Vendor Sourcing & Procurement Manager (Menswear Fashion Brand)
Location: Thane
Department: Sourcing & Procurement
Industry: Fashion / Menswear / D2C
Experience: 2–5 years
Employment: Full-time
About the Role
We are looking for a highly proactive and tech-savvy Vendor Sourcing & Procurement professional to build and manage the vendor ecosystem for our fashion brand.
This is not a traditional merchandising or purchase-follow-up role.
The core responsibility is to hunt for the right vendors, discover new suppliers, initiate conversations, negotiate commercially, qualify vendors and build long-term supplier relationships across fabrics, garments, trims, packaging and other requirements of the business.
The ideal candidate is someone who is excellent at finding things.
If we give you a requirement and say, “We need someone who can make/source this,” you should be able to use Google, LinkedIn, IndiaMART, industry directories, AI tools, social media, databases and your own network to find potential suppliers, reach the right decision-makers and open conversations.
Key Responsibilities1. Vendor Hunting & Sourcing
- Proactively identify and discover new vendors and suppliers across the fashion ecosystem.
- Search online and offline for manufacturers, fabric suppliers, trim suppliers, packaging vendors and other relevant partners.
- Use platforms such as Google, LinkedIn, IndiaMART, TradeIndia, supplier directories, exhibitions, social media and other sourcing platforms.
- Build and continuously expand a database of potential vendors.
- Find vendors beyond the company's existing network rather than relying only on known suppliers.
- Identify the right contact person / decision-maker within each organization.
- Develop new sourcing channels and methods to continuously discover better vendors.
2. Cold Calling & Outreach
- Take ownership of the first contact with new vendors.
- Make frequent outbound calls to potential suppliers.
- Introduce the company and communicate sourcing requirements clearly.
- Conduct initial vendor qualification over phone/email.
- Follow up consistently until a clear outcome is achieved.
- Schedule meetings and calls between relevant internal stakeholders and qualified vendors.
- Maintain professional and effective communication throughout the vendor acquisition process.
3. Email & Business Communication
- Draft clear and professional vendor communication.
- Send sourcing briefs, requirements, RFQs and development requests.
- Request quotations, MOQs, lead times, capabilities, catalogues and samples.
- Follow up systematically with vendors.
- Maintain proper written records of commercial discussions and commitments.
4. AI & Technology-Driven Sourcing
We expect this person to be very comfortable with technology and AI.
- Use AI tools to improve vendor discovery, research and sourcing efficiency.
- Use AI to identify potential suppliers from large amounts of online information.
- Research new sourcing platforms, databases and digital tools.
- Find smarter and faster ways to discover suppliers and decision-makers.
- Use technology to compare vendors, organize information and build sourcing databases.
- Continuously experiment with new tools and methods to improve sourcing productivity.
The expectation is not simply to “use ChatGPT.” The expectation is to figure out how technology can help us find better vendors, faster.
5. Negotiation & Procurement
- Negotiate prices aggressively but professionally.
- Negotiate fabric, garment, trim, packaging and other procurement costs.
- Negotiate MOQ, payment terms, lead times, development charges and commercial terms.
- Compare multiple vendors before making recommendations.
- Challenge vendor quotations and identify opportunities for cost reduction.
- Build strong commercial relationships while protecting the company's interests.
- Maintain clear records of quotations and negotiated prices.
The candidate should be strong-handed in negotiation and comfortable pushing back when vendor pricing or terms are not commercially viable.
6. Vendor Qualification
Before bringing a vendor internally, evaluate:
- Product capability
- Quality
- Pricing
- MOQ
- Capacity
- Lead time
- Location
- Infrastructure
- Existing customer base
- Reliability
- Responsiveness
- Development capability
- Commercial terms
The goal is not to generate a list of vendors.
The goal is to identify:
“These are the 3–5 vendors we should actually speak to.”7. Fashion & Product Understanding
The candidate should have a strong understanding of the fashion/apparel ecosystem.
