their team, as well as delivering excellent product with consistency in fit, quality and construction.

What you'll do:

DEPARTMENT ADMINISTRATION

• Hire, train and evaluate TD’s on the team
• Lead Strategies to support departmental and cross-departmental development initiatives and objectives
• Lead the TD Teams to execute on time as per corporate milestones
• Oversee departmental and cross departmental Processes & Standards in conjunction with the TD Ops Manager
• Lead departmental and cross-department meetings as appropriate
• Define and balance team’s workload based on skill set, category and company needs

Lead team to:

• Understand how Technical design fits into the larger product development process
• Track and manage workflow and ensure seasonal deadlines are met
• Be Accountable for calendar process and deliverables.  Voice product / calendar issues so they can be proactively resolved
• Travel to factories and work with technical teams to troubleshoot, educate, and understand factory capabilities

DESIGN VISION

• Understand Design’s creative vision, including silhouette, fabrication, fit intent and design details, and effectively collaborate to translate to the Joe Fresh customer.
• Proactively recommend solutions that will ensure Design intent, fit, construction, quality, timelines and cost are met

FIT & CONSTRUCTION STANDARDS

• Maintain and Execute Joe Fresh’s Fit Classifications through understanding of business needs and collaboration with Director / Manager/Sr. Technical Designer
• Recruit, monitor & manage fit models, from a measurement, behavior and scheduling perspective

Lead team to:

• Understand fit model measurements and how to incorporate into fit process
• Maintain grading standards and manage exceptions effectively
• Use Joe Fresh’s Block Library to ensure brand integrity and consistency
• Follow the Joe Fresh How to Measure Manual to measure all garments
• Ensure size and fit consistency within product category
• Follow Joe Fresh Garment Construction Standards and manage exceptions effectively.
• Follow fusing standards. (future state)
• Ensure garment construction consistency within product category

STYLE DEVELOPMENT & APPROVAL

Lead team to:

• Execute design and fit intent into bulk production while maintaining corporate standards
• Communicate sample requirements to factory
• Prepare samples for company meetings (fittings, priority fittings, etc.).
• Evaluate samples to determine compliance of measurements, construction, and fit intent
• Identify potential fit, quality and production issues and make appropriate recommendations while maintaining design’s creative vision and fit intent
• Lead fittings on live model, work with cross-functional departments to achieve design vision and communicate fit and balance corrections to participants
• Ensure external pattern meets Joe Fresh’s design and fit intent, where appropriate
• Communicate style revisions to factory
• Identify and proactively engage business partners when issues arise with recommendations for viable options/solutions and to escalate issues to supervisor if necessary
• Collaborate with the QA department to ensure there are no potential quality assurance issues
• Manage files associated with style approval, including final production pattern, approved tech pack etc.… 

Additional duties and responsibilities may be added or modified as required throughout the course of your employment.

What you'll bring:

TECHNICAL

Degree/diploma or equivalent

Industry experience

• Required: 10+ years of Industry Experience in a related position, with the majority of experience in Technical Design and/or Patternmaking
• Required:  Management Experience

Technical skills

• Required: Microsoft Office
• Required: Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop)
• Preferred: Patternmaking Software (Lectra, Gerber)
• Preferred: 3D Design Software (CLO)
• Preferred: PLM Software (Centric)

OTHER REQUIREMENTS

• Must work at 2 Atlantic Ave
• Some remote work is permitted at management’s discretion
• Overseas travel required.  Maximum 2 trips/year, for 10-15 days to vendor base.

Key Performance Indicators:

• SPH (Styles per headcount) of the category as well as your own style count
• Internal Turn time of the category as well as your own Turn Time
• Fit iterations of the category as well as your own Average Fit Iterations
• Calendar Deadlines

How You’ll Succeed:
At Joe Fresh, we seek great people to continually strengthen our culture.  We believe great people model our values, are authentic, build trust and make connections. 

If that sounds like you, and you are open-minded, responsive to change and up to the challenges provided in a fast-paced retail environment, apply today.

Joe Fresh recognizes Canada's diversity as a source of national pride and strength. We have made it a priority to reflect our nation’s evolving diversity in the products we sell, the people we hire, and the culture we create in our organization. Accommodation is available upon request for applicants with disabilities in the recruitment and assessment process and when hired.