Associate Production Manager (Contract)

Hot Topic; California; Hybrid; USD 50,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative company is seeking an Associate Production Manager to join their dynamic team. This role involves managing the entire production process, from design to delivery, ensuring that high-quality, pop culture-inspired apparel reaches customers on time. Ideal candidates will have a strong background in product development, excellent negotiation skills, and a keen eye for detail. You'll collaborate with various teams and vendors, making this an exciting opportunity to contribute to a vibrant and creative environment. If you're passionate about fashion and pop culture, this role is perfect for you!

Benefits

Medical Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

Retirement Plan

Employee Discounts

Paid Time Off

Tuition Reimbursement

On-site Cafe

Fitness Center

Chiropractor and Masseuse

Qualifications

• 3+ years of product development experience in retail or wholesale.
• Experience with licensed products is a plus.
• Proficient in Excel and detail-oriented.

Responsibilities

• Manage production from design handoff to finished product.
• Work closely with teams to ensure timely delivery.
• Source and negotiate with new factory relationships.

Skills

Product Development

Negotiation

Sourcing

Manufacturing

Communication

Detail Oriented

Excel Proficiency

Job description

Hot Topic HQ - City of Industry, California - Temporary

Description

At Hot Topic, we’re passionate about creativity and high performance. We're also passionate about Pop Culture...in case you hadn't noticed. We’re looking for an Associate Production Manager (Contract) to partner with our Product Development team in bringing music and pop culture inspired fashion to life. Apparel production takes a village, and you’re known as the one that’s able to bring it all together. The result: amazing product that our customers love.

This role operates on a hybrid schedule and will require to work from our HQ located in the City of Industry, CA three days a week.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Manage production process from design handoff to finished product - develop and source fabrics, yarns, and trims; obtains approvals for fabric, lab dip, and trims, ensure tech pack turnovers to sourcing partners; troubleshoot and come up with options to resolve issues in development/production and quality
• Knit and Sweater development experience
• Work closely with the merchant & product development team to ensure vision of product is achieved during the sourcing & production process & updating them regularly on deliveries and production issues
• Partner with internal teams like import, vendor relations, and traffic teams to ensure inbound merchandise is properly coordinated for on time delivery
• Work closely with the licensing team to obtain licensor’s comments in a timely manner to ensure on time delivery
• Work with overseas vendors to monitor development and on time delivery
• Source & start up new factory relationships; negotiate appropriate costs and deliverables with sourcing partners to ensure best margin and quality are achieved for our customers!
• Work with your manager to identify styles that can be moved out of China, and redevelop with Non-China vendors to offset the tariff increase
• Re-negotiate cost & delivery to present to buyers to issue POs based on the new country of origin
• Work on collecting liability information for styles with COO China

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

• 3+ years product development experience in retail or wholesale working with overseas offices
• Experience working on licensed product a plus
• Organized, great communicator and detail oriented, proficient in Excel
• Well versed in reviewing garment test reports
• Sourcing, manufacturing, and costing wizard. You work your magic so much they call you the Harry Potter of PD & Production
• An up-to-date point of view on the latest trends & strategies in sourcing & production
• Negotiation is your middle name
• Team player - you thrive in a team environment and are comfortable giving, and receiving, honest, direct, feedback
• I agree to receive text messages from Hot Topic, Inc. to the telephone number provided above for purposes related to my job application and job recruitment at Hot Topic.

Check us out

Since our first store opening in 1989, we've been leading the way in bringing music and pop culture to the masses. We're now at over 600 stores and counting across the U.S. and Canada. Working at our stores means you're taking a huge part in delivering the fandom.

All the (not so) small things

Benefits are a big deal, and we've got you covered. Medical, Dental, Vision, Retirement and so much more. Add in employee discounts, PTO, and tuition reimbursement and you're walking away flashing some bling.

Our HQ is based in the City of Industry, CA in a newly designed, converted warehouse space. We have an open, collaborative work environment (no iron gates. Well...maybe :) with some sweet perks: on-site cafe, fitness center, chiropractor, & masseuse.

We have superpowers. Being invisible isn't one of them.

Come see what's under our cape - check us out on Glassdoor, LinkedIn, BuiltIn or Indeed.