sweater designer

📌 Position Overview

The Sweater Designer will be responsible for designing sweaters and knitwear for juniors and kids categories. This role includes creating CADs, developing stitch and yarn concepts, building tech packs, and closely collaborating with merchandising, production, and the design team. The ideal candidate has strong knowledge of sweater gauges, stitches, yarns, and construction.

🛠 Key Responsibilities

Sweater Design & Development

• Design sweaters and knit tops for juniors and kids categories
• Create CADs, stitch layouts, colorways, and design boards
• Develop original knit patterns, jacquards, cables, ribs, pointelles, intarsias, etc.
• Build complete tech packs with yarn, stitch, gauge, and construction details

Trend & Market Research

• Research sweater trends, silhouettes, and yarn innovations weekly
• Analyze market best sellers and competitor styles
• Present trend boards and concepts during line development

Technical & Fabric Knowledge

• Work with a variety of yarns: acrylic, cotton blends, novelty yarns, recycled fibers, etc.
• Understand gauges (3gg–14gg ), knitting techniques, wash/shrink considerations
• Review and comment on knit-downs, strike-offs, and sweater samples
• Collaborate with production to ensure accurate execution and cost efficiency

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner with merchandising to build strong seasonal assortments
• Collaborate with sales and production on timelines, margin goals, and customer needs
• Communicate design updates and maintain organized design files and libraries

🎯 Required Qualifications

• 3–5 years of experience in sweater or knitwear design
• Strong CAD skills (Adobe Illustrator required; Photoshop a plus)
• Experience with juniors, young contemporary, or kids categories preferred
• Clear understanding of sweater stitches, yarns, and construction
• Ability to build complete sweater tech packs
• Strong trend awareness and color sense
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, high-volume design environment