Manager, Costing Excellence (Fashion) – Manufacturing Excellence Focus

About the Job

As the Manager, Costing Excellence for Walmart’s Fashion Sourcing, you will lead cost and manufacturing excellence across diverse apparel categories. In this role, you will synthesize bottom-up Should-Cost modeling, Clean-Sheet analysis, and value engineering with factory capability evaluations, Lean methodologies, and continuous improvement practices. Your primary objective is to enhance operational productivity, product quality, scalability, and margin performance across our sourcing footprint. You will translate complex manufacturing data into practical, high-impact supplier improvement plans while ensuring all programs meet Walmart’s standards for quality, responsible sourcing, and everyday value.

Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

About The Team

At Walmart, our fashion business delivers quality, innovation, and everyday value through an extensive global supplier network. The Costing Excellence team functions as a center of expertise, partnering across Merchandising, Product Development, Sourcing, Quality, and Compliance, as well as with external manufacturing partners. Our mission is to improve cost transparency, elevate manufacturing capabilities, and strengthen operational performance. We foster a collaborative, data-driven environment that applies disciplined cost management and continuous improvement to build a resilient, efficient, and responsible sourcing ecosystem.

About The Role

This is an individual contributor role for a technical authority who connects factory manufacturing operations with strategic commercial and margin outcomes. Reporting directly to the Director of Costing Excellence, you will lead the hands-on execution of Should-Cost modeling and Clean-Sheet analysis through systematic assessments of factory productivity, capacity, and manufacturing maturity. Working alongside cross-functional partners and supplier leadership, you will formulate standard methodologies and improvement roadmaps to reinforce operational discipline and secure measurable cost, efficiency, and margin benefits across the global fashion supply base.

What You'll Do

• Product Cost Architecture (Clean-Sheet & Value Engineering): Apply bottom-up costing methodologies to establish fact-based product cost baselines, identifying concrete optimization opportunities across raw materials, garment construction, labor minutes, plant overhead, and manufacturing processes.
• Labor & Capacity Mechanics (Cost-to-Manufacturing Linkage): Convert operational manufacturing variables—including labor minutes via General Sewing Data (GSD), production line efficiency, material utilization, cutting yield, factory capacity, and overhead—into actionable Should-Cost benchmarks and margin opportunities.
• Factory Diagnostics (Capability & Scalability Audits): Conduct technical evaluations of supplier manufacturing facilities across productivity, quality, capacity, process maturity, and cost competitiveness, transforming diagnostic findings into prioritized, measurable improvement roadmaps.
• Shop-Floor Optimization (Lean & Process Excellence): Deploy Lean manufacturing principles, Six Sigma problem-solving, root-cause analysis, and continuous improvement methods to improve throughput, yield, efficiency, and waste performance across apparel operations.
• Digital Transformation (Systems & Predictive Analytics): Operate and advance the adoption of AI-driven costing tools, predictive analytics, and enterprise digital platforms to safeguard data integrity and deliver real-time margin transparency.
• Cross-Functional Integration (Internal Matrix Alignment): Collaborate directly with Merchandising, Product Development, Sourcing, Quality, and Compliance teams to support on-time product launches, implement factory enhancements, and optimize product margins.
• Commercial Enablement (Fact-Based Supplier Engagement): Provide objective factory-performance evidence, Should-Cost benchmarks, and technical recommendations to lead supplier commercial negotiations, formalize corrective action plans, and secure target-cost alignment.
• Program Governance (Continuous Improvement Tracking): Systematically identify, prioritize, and monitor operational and costing improvements across the supplier matrix, ensuring all efficiency and financial gains are measurable, scalable, and sustained.
• Supply Chain Economics (Total Landed Cost Optimization): Assess end-to-end production, quality, logistics, capacity, supplier performance, and external risk variables to optimize Total Landed Cost (TLC) and enhance global supply resilience.
• Sustainable Operations (Responsible Manufacturing): Embed ethical labor compliance, statutory wage requirements, resource efficiency, waste reduction, and sustainability criteria directly into factory improvement frameworks and bottom-up costing models.

What You'll Bring

• Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing/Industrial Engineering, Supply Chain, Business, Finance, Fashion Merchandising, or a related discipline; an MBA or advanced degree is preferred.
• Professional Experience: 7+ years of progressive experience in apparel costing, manufacturing excellence, industrial engineering, supplier development, sourcing, or supply chain, with verified hands-on exposure to factory floor operations.
• Costing & Value Engineering: Demonstrated hands-on expertise in Clean-Sheet cost modeling, Should-Cost analysis, value engineering, GSD or labor-cost analysis, and data-driven supplier engagement.
• Manufacturing Excellence: Practical knowledge and application of Lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, root-cause analysis, productivity improvement, yield enhancement, waste reduction, and standardized work.
• Analytical Rigor: Strong quantitative and analytical problem-solving skills, with the ability to evaluate complex cost and manufacturing data, quantify commercial opportunities, and translate findings into clear strategic recommendations.
• Digital Fluency: Proficiency in AI-driven costing tools, enterprise resource systems, advanced analytics, and Microsoft Office, with an orientation toward automation and digital manufacturing platforms.
• Communication & Influence: Strong stakeholder management and supplier-coaching capabilities, with a proven ability to communicate technical findings clearly and influence action across matrixed cross-functional teams.
• Program Leadership: Proven track record of managing multiple cross-functional factory improvement initiatives simultaneously, tracking verifiable outcomes, and sustaining performance improvements in a fast-paced global sourcing environment.

This job description is intended to provide a general overview of the responsibilities and qualifications for this position. It is not an exhaustive list of all duties and is subject to change based on business needs.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Walmart, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer By Choice. We believe we are best equipped to help our associates, customers and the communities we serve live better when we really know them. That means understanding, respecting and valuing unique styles, experiences, identities, ideas and opinions while being welcoming of all people.

Walmart doesn’t charge any recruitment or similar fee in the recruitment process, including but not limited to interview, offering, and onboarding.