Senior Materials Developer - Tokyo Creation Center

Department: Raw Material Development

Reports to: Manager, Raw Material Development

Location: Tokyo Creation Center – Tokyo, Japan

Your Opportunity at ARC’TERYX:

As a Senior Materials Developer for our Tokyo Creation Center, you are a subject matter expert focused on high growth and highly technical categories. You will be the first Materials Developer in our Tokyo office, and your expertise will enable you to serve as a guide for other team members to deliver operational excellence, while stretching into special projects with cross functional teams. You will have the opportunity to develop best in class textiles that significantly impact the success of our product. You will learn alongside our industry partners through hands on experience. Your focus will be a high-performance toolbox and on-time delivery in the materials space, driving our product and our brand forward in alignment with our supply chain goals.

Meet Your Future Team:

The Raw Materials Development (RMD) Team commercializes seasonal performance textiles and trims that exceeds the industry standard. We create a toolbox in service to each product category, made of innovative materials that can ultimately become brand icons for many years to come. Our success comes from our knowledge, our standards of excellence and delivering on-time material solutions, alongside our supply chain partners. Based in the Tokyo Creation Center, you will have the opportunity to work closely with Design and Supply Chain partners who are focused on building product for the outdoor athlete in hot and humid climates.

Interfacing with Merchandising, Design and to communicate preferred fiber target progress, opportunities and gaps within the toolbox and developing to the future roadmap of materials

Curating material core palettes and identifying materials for consolidation and toolbox optimization

Researching and developing industry-leading materials with fiber, yarn and finish forward performance attributes as the focus within our core activities

Exploring long lead time material developments and propose timeline for commercialization

Providing materials expertise and education to cross-functional teams and partners across the business

Demonstrating an understanding of cross functional roles and accountabilities including: Design, Merch, Product Development, Wear Testing, RM Sourcing and Color Ops

Mastering the business of our material toolbox in order to effectively drive decisions, and problem solve for cross functional toolbox requests

Building knowledge and skills of the greater Raw Materials Development team, guiding on-time commercialization and material separation in the market

Identifying and leveraging innovation opportunities for high performance, durable and technically feasible materials and manufacturing

Evaluating the technical capabilities of suppliers and collaborate with Raw Materials Sourcing to stage commercialization with our mill partners

Working with our sustainability teams to meet preferred material targets

Assessing risks and effectively communicating to leadership and senior leadership around material development status

Traveling to global tradeshows and mill partners to build key partnerships and explore newness

Testing and evaluating materials using Arc'teryx custom and industry standard lab testing, including assisting with management of any materials-specific end use field testing program

Pursuing material trademarks with brand partners

Evaluating results of development initiatives to assess for performance and commercial/production feasibility

Developing a thorough understanding of our business priorities in order to focus our developments to deliver against short and long-term needs, while contributing ideas beyond your specific category

Playing a lead role in cross-functional stage-gate meetings and can represent the function with confidence

Planning and leading RMD team meetings

You have 8+ years of apparel/equipment industry experience related to textiles and other materials

You have a degree or diploma in Materials Science, Textile Technology, Product or Textile Design OR equivalent industry experience

You understand the end-to-end RMD process and bring best practices for on time delivery

You have a thorough understanding of trims and textile manufacturing, including dying, finishing, printing, molding, etc.

You have an in-depth knowledge of performance knit, woven, waterproof breathable, and composite textiles

You have previous materials laboratory testing experience You are proficient in the use of Microsoft Office and PLM systems

You have the physical ability to handle small boxes and rolls of fabric, etc.

You are able to travel internationally, as required

You have strong English communication skills, and an understanding of Japanese is a plus

You display strong interpersonal skills with a focus on diplomacy and problem solving

You are passionate about coaching and fostering a positive team environment

You effectively balance autonomy and collaboration with multiple teams

You have strong organizational skills with the ability to balance multiple tasks within tight deadlines

You remain highly flexible and adaptable when faced with ambiguity

You inspire breakthrough thinking and continuous improvement

You seek the best (sometimes not the easiest) solutions, with an unwavering commitment to do what is right