Designer: Women's Apparel

Pivot Apparel is seeking a visionary and highly technical Women's Apparel Designer. This is an immersive, in-office leadership position designed for an industry veteran possessing 7 years of design experience, a masterful understanding of garment construction, and a proven track record of mentoring design talent and managing end-to-end production communication.

As the Women's Apparel Designer, you will suppor the creative direction and technical execution of our contemporary women's apparel lines from initial concept through to final production approval. Operating dynamically out of our NYC headquarters, you will command the product lifecycle—bridging innovative design, market research, and technical excellence. This role demands a hands-on leader who thrives in physical fittings, commands fabric selection, can deliver overarching seasonal direction, and possesses flawless communication protocols with overseas manufacturing partners.

Key Responsibilities

• Trend & Merchandising Direction: Provide overarching merchandising and trend direction for the design team. Drive cohesive seasonal concepts and product architectures that align creative vision with commercially viable assortments.
• Technical Design & Fitting Excellence: Direct and execute comprehensive garment fittings. Lead fit sessions on live models, analyze proportion, balance, and drape, and provide precise, actionable modifications to technical design partners to achieve impeccable product execution.
• Tech Pack Mastery & Workflow Approvals: Review, manage, and sign off on highly detailed, production-ready tech packs (including BOMs, detailed construction callouts, and graded specs). Own the comprehensive approval workflow for lab dips, strike-offs, fabric hands, and pre-production samples.
• Fabric Knowledge & Sourcing: Utilize extensive material expertise to source and select fabrics, yarns, trims, and finishes that satisfy both aesthetic expectations and margin targets. Troubleshoot fabric performance, shrinkage, and quality issues proactively.
• Market Research: Maintain exhaustive, up-to-date market knowledge by researching and competitive shopping in-store. Translate consumer trends, material shifts, and competitor white spaces into actionable design ideas.
• Overseas Factory Communication: Act as the primary technical point of contact for international vendors and factories (primarily across Asia and Europe). Maintain clear, concise, and daily communication to resolve manufacturing constraints, clarify construction nuances, and guarantee on-time delivery.
• Workflow & Deadline Management: Multitask seamlessly across multiple seasons, prioritizing fast-moving deadlines and deliverables in a high-volume, fast-paced environment.
• Team Management: Mentor a dedicated team of junior and associate designers. Cultivate a collaborative, high-performance studio culture while ensuring all creative output aligns with overall brand strategy, financial metrics, and delivery calendars.

Required Qualifications

• Experience: Minimum of 7 years of progressive design experience within women's apparel, with a substantial portion spent operating at a senior or directorial level.
• Education: Bachelors degree in Design
• Market Sector Expertise: Experience designing for and navigating the specific product, margin, and high-volume constraints of discounters and club channels is highly preferred.
• Location Requirement: Must be able to work 100% in-office at our New York City creative workspace. Remote or hybrid options are not available for this role.
• Technical Mastery: Elite understanding of garment construction, pattern making, spec development, and grading across diverse fabrications (wovens, knits, cut-and-sew).
• Communication: Superior written and verbal communication skills, specifically honed for cross-cultural, cross-time-zone collaboration with overseas factory managers.
• Travel: Flexibility and ability to travel domestic and international as needed for factory visits, fabric sourcing, and market research.
• Software Proficiency: Advanced proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop), PLM development software, and Microsoft Office.

What We Offer

• Highly competitive base salary and performance-based incentive bonus structure.
• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision insurance plans.
• 401(k) retirement matching program.
• Generous paid time off, corporate holidays