Senior Manager, Sourcing Handbags

About the Role

The Senior Manager, Sourcing - Handbags & Belts is a category specialist responsible for executing sourcing strategies and delivering high-quality, brand-right products across handbags and belts. This role combines deep technical expertise in handbag construction with strong commercial and supplier management capabilities.

Acting as a key partner to Design, Product Development, and Merchandising, the role ensures that products are executed to the highest standards of quality, cost, and timeline. The position plays a critical role in translating design intent into production-ready solutions while driving supplier performance and managing development from concept through production.

What You'll Do

Category Execution & Expertise: Deliver expert execution of handbag sourcing by applying deep category knowledge to ensure products are feasible, high-quality, and aligned to brand standards.

• Apply expertise in materials, construction, and finishing to guide product execution

• Assess design feasibility, complexity, and vendor capability early in development

• Provide clear recommendations to ensure design intent is achievable in production

Supplier Management & Development: Manage and develop supplier relationships to consistently deliver on quality, cost, and timelines.

• Oversee day-to-day vendor performance across quality, delivery, cost, and compliance

• Drive accountability and continuous improvement with suppliers

• Identify and escalate risks or opportunities with actionable recommendations

Costing & Commercial Management: Own costing and negotiations to deliver commercially viable products without compromising quality.

• Build and manage detailed product costing across all components

• Lead supplier negotiations to achieve cost targets

• Identify value engineering opportunities while protecting product integrity

Product Development & Sample Execution: Lead sourcing execution through development to ensure samples meet design, quality, and timeline expectations.

• Partner with Design and Product Development to execute prototypes and samples

• Review samples to ensure construction, materials, and finishes meet standards

• Resolve development issues with vendors to enable on-time approvals

Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with cross-functional teams to align product execution with creative, commercial, and operational goals.

• Collaborate with Design, Merchandising, Quality, and Sustainability teams

• Translate design intent into manufacturable solutions

• Influence stakeholders to balance creativity with cost and timing realities.

Who You Are

• Proven experience in luxury or premium handbag sourcing or product development

• Background working with recognized handbag brands (e.g., Tapestry, Capri, Tory Burch,

• Longchamp, Mulberry, Furla, or similar) preferred

• Strong exposure to Asia-based manufacturing environments

• Demonstrated experience in supplier management and production execution

• Technical & Category Expertise: Deep knowledge of handbag construction, including materials, hardware, and finishing techniques. Able to assess design feasibility, complexity, and execution risks, translating creative concepts into manufacturable products while maintaining premium quality and brand standards.

• Commercial Acumen: Strong understanding of cost drivers across materials, labor, and production processes. Skilled in negotiations and managing trade-offs, with the ability to identify value engineering opportunities that optimize cost while protecting product quality and brand intent.

• Supplier & Execution Management: Proven ability to manage supplier performance across quality, cost, delivery, and compliance. Drives accountability through clear communication, strong follow-through, and proactive issue resolution while building effective, long-term vendor partnerships.

• Collaboration & Influence: Effective cross-functional partner who communicates clearly and influences stakeholders without direct authority. Able to align diverse teams, balance creative and commercial priorities, and ensure smooth execution across design, development, and production.

• Quality & Problem Solving: Detail-oriented with a strong quality-first mindset suited to premium products. Applies structured problem-solving and root-cause analysis to resolve issues, prevent recurrence, and maintain high standards in fast-paced, complex environments.

• Ways of Working: Highly organized and disciplined, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and tight timelines. Uses data to inform decisions, remains resilient under pressure, and operates with a global mindset and cultural awareness, particularly in manufacturing environments.