On Senior Lead - Footwear Costing

On; Cowbridge; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

On is seeking a seasoned Head of Footwear Costing to lead costing direction and standardization within the UK market. You will maximize margins by driving cost optimization, negotiating with manufacturers, and coordinating costing initiatives across departments to ensure alignment with brand strategy.

The role requires extensive experience in footwear costing, deep knowledge of product construction, and strong negotiation and leadership skills.

Qualifications

• University degree in business, economics, accounting, or engineering.
• 7+ years' experience with a premium footwear brand.
• Excellent commercial sense and highly analytical mindset.
• Advanced project management with storytelling ability.
• Fluent in English (spoken and written).
• Strong price negotiation skills and integrity.

Responsibilities

• Drive costing direction & projects aligning with Brand Costing strategy.
• Communicate costing initiatives across the organization.
• Provide costing insights and manage internal/external stakeholders.
• Own costing relationships with manufacturers and lead price negotiations.
• Deliver cost optimization and training to teams to drive cost consciousness.
• Contribute to profitability via standardization, engineering, and material costs.
• Support governance, processes, and costing system adoption.
• Stay updated on footwear industry trends to adjust cost strategy.

Skills

Costing

Stakeholder management

Analytical mindset

Excel

PowerPoint

Education

Business/Economics/Engineering degree

Tools

Excel

PowerPoint

Job description

In short

• Supporting Head of Footwear Costing and particularly in line with Brand Costing strategic direction, optimize product cost for Footwear product.
• Maximize Margin opportunity through the leveraging of key levers by implementing costing standardization and strengthen Costing strategy.
• Strongly co-ordinate and facilitate all Costing related topics internally and externally with the numbers of stakeholders.

Your Mission

• Costing direction & Costing projects: Supporting Head of Footwear Costing to drive footwear Costing direction and Strategy & Costing Projects, be able to communicate Costing projects throughout the Organization and take a lead to drive the team effort by ensuring the implementation and execution in place
• Communication: Be able to represent Costing function in the Organization to Communicate Costing initiatives.
• Be capable of providing Costing insights and Costing guidance and the ability of managing stakeholders internally and externally
• Manufacturing Partnership & Negotiation: Own the costing relationship with the key manufacturers. Lead high-stakes price negotiations and build strategic partnership, and provide on the ground intelligence to inform Costing and Sourcing decisions.
• Cost optimization: Deliver customized Costing training to the Creation & Sourcing team to drive cost consciousness and Support the team to optimize product cost by leveraging the costing approach
• Profitability: Actively contribute to Margin maximization, through key levers such as Costing Standardization, Costing engineering, Pattern efficiency, Material Cost strategy and any other profitability related initiatives with the aim to deliver product value to the consumer while improving company profitability.
• Processes & Systems: Be the part of system & process enhancement to drive Costing automation and process efficiency and effectiveness
• Governance: act as gatekeeper to ensure that all costing manuals & standards, processes & policies and Costing system are understood and correctly applied consistently by suppliers and eventually leading the practice of Costing auditing
• Trends: Stay up to date on footwear industry and business trends and drivers to support proactive adjustment to the dynamic cost environment.
• Team Leadership & Development: Lead, Mentor and develop the individual team members. Possesses the emotional intelligence to motivate, provide constructive feedback and unlock the potential of each team member

Your story

• University degree in business, economics, accounting, engineering; and with the passion for numbers and value engineering
• 7+ years' experience working at a premium footwear brand, technical experience and knowledge of product construction, manufacturing methods and with Sourcing planning will be a plus
• Excellent commercial sense and very analytical mindset
• Advanced project management skills with the ability of story telling
• Proficiency in both Excel and PPT
• Strong price negotiation skills and impeccable integrity
• Critical thinking and be able to challenge status quote and drive Costing project in the collaborative way.
• Be able to motivate/ guide team to reach individual and team goals
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills in a fast-paced, cross-cultural, and cross-functional environment
• Fluent in English spoken and written

Your team

You will belong to the footwear costing team.

What we offer

On is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to creating a work environment that is fair and inclusive, where all decisions related to recruitment, advancement, and retention are free of discrimination.