Job Description

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bout the Company

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Knya is a fast-growing D2C brand redefining healthcare apparel for modern professionals. We combine functionality, comfort, and aesthetics to serve a community that deserves more from their workwear. Our culture values ownership, experimentation, speed, and customer obsession. Knya has raised funding, led by DSG Consumer Partners, with participation from the promoter family of Narayana Health and Cipla Health amongst others.

Overview

Own the end-to-end engineering and manufacturability of Knya's medical clogs. Your success is defined by comfort, durability, low returns, and factory reliability not by speed alone. This is not a fashion role. This is closer to medical equipment engineering. Core Responsibilities

1. Footwear Engineering & Development (Primary)

Define and freeze last design for medical clogs (toe box, instep height, heel cup). Specify footbed architecture: arch support, energy return, fatigue reduction. Decide and validate material stack: o EVA / CMEVA / PU compounds o Shore hardness targets o Compression set thresholds Set weight targets per size (men and women separately). Own slip resistance standards suitable for hospital environments. Lead multiple development iterations until wear-test pass.
2. Vendor Development & Sourcing (Secondary, But Critical)

Identify, evaluate, and onboard footwear factories capable of medical-grade production. Own mold development coordination, costing, and amortization logic. Negotiate MOQs, lead times, defect allowances, and rework terms. Maintain at least one backup factory path. Ensure factory adherence to Knya quality standards without dilution for cost.

3. Wear Testing & Quality Readiness

Collaborate with QA to run structured wear tests: 8-12 hour hospital shift simulations Sweat, odor, slip, fatigue testing Analyze failure modes and close loops with factories. Approve or reject production readiness. You have veto power.
4. Costing & Margin Guardrails

Build a transparent BOM and cost waterfall. Optimize cost after comfort and durability are locked. Flag false savings that increase long-term returns or defects. Support pricing and margin targets without compromising core performance.

5. Cross-Functional Collaboration

Work with Product and Brand to ensure function-first storytelling

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Support Growth and Ops with sizing guidance and defect diagnostics. Assist in post-launch iteration and V2 roadmap planning. Success Metrics (Non-Negotiable)

You will be evaluated on:

<10% return rate in first 90 days (size + comfort combined) Wear-test pass rate above 90% Defect rate <2% at factory QC Zero unresolved critical comfort complaints On-time pilot and production delivery Speed matters. Quality matters more. Required Experience You must have: 6-12 years in footwear development and factory-facing roles Taken at least one shoe from concept ? mold ? mass production

Hands-on experience with:

Asian footwear factories Deep understanding of materials, not just vendors Ability to push back on factories and internal pressure Strong preference for: Ex-Decathlon footwear labs Ex-Bata / Relaxo / Action / Asian export houses Senior freelance footwear engineers (Vietnam, China, Indonesia)

What Will Disqualify You Immediately

Only fashion or lifestyle footwear experience Apparel sourcing background without footwear engineering depth

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Trend" or "design-first" mindset Inability to explain comfort failures technically Working Style Expectations Factory floor > office desk Data and testing over opinions Comfortable with ambiguity and iteration Bias for ownership, not escalation
Job Type: Full-time

Pay: ?500,000.00 - ?850,000.00 per year

Benefits:

Provident Fund
Work Location: In person