Director, Material Quality Engineering - Vuori, Inc

The Director, Material Quality Engineering, is responsible for leading the strategic direction, governance, and execution of material quality across the global supply base. Based in the Asia Sourcing Liaison Office, this role serves as the technical authority for fabric mills, trim suppliers, and material manufacturing partners, ensuring that all raw materials consistently meet the brand’s quality, performance, compliance, and sustainability standards from development through bulk production.

Working cross-functionally with Global Materials, Product Development, Sourcing, Product Compliance, Production, and Quality teams, the Director drives material quality engineering initiatives, supplier capability development, commercialization readiness, laboratory and testing excellence, and continuous improvement programs. This leader partners closely with Tier 2 suppliers to strengthen technical capabilities, reduce material-related risk, improve Right-First-Time performance, and accelerate the adoption of innovative and sustainable materials.

The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise in apparel materials with strong leadership, analytical, and supplier management skills, bringing a proactive, engineering-driven approach to delivering consistent material quality and supporting the company’s product excellence and global sourcing strategy.

What you'll get to do:

• Develop and execute the global raw material quality strategy for fabrics, trims, prints, washes and embellishments.
• Establish standardized quality engineering processes across all sourcing countries.
• Define material quality KPIs, scorecards and continuous improvement objectives.
• Establish and enforce quality engineering standards to improve material performance and reliability
• Conduct on-site mill audits to evaluate capabilities, validate processes, and identify improvement opportunities
• Develop and manage mill accreditation programs to build a high-performing, reliable supplier base
• Oversee bulk material quality execution, ensuring adherence to standards and minimizing defects
• Partner with Material Innovation teams to ensure quality standards keep pace with new materials
• Investigate root causes of material quality issues and implement corrective and preventive actions
• Provide oversight for physical, chemical, performance testing, failure management and lab accreditation
• Partner with internal and external stakeholders to resolve escalated quality issues efficiently
• Shift quality processes from reactive testing to proactive prevention and continuous improvement
• Strengthen supplier performance through data-driven insights, audits, and capability-building initiatives

Who you are: