Assistant Manager Sourcing & Merchandising

Assistant Manager – Merchandising & Sourcing

Location: Gurgaon

Department: Sourcing, Merchandising & Product Development

Reports To: VP – Sourcing, Merchandising & Product Development

About the Role

We are looking for a commercially driven Assistant Manager – Merchandising & Sourcing to lead end-to-end merchandising, sourcing and product execution across multiple categories. This role will be responsible for translating business plans into successful product launches by driving product development, strategic sourcing, vendor management, costing, capacity planning and cross-functional execution.

The ideal candidate combines strong merchandising fundamentals with a strategic sourcing mindset and is passionate about building scalable supply chains, improving speed to market and driving operational excellence.

Key Responsibilities

Product Development & Merchandising

• Own the end-to-end merchandising lifecycle from design handover to bulk delivery.
• Drive seasonal calendars and ensure adherence to critical path milestones.
• Lead development activities including fabric sourcing, trims, sampling, fit approvals and bulk readiness.
• Partner closely with Design to ensure timely development while balancing commercial viability and manufacturability.
• Ensure successful execution of seasonal launches across all channels.

Strategic Sourcing

• Develop and execute sourcing strategies aligned to business growth plans.
• Identify, evaluate and onboard new manufacturing partners, mills and trim suppliers.
• Build long-term supplier partnerships focused on innovation, speed, quality and cost competitiveness.
• Drive supplier capability enhancement and capacity planning.
• Benchmark vendors against industry best practices.

Commercial & Cost Management

• Own product costing and commercial negotiations.
• Identify value engineering opportunities without compromising product quality.
• Drive annual cost optimisation initiatives across fabrics, trims and manufacturing.
• Support margin improvement through strategic sourcing decisions.

Production & Supply Chain Execution

• Monitor production readiness and bulk execution across vendors.
• Proactively identify risks impacting launches and deliveries and drive timely resolution.
• Partner with Planning and Quality teams to improve OTIF performance.
• Ensure capacity planning aligns with seasonal business requirements.

Vendor Management

• Lead supplier performance reviews through structured business reviews.
• Develop improvement roadmaps with manufacturing partners.
• Track and improve supplier KPIs across:
• Quality
• Lead Time
• OTIF
• Capacity Utilisation
• Responsiveness
• Commercial Performance

Business Planning & Analytics

• Support seasonal buy planning through supplier capacity and sourcing inputs.
• Analyse business performance to recommend sourcing and merchandising improvements.
• Drive reporting on product readiness, launch status, costing, vendor performance and sourcing metrics.
• Use data to identify trends and drive continuous improvement initiatives.

Cross-Functional Leadership

Partner closely with:

• Design
• Planning
• Quality
• Finance
• Warehouse & Logistics
• Marketing
• Technology

to ensure seamless execution from concept to customer.

Process Excellence

• Drive initiatives to reduce development and sourcing lead times.
• Improve visibility through dashboards and reporting.
• Standardise merchandising and sourcing processes.
• Support implementation of new systems, automation and digital tools.
• Build scalable ways of working to support business growth.

Skills & Experience

Required

• 8–12 years of experience in Merchandising, Sourcing or Product Development within apparel.
• Strong experience managing woven apparel; exposure to knitwear and bottoms is preferred.
• Deep understanding of garment manufacturing, fabric sourcing, trims, costing and production planning.
• Demonstrated experience in vendor development and supplier negotiations.
• Strong commercial and analytical acumen.
• Excellent project management and stakeholder management skills.
• Advanced Excel proficiency.

Preferred

• Experience working with premium or premium-bridge apparel brands.
• Exposure to both domestic and international sourcing.
• Experience driving sourcing transformation, process improvement or supply chain optimisation.

Key Competencies

• Strategic thinking
• Commercial acumen
• Leadership and people development
• Negotiation and influencing skills
• Supplier relationship management
• Strong ownership and accountability
• Structured problem solving
• Data-driven decision making
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Excellent communication skills
• Bias for action and continuous improvement

What Success Looks Like

Success in this role means consistently delivering products that are on time, on cost and on quality, while continuously improving the way the business operates. The successful candidate will:

• Improve speed to market through reduced development and sourcing lead times.
• Build a resilient, high-performing supplier network.
• Drive sustainable cost optimisation while protecting product quality.
• Deliver high launch readiness and strong OTIF performance.
• Partner effectively across functions to solve problems proactively rather than reactively.
• Build scalable sourcing and merchandising processes that support Andamen's long-term growth.

This is a leadership role suited to someone who can move beyond day-to-day execution and act as a strategic partner to the business, while mentoring junior team members and driving continuous improvement across the supply chain.