Exposure to any of the following will be valuable:
- Fabrics
- Garments
- Menswear
- Womenswear
- Trims
- Accessories
- Packaging
- Manufacturing
- Product development
- Apparel sourcing
Fashion experience is important because the person must understand what they are sourcing, what questions to ask vendors and whether a supplier is actually capable of fulfilling the requirement.
8. Vendor Relationship Management
Once a vendor is qualified:
- Maintain the relationship as the primary sourcing contact.
- Ensure communication remains centralized.
- Track ongoing discussions, quotations, samples and developments.
- Keep vendor information updated.
- Build a strong long-term supplier network.
- Maintain multiple vendor options for important categories to reduce dependency.
What Success Looks Like
You should be able to give this person a requirement such as:
“Find us 10 suppliers who can produce premium packaging for a fashion brand.”
And within a short period, they should be able to:
Search → Identify → Research → Contact → Call → Qualify → Negotiate → Shortlist → Arrange Meeting
The person should not wait for introductions.
They should create the introductions themselves.
Ideal Candidate Profile
We are looking for someone who is:
- Highly proactive and self-driven.
- Excellent at online research and information discovery.
- Very comfortable making cold calls.
- Strong in verbal and written communication.
- Comfortable negotiating with vendors.
- Tech-savvy and curious about new technology.
- Comfortable using AI tools for research and productivity.
- Strong at finding information that is difficult to find.
- Persistent with follow-ups.
- Commercially sharp.
- Comfortable dealing directly with business owners and senior vendor contacts.
- Familiar with the fashion/apparel ecosystem.
- Able to work independently without requiring constant direction.
The right person thinks:“If the vendor doesn't exist in our network, I'll find them.”This Role Is NOT
This is not primarily:
- A merchandising role
- A production-follow-up role
- A purchase-order processing role
- A data-entry role
- A passive vendor coordination role
- An office-based procurement administration role
The majority of the value in this position comes from:
Finding → Contacting → Qualifying → Negotiating → Building
Key Performance Indicators
Performance will be evaluated on:
- Number of new relevant vendors discovered
- Number of vendors contacted
- Cold calls made
- Meaningful vendor conversations
- Qualified vendors generated
- New vendor meetings arranged
- New vendor relationships established
- Cost savings achieved through negotiation
- Quality of vendor options generated
- Speed of sourcing
- Strength and depth of vendor database
Required Skills
Must Have:
- Fashion / apparel industry experience
- Strong communication skills
- Excellent internet research ability
- Strong cold-calling ability
- Strong email communication
- Strong negotiation skills
- Good commercial understanding
- High level of technology comfort
- Experience using AI tools
- Strong follow-up discipline
- Ability to independently hunt for vendors
Preferred:
- Existing network across fashion/apparel suppliers
- Experience with fabric / garment / trim / packaging sourcing
- Experience working with D2C or fashion brands
- Experience negotiating directly with manufacturers or suppliers
- Experience using sourcing databases and B2B platforms
One-Line Definition of the RoleFind the right vendors, get them on the phone, negotiate hard, qualify them, and build the sourcing network that the brand can depend on.
Pay: ₹40,000.00 - ₹65,000.00 per month
Application Question(s):
- Please briefly describe your relevant experience in Fashion/Apparel, Sourcing, Procurement and/or Vendor Onboarding. Mention your total years of experience and the types of vendors/categories you have sourced (e.g. fabrics, garments, trims, packaging, manufacturing units).
- How much hands-on experience do you have in independently finding, approaching, negotiating with and onboarding new vendors? Please give one specific example of a vendor you sourced and onboarded yourself.
- What is your current annual CTC and expected annual CTC?
- Are you comfortable working full-time from our Thane office? Please mention your current location, whether you are currently employed, your notice period, and your earliest possible joining date. If you are currently not employed, please mention when you were last working.
Work Location: In person
