Color Manager Title: Color Manager (149-1)

Grade Level 20 Reports to: Sr. Director Design, Performance

Who We Are:

At Athleta, we work hard and play hard together. Our goal is simple. At Athleta, our mission is to ignite a community of active, healthy, confident women and girls who empower each other to reach their limitless potential. We're looking for those who continually push themselves to be their best while celebrating inclusivity & diversity, sustainability, innovation, and equality. We conceptualize and create solves with the customer at our core. We work as a team and recognize the value of being a part of something bigger. As Color Manager, you will join the Design and Product Development team. You will work closely with the Sr. Designer-Color/Concept & Trend, and cross functional partners during the development and execution of color for the Athleta Brand.

About the Role:

The Color Manager sits within the Design Team – their focus lies in the art and the science of color execution, color quality and a compelling consumer experience at retail. They will drive color excellence through materials execution, in connection with the conceptual vision. They are instrumental in establishing Athleta’s expression of color, considering quality limitations and recommendations specific to fabrication, surface novelty, and trim. The role requires close cross-functional partnership to ensure our products are beautiful, technical and sustainable.

What You’ll Do (Key Responsibilities):

• Support palette color recommendations at conceptual & development stage:

 -Issuing fabric dye stuff limitations & color recommendations to Design, Production & Merchandising teams 

 -Yielding fabric color recommendations/limitations surrounding colorfastness testing results in the development stage to avoid production issues

 -Creating brand appropriate, inclusive color names, assign PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) color #, and upload all colors for bill of material creation

 -Create and organize seasonal palette information, color records to be accessible and retrievable for the Designers, cross functional teams, Global International Sourcing Production teams, graphic screen-printing vendors, and materials vendors/mills

 -Provide collaboration, color support, technical expertise for special projects/collaboration color palettes

• Provide color recommendations involving:

 -Shade band approvals for garment shipments 

 -Color recommendations for materials, including trims for standard matching

 -Thread matches for seasonal color standards, novelty heather, print/pattern and jacquards

 -Pantone # (PMS) matches for seasonal color standards for labels, paper print/graphics

 -Solid color cross-matches against the seasonal color standards and novelty surface techniques

• Create & support management of seasonal color palette tools:

 -Oversee creation, distribution of seasonal design tool color palettes for Design, Merchandising, Marketing and Visual teams for key gates (Ideation, Alignment, Adoption & Details) 

 -Order physical color standards for seasonal color evaluation (Global sourcing Color Teams, Brand Color) and for cross functional seasonal color reference tools

 -Manage and create purchase orders in finance program to initiate ordering of color libraries, color standards and design tools for seasonal color palettes

• Work closely with our certified color service providers (Archroma, CSI, Coloro & Pantone) to achieve custom color standard development, fabric & dye limitation direction, organization, and vendor/mill/supplier distribution; as well as distributing the non-certified color standards (physical and electronic color standards) to the vendors/mills

• Oversee and manage lab dip/ production color evaluations:

 -Assist in technical support for the lab dip and production evaluations using spectral/visual data for color accuracy, cross color fabrications, color execution and providing feedback to mills/vendors within development timelines

 -Yielding technical assistance to vendors/mills for color re-formulation, and further color matching accuracy, by consulting with dye stuff experts

• Pilot Natific Digital Color platform for Athleta with Global International Sourcing support, providing centralized color evaluation comments, color requests, status updates through direct vendor communication for accuracy and efficiency. Color metrics on dropped/overdevelopment. Vendor/Mill self-approval/digital color submissions with CAP accreditation process for quicker, efficient response in production cycle to market.

• Facilitate discussions with Global Color teams, Brand Color teams (Athleta, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Gap) and manage all new initiatives and processes, for Gap Inc. Color Standard Operating Manual.

• Administer color vision testing and basic color training to all on-boarding vendors/mills, and to all production employees for the Athleta Brand.

• Manage and provide career advancement color training, career support and leadership to my direct report.

Who You Are (Qualifications):

• College Degree-BS/BA in Apparel/Product Design

• Must have a superior discrimination with the Farnsworth Munsell Color Hue Test

• Proficient in Color Evaluation Program & Spectrophotometer (iQc) & Natific ASAP Program a plus

• Proficient in Oracle Finance Program a plus

• Dynamic, team-oriented attitude; positive energy with an ability to take feedback

• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment, being able to juggle multiple seasons at one time

• Well-crafted communication and organizational skills; strong detail orientation, project management and prioritization skills

• Self-leadership skills with passion to mentor and coach junior Color Analysts

• Proficiency in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop + InDesign, Microsoft applications

• 8+ years experience in fashion/product/color design; Bachelor’s Degree or higher