Apparel Sourcing Manager Men's Sweaters
Basis Set Ventures (Basis Set) is an AI-native venture capital fund founded in 2017 that invests in early-stage AI companies, positioning itself as the first capital for founders. The firm backs startups across automated workflows, autonomy, intelligent collaboration, and scalable infrastructure, serving early-stage AI founders and startups as its typical clients.
About Basis Set Ventures
Basis Set Ventures is an AI-native venture fund founded in 2017, built on the science of minds and machines, that recently announced its $250M Fund IV. The firm positions itself as the first institutional capital for founders and provides hands-on, 24/7 'founder concierge' support, acting as its portfolio companies' first customer, sales rep, bug reporter, and recruiter. It invests in AI-first startups spanning categories such as automated workflows, autonomy, intelligent collaboration, and scalable infrastructure, with portfolio companies including Quince, Cusp, Path Robotics, OpenArt, Entire, Tigris Data, Mem0, Vizcom, Simular, and Sakana. Basis Set also publishes original research and perspectives on topics like trucking operations, global customs, maritime transport, real estate, agriculture, and AI agent infrastructure, and runs a Basis Set AI Fellows program for individuals to work on hard problems within the firm and its portfolio companies. Its typical clients are early-stage, AI-native startup founders across a range of industries including consumer, infrastructure, robotics, and enterprise software.
Skills
About the Role
You will build and lead the men's sweaters sourcing function, identifying, pitching, and onboarding vendor partners across Northeast and Europe. You will manage supplier capacity, improve costs, quality, commercial terms, and lead times, source materials, negotiate open costing, and strengthen supplier relationships. You will develop scalable supply chains, improve launch performance and development speed, identify bottlenecks, and establish processes and SOPs with cross-functional stakeholders.
Requirements
- 10+ years of sourcing and merchandising experience in men's apparel categories with high-end national brands in the United States and Europe, specifically men's sweaters
- Supply chain management or operations background
- Open costing breakdown experience from a brand or manufacturer
- Experience negotiating with suppliers throughout the supply chain
- Analytical skills
- Process improvement
- Written and verbal communication
- Presentation skills
Responsibilities
- Scout vendor partners in Northeast and Europe that can manufacture high-quality men's sweaters with fast production lead times
- Pitch and onboard vendor partners using clear test-period and scalability criteria
- Improve supplier operations, costs, quality, commercial terms, and supplier redundancy
- Manage supplier and style-level capacity to support company growth
- Source materials that improve product cost, quality, and speed
- Negotiate with suppliers across T1, T2, and T3 levels, including mills and vendor partners
- Develop validated open-costing structures and negotiate costs with vendor partners
- Build and deepen partner relationships
- Improve product launches, development times, and operational processes
- Identify bottlenecks and propose solutions
- Assess sourcing landscapes and trade benefits for products destined for the United States, Canada, and Europe
- Lead cross-functional stakeholders and define new processes and SOPs