CGSS1102CNBilingual New Product Developer
Negotiable • Full time • ShenZhen, China
Company Information
An exciting opportunity for an intelligent Mandarin English speaking candidate to enhance their language skills and broaden their experience as part of a product sourcing team working with suppliers and factories in Shenzhen, China.
Our client is a small and dynamic business that develops innovative electronic digital camera and video products for consumer and industrial applications. The products are designed in the UK, manufactured in China and sold through distribution throughout the world. The business is growing very fast.
The company is part owned by a $150m US distributor and has recently obtained investment to expand its product ranges. We are therefore seeking new Mandarin speaking staff to help expand our product development activities.
Job Description
The role involves working as part of our sourcing team who live and work in Shenzhen, China.
The sourcing team are responsible for managing our suppliers, their engineers and designers and co-ordinating effort to ensure the best possible speed to market for new products.
The work involves working at all levels of the supply chain to take a new product design from specification to mass produced product. This includes identifying and vetting quality suppliers and factories, obtaining quotes for development and for tooling, working closely with engineering teams sometimes in one supplier, sometimes coordinating many suppliers to progress the development of mechanical design, electronics and software, tooling and ultimately mass production.
Whilst a key aspect of the role is driving and monitoring project progress it is more complex than this and involves continual checking that work is being carried out in accordance with the product specification. Another important aspect of the role is to build and strengthen relationships with suppliers, key individuals and engineers to ensure our projects get delivered on time and to the quality standards expected. It is not just language skills but excellent personal communication skills that are required.
Tasks
- Monitor and progress multiple product development projects
- Manage and motivate suppliers to deliver solutions on time and to budget
- Negotiate development costs and bill of materials to budget
- Identify every task and milestone in a project and focus on key objectives
- Report back to project managers on a daily basis
- Track critical paths to ensure milestones reached and to avoid slippage
- Constantly monitor and report on progress, problems and solutions
- Implement and manage project changes and interventions to achieve goals
Responsibility
- Shared responsibility for project delivery
Reward and opportunity
- Base salary + bonuses upon delivery of projects on schedule.
- Flights and initial period of hotel accommodation will be provided.
Required Skills
An understanding of the cultural differences between the Chinese and the west is important to help avoid misinterpretation of requirements and to ensure products are developed to specification. The role requires a meticulous attention to detail and the ability to effectively communicate complex ideas and concepts so that engineers understand our requirements.
The ideal candidate will be a team player but also self starting, have a high level of initiative and excellent planning and time management skills. Above all the greatest trait must be common sense and the ability to develop solutions to challenging problems.
Whilst a background in engineering is desirable it is not essential, rather a high level of intelligence and the ability to grasp ideas and concepts quickly and to then communicate these.
Once suppliers are selected and orders placed, the work involves continual monitoring of progress and paying regular visits to suppliers to ensure development is on schedule and in line with expectations.
Working closely with our client manager you will be part of a team comprising Americans and Chinese and will benefit from their considerable experience in product sourcing in China. You will have back office support in China to assist with routine tasks, progressing, appointment making etc.
Whilst reporting to the client manager in China, you will be supported and guided by our UK based project management team and will be required to report back to the UK on a daily basis, providing comprehensive progress reports to assist the project planners to ensure milestones are met and slippage is avoided.
You should have excellent IT and communication skills and have a full understanding of the principles of effective project management and a willingness to learn new software where necessary.
Qualifications
- Degree qualified or similar – preferably in engineering or project management
Key skills
- Fluent Mandarin and English
- Good communication
- Quick to learn and understand technical issues
- Planning and organising with the ability to prioritise own workload
- Ability to anticipate problems and delays and act accordingly
- Excellent reporting skills
- Critical thinking and problem solving
- Ability to work on multiple projects
- Good team worker
- IT skills and experience with MS Project or similar
- Highly adaptable
- Stress tolerant
Desirable skills
- Technical background
- Global perspective on the world
- Outgoing personality
This job was created on 02/02/2011.