How to Apply to Alpargatas

12 min read Last updated April 20, 2026 2 open positions

Key Takeaways

  • Alpargatas's primary careers portal is alpargatas.gupy.io, hosted on Gupy — Brazil's dominant ATS. Apply directly there; do not rely on third-party aggregators.
  • Portuguese is the working language. A Portuguese-language resume and Portuguese fluency are required for Brazil-based roles regardless of how international the team appears.
  • The company is publicly traded (B3: ALPA4) and controlled by Itaúsa via Cambuhy Investimentos. Expect Brazilian large-employer governance, structured salary bands, and a long-term, conservative culture overlaid on a creative consumer brand.
  • Three primary geographies: São Paulo HQ (corporate, marketing, design, technology), Paraíba factories (industrial, supply chain, quality), and Brazilian retail (Havaianas and Osklen own-brand stores).
  • Recent strategic context matters — the 2023 Rothy's exit and subsequent strategic reset, the U.S. Havaianas distribution scale-up, Osklen growth, and sustainability investments are all conversation-worthy in interviews.
  • Authentic Havaianas brand affinity, dono do negócio ownership mindset, and cross-functional collaboration evidence are the three most consistently weighted soft criteria across roles.
  • Build a complete Gupy profile, mirror job-description keywords in your resume, take the behavioral and cognitive assessments seriously, and answer knockout questions honestly to maximize ranking signal.

About Alpargatas

Alpargatas S.A. is one of Brazil's most iconic consumer goods companies, headquartered at Avenida Doutor Cardoso de Melo in São Paulo's Vila Olímpia business district. Founded in 1907 and listed on the B3 stock exchange under ticker ALPA4, Alpargatas employs roughly 17,000 people globally and generates around R$3 billion in annual revenue. The company is best known as the maker of Havaianas, the rubber flip-flop that has become a genuine cultural artifact of Brazil — sold in more than 100 countries, with annual production hovering around 200 million pairs from the company's footwear complex in Campina Grande and Santa Rita, Paraíba. Alpargatas also owns Osklen, the premium Brazilian fashion brand founded by Oskar Metsavaht, and operates Sambros, a brand-licensing arm that extends Havaianas into apparel, eyewear, accessories, and home goods. The company's controlling shareholders are Itaúsa (the Itaú-Unibanco family holding company) together with Cambuhy Investimentos through a joint venture established in 2017 — a control structure that gives Alpargatas a long-horizon, financially conservative governance posture quite different from typical consumer brands. Recent strategic moves have reshaped the portfolio: in 2023, Alpargatas exited its minority investment in Rothy's, the U.S. recycled-materials footwear startup, after a costly write-down that prompted a strategic reset. The company also returned the Mizuno Brazil athletic-footwear license to focus on its core flip-flop and lifestyle brands. Today, Alpargatas is concentrated on three priorities: scaling Havaianas internationally — particularly through expanded U.S. distribution, e-commerce, and direct-to-consumer retail — accelerating Osklen's premium growth, and embedding sustainability across its operations through its Conexão Consciente program, recycled-rubber initiatives, and Paraíba community partnerships. For job seekers, Alpargatas presents a distinctive employer profile. It is a publicly traded Brazilian multinational with deep manufacturing roots in the Northeast, a globally recognized lifestyle brand, and a corporate culture that blends formal Brazilian governance with the casual, beach-culture identity of its flagship product. Roles cluster across four geographies and functional concentrations: corporate, marketing, design, finance, technology, and supply-chain leadership at the São Paulo HQ; manufacturing, industrial engineering, quality, and logistics at the Paraíba factories (Campina Grande and Santa Rita); commercial and trade-marketing positions covering Brazil's wholesale and retail channels; and own-brand store associates and managers at Havaianas and Osklen retail locations across major Brazilian cities and select international markets. Compensation, benefits, and career progression follow Brazilian large-employer norms, with CLT contracts, profit-sharing (PLR) tied to corporate results, transportation and meal vouchers, health and dental plans, and structured trainee and internship pipelines that have produced many of the company's senior leaders. Working at Alpargatas means joining a company where heritage matters — the Havaianas brand turns 65 in 2027 and is treated internally as a national asset — and where Itaúsa's controlling stake imposes a discipline around capital allocation, risk, and governance that is uncommon in fashion-adjacent businesses.

Application Process

  1. 1
    Visit the official careers portal at alpargatas

    Visit the official careers portal at alpargatas.gupy.io — this is Alpargatas's primary recruiting platform. The corporate site at alpargatas.com.br/carreira links here. The portal is in Portuguese by default with English and Spanish locale options, but the substantive job descriptions, screening questions, and interview process are conducted almost entirely in Portuguese for Brazil-based roles.

  2. 2
    Create a Gupy candidate profile

    Create a Gupy candidate profile. Gupy is Brazil's dominant ATS platform — used by hundreds of major employers including Itaú, Magazine Luiza, Ambev, and Natura — so a single account can be reused across many applications. Fill in your full profile (formação, experiência profissional, idiomas, competências) before applying, because incomplete profiles are de-prioritized by Gupy's ranking algorithm.

  3. 3
    Browse openings by location, área (functional area), and tipo de vaga (vaga efet

    Browse openings by location, área (functional area), and tipo de vaga (vaga efetiva, estágio, jovem aprendiz, programa de trainee). Active locations typically include São Paulo (corporate), Santa Rita-PB and Campina Grande-PB (industrial), and Brazilian capitals where Havaianas and Osklen own-brand stores operate. Filter for PCD (Pessoa com Deficiência) roles if applicable — Alpargatas, like most large Brazilian employers, maintains dedicated PCD vacancies to comply with the Lei de Cotas.

