Materials Development Associate - Apparel

About the Role

We're looking for a Materials Development Associate to provide seasonal coverage on our apparel materials team. You'll own the technical side of materials development for our sportswear and lifestyle collections - managing fabrics, prints, base textiles, and wash development. This isn't a design role; it's about translating design direction into technically sound, production-ready materials.

You'll partner with our design, product development, and product management teams to brief on specifications, execute testing and validation, and get materials set up in our systems so production can run smoothly. You'll manage vendor relationships, coordinate lab testing, track physical samples, and make sure all technical data is accurate.

What You Bring

Must Have:

• 3+ years of materials development experience (apparel or related)
• Deep technical materials knowledge: yarns, knitting, weaving, dyeing, printing, and finishing techniques
• Ability to take a design brief and own the technical execution from concept through production setup
• Comfort managing testing and validation processes - requesting tests, analyzing results, troubleshooting failures
• Strong vendor communication and relationship management
• Detail-oriented and organized (tracking 100+ concurrent dev packages, samples, and test specs is the norm)

Nice to Have:

• Fortune 500 retail or athletic brand experience
• Cross-functional product development background (you've worked with design, tech dev, product teams before)
• Familiarity with PLM systems, spreadsheet management, and collaborative tools

Required Software/Tools:

• PCX or similar PLM
• Smartsheets or similar project tracking
• Miro or collaborative design tools

Education

Bachelor's degree in Apparel Design, Materials Science, Fashion, or related field, OR equivalent hands-on experience in materials development.

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**About Aquent Talent**

Aquent Talent connects the best talent in marketing, creative, and design with the world's biggest brands.

Our eligible talent get access to amazing benefits like subsidized health, vision, and dental plans, paid sick leave, and retirement plans with a match. We also offer free online training through Aquent Gymnasium. More information on our awesome benefits!

Aquent is an equal-opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics. We're about creating an inclusive environment-one where different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives are valued, and everyone can contribute, grow their careers, and thrive.