Associate Manager

**JOB SUMMARY**:
To be responsible for executing home furnishing categories directives globally. He or she is the liaison for overseas offices and cross-functional, to drive and monitor strategic category initiatives, manage short-long term projects with the ability on data analysis. To research and identify sourcing markets and suppliers to meet Brands’ needs and Company’s requirement. He or she works in conjunction with stakeholders to support business needs. Communication and close collaborations with our global teams is a must. A combination of analytical, negotiation, relationship management and project management skills to effectively achieve greater efficiency and competitiveness in today’s dynamic business environment.

**KEY RESPONSIBILITIES**:
**Global Sourcing Landscape**
- Support, facilitate and drive alignment in global vendor landscape
- Partner with overseas teams to establish strategic vendor development for long-term business growth
- Monitoring market trends, industry dynamics to identify potential risks and opportunities
- Support global risk mitigation strategies

**Strategic Category Sourcing**
- Research new products and identifying potential suppliers, evaluating their capabilities, financial stability and capacity to meet quality and delivery requirement
- Understand core vendors’ capabilities to service business needs
- Collaborate with overseas teams to source the right product, right vendor, at the right cost
- Provide cost analysis and comparisons, establish time & action calendar
- Follow up & track on milestones progress through regular updates in a timely manner
- Support on short-long term projects, and/or other assigned tasks

**Supply Chain Optimization**
- Establish processes and seek alignment across stakeholders
- Identifying opportunities for process improvement, implementing best practices to drive efficiency and effectiveness, and streamlining workflow and communication Leveraging on systems support and big data analytics to provide better visibility and eliminate inefficiencies

**JOB COMPETENCIES & EXPERIENCES**

**Knowledge**

The incumbent must have proficient knowledge in the following areas:

- Minimum 5 years of regional sourcing and product development experience, preferably in home furnishing products
- Knowledge on end-to-end supply chain flow is crucial

**Skills**

The incumbent must be able to demonstrate the following skills:

- Proficiency in MS Office, e.g. Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, Word
- Ability to multi-task in a fast-paced environment
- Analytical and problem-solving skills
- Good interpersonal and communication skills
- Meticulous, detail oriented with high accuracy working with large volumes of data
- Fast learner with initiative and ability to work independently

**Education/Qualifications**
- Possess an 'A' Level education or above
- Those without relevant qualification but with substantial years of relevant experience will also be considered

LI-KW1

**About Us**

Founded in 1956, Williams-Sonoma, Inc. is the premier specialty retailer of home furnishings in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, Australia, United Kingdom and the rest of the world with franchise partnerships. Our family of brands are Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, PBteen, West Elm, Williams-Sonoma Home, Rejuvenation, Mark and Graham, and GreenRow. Our passion for high-quality products, functional design, outstanding customer service, enhancing the lives of our customers and the communities remains as our core values.

Today, we are a more than USD 8.7 billion company, with a multi-brand, multi-channel, global enterprise supported by state-of-the-art technology and some of the most talented teams in retailing - and we're always looking for new energy and ideas.

The Singapore regional office was set up in 2008 and we currently have more than 160 associates in functions such as sustainability, customs & compliance, finance, human resource, information technology, inventory planning, logistics, sourcing and quality assurance.

The Asia team is an inclusive employer where we recruit and provide employees with fair opportunities on the basis of merit, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, marital status and family responsibilities, or disability. Find out more about us at our WSI LinkedIn Page