Buying & Product Development Manager

Interioricons.com is a well-known and rapidly expanding global ecommerce company that retails stylish, high quality designer furniture and furnishings. We pride ourselves on the beauty and absolute quality of our products, and are now looking to strengthen our team by recruiting a Buying & Product Development Manager, reporting directly to the CEO.

This is a unique opportunity with a global remit to command the new product activities of a successful online retailer that is well on track to becoming a large global brand. If you are a meticulous, process-driven professional, with a great track record to tell us about, and the drive, tenacity and entrepreneurial spirit to meet our growth targets and maximise on the plentiful opportunities awaiting us, then please read on.

The Role

This is a varied position that will see you executing the strategic direction for all of our sourcing and product development activities. These are your key responsibilities:

• Assortment Planning: building and bettering our product offering. You will be the in-house expert on our assortment, harnessing sales data, industry knowledge, customer feedback, and a strong handle on furniture and interiors trends to make informed decisions about how and where to grow our range.
• Product Development: For the new product opportunities where we cannot identify suitable factories to purchase off-the-shelf products, we need to develop them through our existing factories. You will be responsible for the design concept and managing all product development.
• Sourcing: Research new product opportunities and identify factories that produce the items (we have very robust processes for these tasks). You will then audit the factories in person to ensure the calibre is high, which will involve quarterly trips to Asia.
• Attend furniture fairs to be updated on the latest trends and the best factories for our products

The Person

You may be currently working within the sourcing / buyer / supply chain team of a large retailer and looking for your next step-up. Or maybe you thrive on the high growth and pace of start-ups and are looking for your next exciting journey in a small but rapidly growing online business. We’re fairly relaxed about your background as long as you have the following:

• Experience gained explicitly within furniture
• A methodical and process-driven mentality; this is an essential part of how we work at II
• Strong knowledge of furniture/interiors industry trends, and an eye for design
• Strong project management skills and a proven ability to manage third party vendors
• Unerring focus on excellent quality
• Sharp negotiation skills, commercial acumen and savviness.
• Sensitivity to different cultures.
• The ability to establish and grow strong partnerships with suppliers.
• The initiative and confidence to take the lead in your remit.
• Strong problem solving ability
• The ability to multi-task, and the drive and energy to consistently deliver on time and within budget.
• Willingness to be hands-on to get tasks completed without a team, and happy to work in a small, lean and process-driven organisation

Additionally, these things are not essential but would move you further up our shortlist:

• Experience of buying manufactured retail products on an international scale, with particular exposure to sourcing deals in China and the Far East.
• Experience of product design and development (ideally within China).
• Knowledge of furniture design history and the classics.

More about Interioricons.com

Our raison d’être is to bring beautiful and achingly stylish furniture and furnishings within reach of everyone. Highly profitable, we have invested heavily in our systems and infrastructure, and now have the foundations in place to become a global brand. The next critical piece of the jigsaw is to bring in the key people who will work with us to make this happen. We are highly experienced in ecommerce, brimming with ideas and enthusiasm, and incredibly excited about what the future will bring. If this sounds like your kind of journey, and you would like to join our energetic, innovative and creative international team, then we would love to meet you.

What’s on offer

• Base salary: 70-80k (depending on experience)
• 10% bonus (based on realistic yet challenging performance targets) 
• Pension plan (3% employer contribution on top of salary) 
• Flexible working hours
• MacBook computer 
• Our promise to invest in our employees through educational courses, webinars, books, training, coaching etc
• New offices centrally located in London (Kensington High Street) 

Get in Touch

For immediate consideration for this great role, please send your CV to myfuture@interioricons.com, along with a note explaining why we should snap you up.  We can’t wait to hear from you.