Sourcing Specialist (South Korea)

Role: Sourcing Specialist

Salary: $3,000 - $5,000 / month

Location: Remote, located in South Korea

Manufactured is a venture backed inventory platform. We are building the first inventory exchange for SMBs creating, making, and selling physical products around the world. We serve customers doing $1M - $100M in annual revenues in Fashion, Accessories, Healthcare, Construction Materials, CPG, Food, Electronics, Home Goods, Industrials, and Commodities. 

With over 800+ vendors across 25 countries (and growing), we make the inventory cycle a breeze by handling everything from vendor discovery and negotiation to shipping, warehouse coordination, quality control, PO advances, through to collections. With over $150 million in volume powered by Manufactured since we launched in 2019, we deliver a compelling inventory partnership for fast growing SMBs. 

We are a post-Product Market Fit, Series A startup that is growing 850% Year on Year. There is tremendous opportunity in our ~45 person team to take ownership, make an impact, and build an extremely rewarding, accomplished career. 

We don’t care about: 

• Where you went to college
• What you studied
• If you’ve worked at blue chip companies 

We do care about: 

• What you’ve done
• What you can do
• How you’ll do it 

This looks like: 

• Making success a priority: We value ownership, initiative, and tenacity 
• Having a point of view: We hire smart people and want to hear opinions. We’re low ego, and we welcome feedback and new ideas informed by data and intuition 
• Being a good person and teammate: We all contribute to a positive, inclusive workplace. Direct communication, kindness, and integrity are non-negotiables 

You’ll be trusted and challenged to do your best work in a fast moving, high performing environment. If this sounds like you, please read on! 

In this role, you'll represent Manufactured in the South Korea region. Your role will be to get the very best from our East Asia suppliers: the best quality, best price, and best performance. 

Responsibilities for this role will be to support U.S. leadership in driving sourcing, as well as, developing innovative solutions for all aspects of sourcing across multiple vertical categories. This dynamic Sourcing Specialist will play a critical role in the growth of our business in East Asia as well as in the expansion of the overall company. 

Qualifications:

• 5-7 years experience sourcing in East Asia
• You are a true expert in sourcing in East Asia. You are well networked with vendors and understand how business operates there 
• You are a native speaker of the local language(s) and are comfortable with the local nuances including values, customs, and business norms
• You’ve successfully managed production and delivery of multiple products in East Asia
• You have a proven track record of working with customers in East Asia and have multiple examples of success working with different partners
• You operate with the highest ethical standards. You do not take kickbacks from partners. Manufactured has a zero tolerance for unethical business practices and we will prosecute for any unethical or illegal behavior
• Startup experience is a plus
• Experience in the following industries is necessary: Beauty & Personal Care

Responsibilities:

• You’ll represent Manufactured in East Asia and provide support for offshore sourcing in the area 
• Expand our network of vendor partners in East Asia. You’ll constantly build our vendor pipeline by fostering new relationships with vendors and promoting awareness of our brand 
• Diversify our vendor partnerships. You’ll identify and partner with vendors in a variety of different industries 
• Trusted advisor to internal and external partners on manufacturing in East Asia
• Verify and onboard new vendors 
• Manage ongoing relationships to ensure consistent high standards and long-term mutual benefits
• Oversee quality and manage production to ensure timely and high quality delivery
• Stay current on local policy, trends, and culture that affects sourcing and East Asia. Use your expertise to recommend new solutions and approaches to resolve issues and optimize end-to-end supply chain processes in East Asia
• Ensure high ethical standards for all operations and uphold Manufactured’s commitment to ethical business practices 
• Work closely with the Sourcing Lead to ensure quotes and samples are processed in a timely fashion
• Maintain an organized record of vendor quotations, catalogs, and capabilities

Working at Manufactured:  

We’re a remote first company, based in Los Angeles. Our team is around forty-five people, and growing quickly. 

Manufactured is a small, fast growing startup. Which means we deal with ambiguity and require a sense of ownership from all our team members. This is reflected in our core values. 

Our core values are: 

Urgency: Always act like an owner, seek help in case of delays beyond 48 hours, move quickly when you have enough information (usually 70-75%), know when to dive in if there’s a crisis, and hold true to the best possible timelines without compromising on quality, value or process.

Authenticity:  Be Authentic, be real, be respectful both, in front of and behind a person’s back. If you are frustrated, you’re frustrated. If you’re stuck, you’re stuck. If you’re worried, you’re worried. Let's support each other in resolving these issues. Be upfront and respectful in your conversation. We are a multi cultural, distributed, global team. Respectful authenticity in communication is critical.

Contextual Ownership: Our business is as much about people and relationships as it is about technology and process. We take time to build relationships and understand the needs of our internal and external partners. Context and empathy helps us understand the “why”. We set goals and drive outcomes based on context and realities, rather than tasks and process alone.

Effectiveness: Did it work? Did it solve the problem? Was it a short term hack or a long term process solution that benefits everyone? Was it something we can use to grow / move forward or was it a defensive solution. Did we meet our stakeholders’ expectations, did we exceed them? Did our stakeholders all win? Are you using your time correctly? Are you helping your team members use their time well? Are you contributing to the growth of the company?

Critical path thinking:  "What is the shortest risk-mitigated route to the Best Potential Outcome?"

Our CEO and Founder, Pranay Srinivasan, writes often on LinkedIn about our culture and operating principles. We recommend these articles in particular: 

Our core values: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6993599543976099840/

Our operating framework: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/pranaysrinivasan_08312022-a-big-part-of-our-work-at-manufactured-activity-6970875309470494720--bfv/