Sr. Materials Specialist

Established in 1973, Roots is a proudly Canadian lifestyle brand that celebrates authenticity, quality, and community. Inspired by the great outdoors, we create timeless, sustainable apparel and leather goods designed for comfort and everyday adventure. At Roots, we believe in fostering a culture of inclusivity, creativity, and teamwork – where every team member plays a role in shaping our brand’s legacy.

If you bring passion to everything you do, lead with integrity, and believe in the power of collaboration to drive growth, we’d love to have you on our journey!

The Senior Materials Specialist
* 19-Month
Contract* is responsible for leading and optimizing the fabric sourcing, development, and material management processes to align with the company’s quality, sustainability, and cost-efficiency objectives. This role requires a deep understanding of material trends, supplier relations, and cross‑functional collaboration to enhance product quality, innovation, and supply chain effectiveness.

• Lead the identification, sourcing, and evaluation of a diverse range of fabric materials from domestic and international mills/vendors, ensuring compliance with quality, sustainability, and cost objectives.
• Develop and maintain strategic relationships with key suppliers to drive innovation, improve material performance, and ensure on‑time deliveries.
• Provide expertise in market trends, emerging fabric technologies, and sourcing strategies to support business objectives and drive continuous improvement in material selection.
• Oversee fabric testing reports and development assessment tools to standardize quality expectations across functional teams.
• Collaborate closely with PD&S, design, and production teams to ensure materials align with pricing architecture, performance requirements, and design intent.
• Proactively resolve material costing, quality, and supplier performance issues by working cross functionally and maintaining strong communication channels.
• Manage the material development process to ensure alignment with calendar timelines and business needs, mitigating risks and optimizing efficiency.
• Enhance and oversee the maintenance of the physical and virtual fabric library, ensuring accessibility, organization, and ease of use for cross‑functional teams.
• Develop and implement best practices for fabric tracking, documentation, and compliance, ensuring adherence to sustainability and certification requirements.
• Lead the creation, organization, and management of the Raw Material Code (RMC) system for fabrics, ensuring accuracy and accessibility.
• Oversee wear test sample tracking and management, ensuring timely assessments and documentation for continuous product improvement.
• Ensure accurate entry of approved fabric content into internal systems (e.g., Momentis) to support design and production processes.
• Take a leadership role in coordinating and executing the seasonal supplier week, enhancing vendor collaboration and material selection processes.
• Oversee the core fabric development and continuously improve to ensure the quality meets our original standards to move forward with diversity in fabric mill options.

• Degree or diploma in Fashion
• Minimum 7-8 years of experience in raw materials management, sourcing, and development
• Strong understanding of fabric construction
• Practical experience in testing, quality assurance and sustainability best practices Experience working with sustainable materials is an asset
• Outstanding written and verbal communication
• Strong computer skills, proficient use of Microsoft Office, Excel and PLM systems
• Flexibility and adaptability; able to problem‑solve…