Job Description

AI Textile CAD Specialist (Contract, 1099)

Independent Contractor | On-site | Garment District, New York, NY

THE OPPORTUNITY

Zelouf International is a New York print and fabric house that designs and sells prints to apparel brands and manufacturers. Our studio handles a constant flow of customer CADs, repeats, color changes, and custom designs, almost all of it still done by hand in Photoshop.

We are hiring our first AI-focused CAD specialist to change that. You will be the person who figures out where AI fits in a real textile workflow, puts it to work on live customer projects, and teaches the rest of the studio how to use it. Every tool you introduce will be measured by one thing: getting finished, mill-ready work to customers faster.

HOW YOU WILL USE AI HERE

Speed up customer work

• CAD Packages: Use AI (including AI assistants to write scripts) to automate CAD formatting: page setup, color tabs, and bulk exports for customer requests of 10 to 40 prints at a time.

• Archive Search: Use AI image tagging and visual similarity search to make our server searchable by style, motif, or reference image, so anyone can find the right print in seconds.

• Repeats: Use generative fill, inpainting, and AI expansion to put artwork into repeat faster, including rebuilding repeats to our wet print sizes (24", 25.2", 28", 32", and 36") when customers change scale.

• Motifs & Layouts: Use AI segmentation to pull motifs out of flat, unlayered files into clean layers, so layout changes take minutes instead of hours.

• Color Changes: Use AI recoloring to speed up complex customer color changes, such as digital prints with dozens of colors or many photographic layers.

• Custom Designs: Use AI to concept and iterate on custom designs from customer inspiration, while keeping every design original.

Then, expand AI into original design

• Use AI to develop original prints for our line, especially hard-to-find styles and new trends customers want to see right away.

Lead AI adoption in the studio

• Test new AI tools against real projects, build a simple playbook of what works, train the design team, and track the time saved.

• Make sure every AI-assisted file is mill-ready from the start: 300 dpi, TIFF or PSD, color-separated, and in repeat, built to wet print repeat sizes whenever a design could go to wet print.

WHAT YOU BRING

• Real, hands-on AI experience in a design or production workflow. You can show us work where AI was part of the process, not a one-off experiment.

• Fluency with AI image tools such as Photoshop Generative Fill and Firefly, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion or ComfyUI, AI masking and segmentation, and AI upscalers.

• Comfort using AI assistants to write or adapt scripts, actions, and automations.

• A strong command of layouts, repeats, and color separation. These are non-negotiable. You know how to take an AI output and make it production-ready in Photoshop.

• 2+ years of experience working with prints in textile, apparel, or home goods, with a background in textile, fashion, or graphic design.

• A good colorist with a sharp eye for scale and for when an AI output is good enough versus when it needs to be redrawn.

• An understanding of what the apparel print market buys, or the drive to learn it quickly.

• Curiosity, speed, and precision; able to work independently, work well with the sales team, and communicate directly with customers when needed.

BONUS POINTS

• A strong, varied artistic portfolio for original print work.

• Experience building custom ComfyUI workflows, training custom models (such as LoRAs), or setting up AI tagging and visual search.

• Color management experience: calibrating monitors and printers so printed CADs match the screen.

• NedGraphics or Illustrator experience.

• A working understanding of AI and copyright, originality, licensing, and client confidentiality.

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