About the Company:
Knya is a fast-growing D2C brand redefining healthcare apparel for up-to-date 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 transpar
📌 Footwear Merchandiser (Mumbai)
🏢 Knya
📍 Mumbai