Sourcing Specialist

Built Athletics

We are building India's first global performance footwear brand engineered for natural movement, elite sport, and modern athletic culture. Recently backed by leading investors, we are now expanding our product and supply chain team to work closely with factories, material partners, and technical experts across India and Asia.

If you're obsessed with performance footwear, manufacturing excellence, and building something from scratch, this is the opportunity to shape a category-defining Indian brand.

Role Overview

We're looking for a Sports Footwear Sourcing Specialist who can own all sourcing operations from materials to manufacturing partners and build a high-quality, reliable supply backbone for our performance shoe line.

This is a ground-floor role for someone who thrives in fast-paced environments, loves getting hands-on at factories, and can blend technical knowledge with negotiation and vendor management.

Key Responsibilities

1. Vendor & Factory Development

Identify, evaluate, and onboard the right footwear manufacturing partners across India (and Asia if needed).

Assess factory capabilities for different sports categories court shoes, running, trainers, indoor/outdoor performance.

Ensure factories meet standards for quality, compliance, timelines, and cost. 2. Material & Component Sourcing

Source and qualify suppliers of:

Outsoles (rubber, TR, TPU, EVA blends)

Midsoles (phylon, TPU, EVA, PU)

Upper materials (mesh, knits, PU, microfiber, technical textiles)

Laces, insoles, heel counters, toecaps, reinforcements

Build a library of performance materials aligned with our natural movement philosophy. 3. Costing & Negotiation

Build accurate BOMs and cost sheets for all prototypes and production runs. Negotiate competitive pricing without compromising performance or innovation. Own cost engineering discussions with factories.

4. Product Development Support

Work with design, R&D, and biomechanics teams to ensure material feasibility. Support sampling, prototyping, and wear-testing cycles.

Manage timelines for T1/T2 samples through to golden samples.

5. Quality & Compliance

Ensure quality protocols, lab testing, and durability standards are met.

Coordinate with QA teams on inspections, audits, and certifications.

6. Supply Chain & Production Coordination

Drive production planning, material readiness, and shipment timelines.

Resolve bottlenecks across suppliers, factories, and internal teams.

Create sourcing SOPs as the company scales.

Must-Haves

58 years experience in footwear sourcing, ideally sports/performance footwear. Strong understanding of outsole tooling, upper construction, EVA/Rubber compounding, and multi-material integration.

Existing network of suppliers and factories in India ( India/China/Vietnam preferred) Experience working on development cycles from brief sample production. Excellent cost negotiation and vendor management skills.

Willingness to travel frequently for vendor visits, audits, and developments.