Hugo Boss – IT recruitment for a global fashion brand

Tsiala Jobava

Last updated on February 17, 2026 | 15 min read

Introduction

A customer stands at checkout while the register fails to process payment. In the warehouse, stock counts no longer match what the system displays. Replenishment orders stall because logistics teams have lost real-time visibility. For a global retailer like HUGO BOSS, disruptions in ERP or POS systems ripple outward within minutes, affecting store operations, supply chain timing, and customer experience simultaneously.

To reduce system vulnerability and maintain operational continuity across its Latin American retail network, HUGO BOSS launched a targeted hiring initiative in 2025. The scope covered three senior IT roles embedded in live production environments: two SAP-focused positions in Mexico supporting retail and logistics systems, and one Senior Support role in Brazil responsible for Oracle Retail Xstore POS and ERP integrations.

These were not temporary project roles. Each position carried permanent responsibility for maintaining business-critical SAP and POS systems during live retail and warehouse operations. Candidates needed hands-on experience resolving system incidents in real time, strong English communication skills for cross-regional collaboration, and availability for regular in-office work in Mexico City or São Paulo. Senior specialists with this combination of skills were scarce in the local market. HUGO BOSS partnered with DevsData LLC to fill all three roles within five weeks.

Client profile

HUGO BOSS Group is a global premium fashion company headquartered in Metzingen, Germany, operating the BOSS and HUGO brands across retail, eCommerce, and wholesale channels worldwide. With more than 10000 employees and a network of around 1,500 stores globally, the company runs a highly integrated retail ecosystem spanning physical locations, digital platforms, warehouses, and regional distribution hubs.

The CLAIM 5 strategy, launched in 2021, set out to reposition HUGO BOSS as one of the top 100 global brands. The ambition was not incremental. Leadership was committed to doubling revenues to €4 billion by 2025 while transforming how the company operates across every channel. Between 2021 and 2024, both BOSS and HUGO delivered compound annual growth exceeding 20%, driven by product innovation, digital acceleration, and direct-to-consumer expansion.

CLAIM 5 TOUCHDOWN, the next phase running through 2028, shifts focus toward sustaining that momentum. The priorities now center on operational discipline, process efficiency, and system reliability across retail, logistics, and distribution. Executing at this scale depends on stable enterprise platforms, including SAP Retail, SAP AFS, warehouse management systems, and POS environments deployed across multiple regions. The Latin American hiring initiative fits directly within this framework: building the IT capability required to protect and extend what CLAIM 5 achieved.

The hiring challenge

Filling three senior IT positions across Mexico City and São Paulo required more than technical screening. Each role demanded a specific combination of enterprise platform experience, operational maturity, and regional availability that significantly narrowed the candidate pool.

Enterprise platform expertise

Candidates needed hands-on experience with systems that form the backbone of HUGO BOSS’s Latin American operations. The Mexico-based roles required deep familiarity with SAP AFS, SAP Retail, and SAP WM/EWM. The Brazil-based role centered on Oracle Retail Xstore POS and its integration with ERP infrastructure. Surface-level knowledge was insufficient; each hire would be troubleshooting live systems under operational pressure from day one.

Hybrid work and location constraints

All three positions followed a hybrid model, requiring regular in-office presence in Mexico City or São Paulo. This requirement immediately excluded a large segment of senior specialists in Latin America who have shifted to fully remote arrangements or relocated outside major metro areas. Many others with the right technical background were already committed to long-term enterprise programs with limited flexibility.

Timeline pressure

These roles supported active retail and logistics operations. Extended vacancies would increase workload on existing IT teams and introduce risk into system stability. Traditional job boards and passive sourcing methods were unlikely to surface qualified candidates within the required timeframe.

The following table summarizes the core requirements for each role.

Alignment and objectives

Before sourcing began, DevsData LLC conducted a structured alignment session with HUGO BOSS hiring managers to define role expectations, ideal candidate profiles, and success criteria. The output was a shared brief documenting the timeline (approximately five weeks), geographic constraints (Mexico City and São Paulo, with hybrid availability), and technical requirements for each position. These parameters ruled out common recruitment shortcuts.

These parameters ruled out common recruitment shortcuts. Expanding the search to remote candidates across Latin America was not an option. Neither was presenting junior profiles with growth potential in place of senior specialists. The roles required immediate operational readiness.

DevsData LLC’s mandate centered on precision over volume. Rather than flooding the pipeline with loosely matched candidates, the team committed to delivering a shortlist of pre-validated specialists who met every stated requirement: verified enterprise platform experience, English communication skills sufficient for global collaboration, and a track record of supporting production systems under pressure. This approach has delivered results in previous Latin American engagements, including Shipwell, where DevsData LLC recruited senior QA and Frontend Engineers across Brazil and Mexico under similarly tight timelines.

The objective was clear: fill all three roles within the deadline, with hires capable of contributing from their first week.

