Womenswear Footwear & Bags Designer - Next Sourcing

Working Pattern: Typically 5 days a week onsite with core flexible hours between 8am to 6pm

Next Sourcing are looking for a trend driven experienced Womenswear Footwear & Bags Designer, looking to push our Womenswear Footwear & Bags designs!

We’re so much more than just a British retailer. From Istanbul to Shanghai, our Sourcing teams live and work in some of the most iconic cities in the world.

They're at the heart of finding, developing and delivering the products our customers love, wear and use every day. Located across the globe, our Next Sourcing teams specialise in all different parts of the sourcing operation, from design and technology to product development.

What You’ll Take On

• Design Full Women’s Footwear & Bag Ranges: Create cohesive, multi category collections spanning heels, flats, boots, casual trainers, totes, cross-body bags, and evening clutches tailored to the NEXT customer.
• Translate Global Trends: Conduct continuous trend research across runway shows, global street style, and material innovations to identify key seasonal colours, silhouettes, hardware, and fabrications.
• Inspirational & Development Travel: Embark on seasonal trend trips to fashion capitals for inspiration, and travel to international factories to collaborate directly on prototyping and material sourcing.
• Drive Rapid Design Cycles: Respond quickly to fast turnaround briefs, producing detailed CAD concepts, material swatches, and design specs at high energy and speed.
• Balance Style, Cost, and Quality: Select the right leathers, synthetics, textiles, and hardware to achieve a premium aesthetic and high standard of durability while adhering to target price points.
• Partner with Global Teams: Work daily alongside UK Buying and Merchandising teams to align on product strategy, while coordinating with overseas technical factories to ensure accurate execution of design specs.
• Manage Critical Paths: Track and manage product lifecycles to ensure sample delivery stays on schedule, from initial sketch approval through to final production.

What You’ll Bring

• Product & Construction Knowledge: A deep understanding of footwear lasts, bag structures, pattern making, hardware, and material behavior across both synthetic and genuine leathers.
• Commercial Vision: A sharp commercial eye capable of translating high fashion trends into wearable, high volume products for the high street.
• Technical CAD Proficiency: Advanced skills in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to produce clear, accurate tech packs and factory ready CAD specs.
• Agility & Pace: Excellent time management and organisational skills, with a proven track record of managing multi category seasonal deadlines in a fast paced environment.
• Collaboration & Communication: Strong interpersonal skills to present design ideas confidently to commercial teams and communicate clearly with international manufacturing partners.

Portfolios

To help us get a feel for your style, please attach a digital portfolio to your application. To help you put your best foot forward, we’ve put together a fewtop tips on what makes a portfolio stand out to our team.

Applications without a portfolio will notbe considered.

Sponsorship

Candidates wishing to apply who would require sponsorship for this role will be required to meet the Home Office sponsorship requirements. For further information please see:https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa.

We encourage early applications for our roles, as our recruitment process begins as soon as the role is advertised. If we successfully fill the position, this advert may close earlier than planned.

At NEXT, we believe the best work happens when there are no barriers to collaboration. That’s why we are a Google-powered workspace. From your very first day, you’ll be using the full Google Workspace suite; Docs, Drive, and Meet, to stay connected and move fast.

If your previous experience is rooted in other software suites, don’t worry! We’ll point you to a digital Google toolkit the moment you join, packed with handy guides and insider tips to help you transition smoothly and hit the ground running.

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