Inventory Planning & Product Quality Manager - Imported Furniture
We are an established importer of residential furniture - upholstery, patio, and case goods - sold through national retail and e-commerce channels. Our product is built by manufacturing partners across Asia, primarily Vietnam and China, and arrives in U.S. distribution centers and customers' homes under our own brand.
We are hiring one person to own the flow of inventory and the integrity of the product behind it. This is a rare scope: inventory planning and purchase order timing, product quality and compliance, factory relationships, and the accuracy of what customers see online - all in one seat, with real authority and no layers between you and the decision.
This is a hands-on role. You will not manage a team. You will personally decide which purchase order moves and when, push factories for corrective action, review inspection reports, and open a carton to confirm that a finish matches the photograph on the website. If you want to direct others to do this work, this is not your role. If you have wanted end-to-end ownership without a bureaucracy in the way, it is.
What you'll own
Inventory planning
- Work with sales to turn rate of sale and weeks of supply into purchase order timing: which PO ships, in what quantity, on which vessel, so product lands ahead of a stockout instead of after one.
- Maintain a live open-PO view by SKU — what's booked, what's on the water, what hasn't started production and is therefore still changeable.
- Flag cover risk early on core collections and bring options with the cost and landed date of each: expedite, split shipment, air, reallocate.
- Own one weekly view — on hand, on order, rate of sale, weeks of supply, landed timing — that sales, merchandising, and finance all work from.
Quality and compliance
- Run the inspection program: pre-production, in-line, and final inspections, including virtual inspections with our in-country teams.
- Issue defect callouts, require corrective action plans, and verify the fix actually appears in the next production run.
- Own the compliance file across the assortment: CARB / TSCA Title VI, PFAS, flammability, FSC chain of custody, certificates of conformity, Prop 65, and law, care, and country-of-origin labeling.
- Manage third-party lab testing end to end, and keep the certificate library in a state where a retail partner's request can be answered the same day.
- Own packaging and pack-out quality: dielines, carton layouts, master ship pack, transit testing, load diagrams, and container loadability — and make sure stated dimensions and weights match the physical goods.
Factory management
- Be the primary product-side contact for our manufacturing partners and overseas teams.
- Drive the sample calendar and hold factories to committed dates.
- Prepare tech packs, run RFQs and price comparisons, and challenge cost and weight increases with evidence.
- Onboard new suppliers end to end: evaluation, setup, quality and compliance requirements, and documentation.
- Keep import documentation complete and on time — commercial invoices, bills of lading, packing lists, and partner portal submissions.
- Support re-sourcing when a factory closes, loses capacity, or fails on quality.
Product content accuracy
- Make sure every live product page reflects the item actually in production and in the box.
- Secure factory photography timed to real production, and verify colorway, finish, hardware, and configuration against the shipping sample before anything publishes.
- Review assembly instructions, spec sheets, dimensions, weights, materials, and care copy before a page goes live.
- Build and own the written process for how product content is captured, checked, approved, and refreshed.
What we're looking for
- Real inventory planning capability: rate of sale, weeks of supply, and planning against a 60–120 day ocean lead time, where the call gets made months before the demand shows up.
- 5+ years in inventory planning, product quality, product development, or technical merchandising for imported furniture, home furnishings, or a comparable hard-goods category.
- Hands-on experience managing Asian manufacturing, whether directly or through an overseas office or agent.
- Working knowledge of U.S. consumer product regulations for furniture: CARB / TSCA, flammability, Prop 65, labeling, and certificates of conformity.
- Experience with a major national retailer's quality and compliance program, including partner-facing documentation and submission portals.
- Practical packaging knowledge — dielines, pack-out, transit testing, container loadability.
- Advanced Excel. You will build the open-PO and coverage view yourself.
- The ability to put a spec sheet, a tech pack, and a physical sample side by side and find the discrepancy.
- Willingness to take early or late calls for overseas time zones, and to be onsite for sample reviews and product presentations.
Nice to have
- You have written and rolled out SOPs where none existed before.
- Familiarity with e-commerce product content workflows (Shopify or similar).
- Experience with a quality inspection app or comparable QC reporting platform.
- Exposure to freight and landed cost trade-offs — ocean versus air, container utilization, duty.
- FSC chain-of-custody administration.
- Market experience (High Point, Las Vegas).
Why this role is worth your time
- Genuine ownership. Four connected functions, one owner, no committee. You will see the result of your judgment in the returns rate and in what's on the shelf.
- Direct access. You work with decision-makers, not through them. When you find a problem, you can fix it that week.
- Build the systems. Much of this is yours to design. If you like inheriting someone else's process, you will be bored here. If you like building the thing that should have existed, you won't be.
- Visible impact. Small enough team that your work shows up in the numbers quickly.
To apply
Send your resume along with a few sentences on a product quality or sourcing problem you personally solved - what was wrong, what you did, and what changed as a result. We read those.
We are an equal opportunity employer and consider all qualified applicants without regard to any characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.
Pay: $5,000.00 - $7,000.00 per month
Work Location: In person
