Head of Global Sourcing, Greater Africa at The Children's Place

As part of our continued growth efforts, The Children’s Place is seeking a respected leader to continue driving and leading the growth of our Greater Africa sourcing business and operations as Head of Global Sourcing, Greater Africa.

Key Accountabilities:

Global Sourcing & Product Quality Strategy – Development & Operationalization:

• Pioneer new Global Sourcing business relationships across Greater Africa
• Develop and support the implementation of new global sourcing strategies and initiatives for the region to create a competitive advantage for TCP
• Build and establish a merchandising/sourcing presence in the region to improve the organization’s supply chain reliability
• Partner across all levels of Product Quality and Global Sourcing leadership to explore, solidify and present new product quality strategies and organizational transformation initiatives that achieve our “Right First Time” Quality objective.
• Develop, contribute, drive, and monitor the Field Quality Assurance operational plans for Greater Africa
• Draw linkages and create opportunities for greater collaboration and organizational alignment across all divisions of the global Product Quality and Sourcing/Merchandising functions
• Manage the factory self-certification programs, ensuring all production regions have plans in place to shift capable factories over to certified status and achieve yearly targets for volumes shipped from certified “Low Maintenance” Suppliers
• Plan, coordinate, participate and/or support the organization with delivering large-scale events and conferences, such as regular Quality, Sourcing, and/or Vendor Summits
• Develop and deliver relevant training to internal and external stakeholders to realize/operationalize new strategies, programs, and protocol

Field Quality Assurance – Execution & Leadership:

• Lead the various Field QA teams across Greater Africa in achieving an overall effective execution of all quality management programs and initiatives for TCP regionally
• Oversee all field auditing for TCP, establishing appropriate levels of auditing to ensure product quality and on time delivery at all times; this includes facilitating pre-production meetings, and conducting in-line and final inspection
• Travel regionally to implement new QA technology and training to field QA teams and factory QA as needed
• Consolidate, review, and present Field QA data and trends to senior management while proposing recommendations for continuous improvement

Operational Governance & Reporting:

• Establish and gain stakeholder support for a Product Quality governance framework; once agreed:
• Build governance calendar, develop meeting charters & report-back mechanisms, plan & organize all governance meetings pertaining to all Field QA operations and teams
• Set up and run a platform for all regional quality teams to share best practice, learnings and problem resolution/support
• Partner with the Vice President, Product Quality and team in developing and maintaining Product Quality Standard Operating Procedures and Product Quality Vendor Manuals
• Partner with the Vice President, Product Quality and team in running a quarterly “Quality and Technical newspaper” (or other appropriate medium) to keep the cross-functional organization informed of Quality and Technical key activities, success stories and events
• Maintain and communicate all relevant quality operational reports, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly
• In collaboration with Global Sourcing leaders, influence order placement decisions through deep understanding/analysis of information & data

Business Analytics:

• Continuously monitor workload across all manufacturing locations regionally, particularly in conjunction with major shifts in the Company’s sourcing footprint; provide the SVP, Global Sourcing with resource plans per region and recommendations for continuous “right sizing” of the quality and merchandising functions
• Use relevant data to support the development of tailored factory improvement plans to elevate factory performance and thus product quality across all locations
• Work with relevant business partners in Global Sourcing and Sourcing Operations in maintaining the Vendor Scorecard process

Education, Experience, and Leadership Standards:

• Demonstrated consistency in upholding the highest professional ethics and integrity
• Demonstrated self-motivation, structure, and personal drive to achieve - the ability to self-manage, continuously initiate new improvement opportunities, and drive to completion
• Ability to network, build professional relationships, and influence at all levels within the organization, external partners and service providers
• Previous experience working across different countries and cultures preferred
• Excellent communication and presentation skills with strong command of verbal and written English
• Minimum of ten years’ progressive, increasingly responsible experience in global sourcing, product quality, QA, QC, operations, or similar
• Possess a strong global sourcing, manufacturing, product quality background specific to Greater Africa
• Demonstrated experience leading global QA teams to achieve high performance
• Demonstrated experience re-engineering and implementing quality processes and procedures to ensure efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, and improved commercial outcomes.
• Proven knowledge of data analyses and sourcing business operational flow; exposure to Global Sourcing metrics and analytics
• Strong capability in Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook)
• Demonstrated prior experience developing, communicating, and maintaining Vendor Scorecards
• Diploma/Degree in a related and appropriate field (such as fashion technology, garment manufacturing, etc.)

Behavioral Competencies:

• Drives Business Results through Communication and Collaboration
• Plans and Organizes
• Exhibits and Drives Accountability
• Builds Effective Teams