職務描述
COMPANY DESCRIPTION
Ralph Lauren Corporation (NYSE:RL) is a global leader in the design, marketing and distribution of premium lifestyle products in five categories: apparel, accessories, home, fragrances, and hospitality. For more than 50 years, Ralph Lauren's reputation and distinctive image have been consistently developed across an expanding number of products, brands and international markets. The Company's brand names, which include Ralph Lauren, Ralph Lauren Collection, Ralph Lauren Purple Label, Polo Ralph Lauren, Double RL, Lauren Ralph Lauren, Polo Ralph Lauren Children, Chaps, among others, constitute one of the world's most widely recognized families of consumer brands.
At Ralph Lauren, we unite and inspire the communities within our company as well as those in which we serve by amplifying voices and perspectives to create a culture of belonging, ensuring inclusion, and fairness for all. We foster a culture of inclusion through: Talent, Education & Communication, Employee Groups and Celebration.
POSITION OVERVIEW
This is a fixed-term specialist role engaged to provide deep leather materials expertise and external industry perspectives to assess, challenge, and enhance Ralph Lauren's leather materials capabilities.
The role will evaluate current practices, identify opportunities to improve effectiveness, quality, agility, and organizational capability, and recommend sustainable solutions that support future business needs. Leveraging extensive technical expertise and industry experience, the individual will bring fresh perspectives, introduce relevant best practices, and help shape a future-ready approach to leather materials development and commercialization.
This position will operate as an independent subject matter expert and strategic advisor, partnering with existing teams to strengthen capability, enhance ways of working, and establish recommendations that support long-term success.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES
Leather Materials Expertise
• Serve as a subject matter expert in leather materials, manufacturing processes, material performance, quality standards, and industry best practices.
• Provide independent technical assessment of current leather materials capabilities and operating effectiveness.
• Evaluate emerging materials, technologies, manufacturing developments, and market trends that may influence future business needs.
• Identify opportunities to strengthen material excellence, product quality, and organizational capability through expert insight and industry knowledge.
Materials Development & Business Improvement
• Conduct comprehensive reviews of current leather materials development, approval, commercialization, and quality management practices.
• Assess organizational strengths, capability gaps, process effectiveness, and opportunities for improvement across the leather materials lifecycle.
• Evaluate existing operating models, governance processes, standards, tools, and decision-making frameworks to identify risks, inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and barriers to optimal business outcomes.
• Develop actionable recommendations that strengthen leather materials capability, quality performance, operational effectiveness, and organizational readiness.
• Introduce relevant industry best practices, market intelligence, and external perspectives to support continuous improvement and future capability development.
• Recommend frameworks, standards, governance models, and operating principles that enable sustainable business success and consistent execution.
• Identify opportunities to enhance collaboration, decision-making, effectiveness, and organizational agility across leather materials activities.
• Support the prioritization and adoption of agreed improvement initiatives, ensuring recommendations are practical, scalable, and aligned with business objectives.
Knowledge Sharing & Capability Enhancement
• Document key findings, recommendations, best practices, and improvement opportunities.
• Develop practical tools, guidelines, frameworks, or reference materials that support ongoing capability development.
• Support stakeholder understanding and adoption of recommended improvements through effective communication and knowledge sharing.
• Ensure effective transfer of expertise, recommendations, and best practices to the existing organization.
• Provide guidance on sustaining improvements and strengthening future organizational capability beyond the assignment.
EXPERIENCE, SKILLS & KNOWLEDGE
• Bachelor’s degree in Materials Engineering, Leather Technology, Product Development, Manufacturing, Textile Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent technical and industry experience.
• 10+ years of relevant experience in leather materials, material development, sourcing, manufacturing, product development, or a related technical field.
• Deep expertise in leather materials, tanning processes, finishing techniques, testing methodologies, manufacturing applications, and quality standards.
• Proven ability to assess complex technical and business challenges and develop practical, commercially viable solutions.
• Strong understanding of the global leather market, material trends, manufacturing capabilities, and emerging technologies.
• Experience delivering process improvement, operational excellence, transformation, or capability enhancement initiatives.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, communication, influencing, and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to work effectively as a senior individual contributor within an established organizational structure.
• Experience within premium, luxury, fashion, accessories, footwear, or lifestyle brands is preferred.
• Fluency in English is required; additional language capabilities are advantageous.
