Supplier Sourcing & Development

Conduct proactive global sourcing for every new SKU across Alibaba, Made-in-China, Global Sources, and trade-show channels.
Cast a wide net per RFQ. Engage 10 or more candidate factories per category, triage to a workable shortlist of 3 for sampling.
Pre-qualify factories on capability, capacity, certifications, prior export experience, and reference projects before sampling spend.
Build and maintain the WTW Master Supplier Database with current pricing, MOQs, lead times, tooling cost, and category coverage.

Cost Engineering & Negotiation

Build BOMs for every commercialised SKU. Model landed COGS scenarios across MOQ, freight mode, and tooling amortisation.
Negotiate landed COGS that meet margin targets without burning supplier relationships.
Cross-quote across factories to ensure pricing is competitive. Identify where cost is hiding in materials, packaging, freight, or tooling.
Manage tooling negotiations, including amortisation schedules and ownership clauses.

Sampling, Validation & Quality

Brief samples to spec. Evaluate against the WTW brand and quality bar, document deviations, and drive iterations to sign-off.
Coordinate inspections and pre-shipment QC where required.
Know when to push for another iteration, and when to walk to a different supplier.

Project Management

Run 5 to 10 NPD workstreams in parallel without dropping any. Maintain the source-of-truth tracker in ClickUp / Asana / Monday.
Manage stage gates from Concept to Commercialisation to Production. Enforce gate discipline so work does not drift between stages.
Surface blockers early. Escalate with a recommendation, never just a problem.

Technical Dossier Gathering

Pull together regulatory inputs from suppliers: Certificates of Analysis (COA), MSDS / Safety Data Sheets, formulation breakdowns, ingredient sourcing declarations, certifications (NASAA, OMRI, organic, kosher, etc.), labelling specs.
Hand a complete dossier to our regulatory partner (Brand Maven Consulting) for US filings and AU compliance. The role does not own filings, only the inputs.

Brand-Aware Execution

Internalise the WTW brand guidelines and apply them across all supplier-facing artwork, packaging, and finish briefs.
Push factories to deliver on-brand outputs without needing to be art-directed at every step.
Catch brand drift early in the supplier sampling process, before it hits production.

AI-Augmented Working

Use AI tools daily across sourcing research, RFQ drafting, supplier comms, BOM analysis, sample notes, dossier review, and project tracking.
Build personal workflows that leverage AI to multiply output. Active fluency with ChatGPT, Claude, NotebookLM, or equivalent is an expectation of this role, not optional.
Continuously identify where AI can replace manual effort, and propose new ways of working to the team.
New SKUs delivered to first production on time, on brand, and within COGS targets at 95% or better.
Every active product category has 3 or more qualified suppliers in the database with current pricing and lead times.
Margin targets met on 100% of SKUs at production sign-off, no exceptions without sign-off from the Operations Director.
Regulatory dossiers handed to Brand Maven complete and on time, 100% of the time, with zero rework loops.
Master Supplier Database refreshed monthly. No stale entries older than 90 days.
Stage-gate discipline: zero work in production without Commercialisation sign-off.
Demonstrable AI workflow adoption: at least 3 documented AI-driven workflows running in the role within 90 days.

Business Product Manager

Product Development Manager