Role Purpose
Lead and develop the regional Apparel Engineering team to deliver consistent technical execution, production readiness and product quality across the portfolio. Translate functional direction into clear team priorities by balancing capability, workload, product risk and Go-To-Market milestones, while driving integrated physical and digital development, testing oversight and vendor performance. Provide the Senior Manager with clear visibility to team performance, capacity, technical risk and emerging regional needs, and execute agreed functional priorities. Build trusted partnerships within VF across pillars, with Brand and vendor teams, creating alignment on priorities, resolving cross-functional barriers and ensuring Apparel Engineering is recognized as a solution-oriented business partner.
Key Accountabilities
1. People Leadership & Team Capability
• Directly manage the Apparel Engineering team, setting clear priorities, accountability and performance expectations.
• Coach and develop Senior Apparel Engineers and Apparel Engineers through feedback, technical calibration, intentional learning and individual development planning.
• Assess capability gaps and allocate work based on product complexity, team capacity, development need and business priority.
• Build a collaborative, inclusive and accountable culture that enables technical ownership at the appropriate level.
2. Portfolio Delivery, Risk & Testing Oversight
• Ensure technical development, industrialization and production readiness are delivered to GTM milestones and agreed standards across the portfolio.
• Oversee complex and high-risk portfolios, ensuring clear ownership and timely escalation while empowering GL05 Senior Apparel Engineers to retain product-level technical accountability.
• Oversee SMV / YY exception-validation activity across the team, ensuring GL05 technical input is consistent, evidence-based and appropriately escalated, while final exception decisions remain with the designated SMV / YY governance or accountable business owner.
• Provide manager-level direction on systemic, recurring, cross-brand or material risks and ensure effective root-cause analysis and corrective action.
• Oversee application of required product testing protocols and test governance, ensuring critical failures, recurring trends and unresolved risks are appropriately reviewed, actioned and escalated.
• Oversee Risk Analysis, PRM handover, pre-production and reallocation approval processes to ensure critical technical and testing risks are closed before production.
3. Physical & Digital Execution
• Drive consistent team adoption of integrated physical and digital development workflows, connecting sample review, technical decisions, approvals and risk assessment.
• Partner with CFT, pattern and digital specialists to remove execution barriers, improve decision quality and reduce avoidable sample iterations.
• Establish clear SOPs and risk-based ways of working that improve right-first-time execution and support compressed GTM calendars.
4. Vendor Capability & Factory Engagement
• Use product, sample, testing and vendor-performance data to identify trends, prioritize technical interventions and track improvement.
• Oversee vendor capability-building through targeted training, Sample Room Assessments, TVCP, CFT calibration and RBM activities.
• Support new-vendor onboarding and escalate recurring or systemic vendor performance concerns with clear recommendations.
• Travel regularly to factories to maintain hands-on understanding, reinforce technical standards and strengthen alignment with CFT and factory leadership.
5. Development Trips, Capacity & Continuous Improvement
• Prioritize and oversee Development, Collaboration, CKO, Innovation and Fit Training trips based on product risk, business priorities and capability needs, using physical and digital preparation to maximize trip effectiveness.
• Monitor team workload, capacity and product complexity, reallocating…