Discovery phase

Before launching active recruitment, DevsData LLC conducted a ten-day discovery phase that included structured interviews with regional and global stakeholders responsible for IT operations in Latin America. These sessions mapped which enterprise systems were operationally critical, where flexibility existed in the role definitions, and which skills were non-negotiable given live production responsibilities.

Each role was decomposed into concrete ownership areas: system modules, daily operational responsibilities, interface management, and interaction with warehouse or store operations. DevsData LLC documented these findings in detailed role briefs that required sign-off from HUGO BOSS hiring managers before sourcing began. This level of granularity allowed the team to distinguish between candidates with theoretical system exposure and those who had supported live enterprise environments during active retail operations.

In parallel, DevsData LLC analyzed local labor markets in Mexico City and São Paulo to validate salary ranges, availability of SAP and Oracle Retail specialists, and typical career paths that produce suitable senior candidates. This groundwork eliminated misalignment early and prevented unnecessary interview cycles later in the process.

Sourcing strategy

Given the seniority and specificity of the roles, DevsData LLC did not rely solely on public job postings. Instead, the team applied a localized sourcing strategy, combining direct outreach within established SAP and retail IT communities with referrals and network-based sourcing.

“At the senior level, the LatAm market doesn’t respond well to broad outreach. Most specialists were already embedded in live environments, so the only way to reach them was through local networks.” – Nenad Hrisofovic, Tech Recruitment Lead at DevsData LLC

forums proved particularly effective in reaching candidates who were not actively seeking new roles but had the required enterprise background. These channels allowed DevsData LLC to assess market sentiment directly and tailor outreach messaging to the realities of hybrid work and large-scale retail operations.

All sourcing efforts were supported by DevsData LLC’s global database of over 65000 vetted IT professionals, which accelerated screening and ensured only senior-level profiles entered the process.

Evaluation and delivery

Candidates were evaluated through a multi-stage process designed to reflect real operational demands. Interviews focused on concrete system scenarios, such as incident resolution, interface failures, testing responsibilities, and collaboration with non-technical stakeholders. Rather than abstract technical questioning, candidates were asked to explain how they had supported retail stores, warehouses, or ERP environments during live operations.

The following table summarizes the evaluation funnel across both markets.

Within five weeks, all three roles were filled.

Each hire’s background was mapped directly to the operational scope defined during discovery. The Senior Application Analyst had managed SAP systems for a Latin American fashion retailer of comparable scale. The System Analyst brought distribution center experience from a global consumer goods operation. The Senior Support Analyst had rolled out the same POS platform across a nationwide store network. None of the three required onboarding into unfamiliar systems.

Results and impact

The engagement closed all three positions within five weeks, a timeline that would typically extend to three or four months using conventional recruitment channels in Latin America. No role required a second search cycle or candidate replacement.

“Hugo Boss needed specialists who could step into live SAP and POS environments without a learning curve. The candidates we delivered had already solved similar problems in similar systems, which made the difference.” – Nenad Hrisofovic, Tech Recruitment Lead at DevsData LLC

Several factors made this outcome possible. DevsData LLC’s database of over 65000 vetted specialists eliminated the cold-start problem that slows most regional searches. Direct access to closed SAP and retail IT communities in Mexico and Brazil surfaced candidates who were not visible on public job boards. The senior-only validation approach ensured that every candidate presented to HUGO BOSS had verifiable production experience, reducing interview cycles and accelerating decisions.

The hybrid work constraint, often a dealbreaker in Latin American IT recruitment, did not extend the timeline. DevsData LLC’s localized sourcing model was built for exactly this scenario: identifying senior specialists who are both technically qualified and geographically available.

Conclusion

This case reflects DevsData LLC’s approach to enterprise IT recruitment in Latin America: targeted scoping, access to regional talent networks, and validation grounded in production-level demands. For HUGO BOSS, the result was three senior hires in Mexico and Brazil delivered within five weeks, each ready to support live retail and logistics operations from day one.

Across industries, the common denominator has been precise role scoping, local market access, and assessment grounded in real operational demands. SAP and enterprise retail platforms remain among the most in-demand skill sets in Latin America, and sourcing senior specialists for live production environments requires more than job board visibility.

With a global network of 65000+ vetted specialists and deep experience across Latin America, Europe, and the US, DevsData LLC helps organizations hire critical IT talent without extending timelines or lowering standards.

If your organization operates enterprise retail or logistics systems in Latin America and needs senior IT specialists who can support live production environments, DevsData LLC can help. Contact us at general@devsdata.com or visit www.devsdata.com to discuss your hiring requirements.

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Tsiala Jobava Copywriter and Marketer

Tsiala Jobava is a talented marketing specialist from Georgia. Tsiala holds a bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Georgian American University and a master’s in Marketing and Communication from Barcelona Business School. She has built a diverse career, working as a copywriter and in marketing and PR, before returning to her first passion – writing. Along the way, she has gained valuable experience in social media management, content creation, and brand development.

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