  4. 4
    Submit your application directly through Gupy

    Submit your application directly through Gupy. You will answer pre-screening questions (perguntas eliminatórias) covering language proficiency, willingness to relocate, salary expectations, and role-specific scenarios. Answer honestly — Gupy's matching algorithm scores you against the role and routes high-match candidates to recruiters first.

  5. 5
    Complete the Gupy-administered behavioral and fit assessments

    Complete the Gupy-administered behavioral and fit assessments. Alpargatas commonly uses the Mapa Comportamental (a DISC-style behavioral profile), a short cognitive/raciocínio lógico test, and a values-fit questionnaire keyed to the company's pillars of paixão pela marca, sustentabilidade, and dono do negócio (ownership mindset).

  6. 6
    If shortlisted, expect a recruiter screening call (triagem) of 20-30 minutes in

    If shortlisted, expect a recruiter screening call (triagem) of 20-30 minutes in Portuguese covering motivation, salary, notice period, and a high-level walkthrough of your CV. For corporate, technology, and marketing roles, English proficiency may be probed briefly during this call.

  7. 7
    Advance through 2-4 additional rounds depending on seniority: a hiring-manager i

    Advance through 2-4 additional rounds depending on seniority: a hiring-manager interview focused on technical and functional fit; a peer or cross-functional panel; a case study or technical exercise (especially for analytics, marketing, supply chain, technology, and design roles); and a final interview with the area director or, for senior positions, a board-level executive. Retail store roles condense this into one or two rounds with a store manager and regional manager, typically including a brief role-play or scenario with a hypothetical customer.

  8. 8
    Receive an offer letter (proposta) via Gupy or email

    Receive an offer letter (proposta) via Gupy or email. Brazilian offers specify the CLT regime, base salary, benefits package (vale-refeição, vale-transporte, plano de saúde, plano odontológico, seguro de vida), and PLR (profit-sharing) eligibility. Negotiation is acceptable but expected to be modest — Alpargatas operates within structured salary bands aligned to market surveys.

  9. 9
    Complete the admissão process, which includes pre-employment medical exam (exame

    Complete the admissão process, which includes pre-employment medical exam (exame admissional), document submission (CPF, RG, CTPS, comprovante de residência, certificate of good conduct for some roles), and onboarding (integração) at the relevant site. For Paraíba factory roles, relocation assistance may be discussed if recruiting from outside the region.


Resume Tips for Alpargatas

recommended

Write your resume in Portuguese for any Brazil-based role

Write your resume in Portuguese for any Brazil-based role. Portuguese is the working language across Alpargatas's HQ and factories, and a Portuguese-language resume signals fluency immediately. Use a parallel English version only if the role explicitly requires English (international Havaianas team, certain technology and supply-chain positions) or if you are applying from outside Brazil.

recommended

Mirror the keywords in the Gupy job description

Mirror the keywords in the Gupy job description. Gupy ranks candidates by keyword overlap with the vaga before a recruiter ever sees the file, so phrases like 'gestão de PDV,' 'sell-out,' 'PLM,' 'planejamento de demanda,' 'manufatura enxuta,' 'BPCS/SAP,' or 'trade marketing' should appear verbatim if they appear in the posting and reflect your real experience.

recommended

Quantify retail and commercial achievements in Brazilian units

Quantify retail and commercial achievements in Brazilian units. Use R$ for revenue, percentages for sell-through and conversion, and absolute numbers for store traffic, SKU count, or wholesale accounts managed. Concrete examples: 'Aumentei o sell-out em 18% em 12 meses gerenciando 32 PDVs no Sudeste' or 'Geri carteira de R$ 4,2 milhões com 47 clientes-chave do varejo multimarca.'

recommended

For factory and supply-chain roles, lead with manufacturing certifications and m

For factory and supply-chain roles, lead with manufacturing certifications and methodologies recognized in Brazil's industrial sector: ISO 9001, ISO 14001, Six Sigma (Green/Black Belt), Lean Manufacturing, WCM (World Class Manufacturing), TPM, and OHSAS 18001 / ISO 45001. Alpargatas's Paraíba operations are large, complex, and certified, so process-improvement evidence reads strongly.

recommended

Highlight brand, design, or premium-fashion experience for marketing and Osklen

Highlight brand, design, or premium-fashion experience for marketing and Osklen roles. Alpargatas places real value on candidates who understand brand stewardship — name-drop specific campaigns you led, agencies you partnered with, and any work with iconic or heritage brands. For Osklen specifically, Brazilian fashion sensibility, sustainable fashion credentials, and luxury/premium retail experience are differentiators.

recommended

Showcase international exposure for HQ and Havaianas Internacional roles

Showcase international exposure for HQ and Havaianas Internacional roles. The U.S. distribution scale-up, European retail expansion, and Asia-Pacific growth all require people who have worked across markets. List languages with CEFR levels (Inglês: C1; Espanhol: B2), international experience explicitly, and any work with multi-country P&Ls or cross-cultural teams.

recommended

Keep the resume to 2 pages maximum (1 page for early-career and trainee candidat

Keep the resume to 2 pages maximum (1 page for early-career and trainee candidates). Brazilian recruiter convention favors a clean, single-column layout with section headers in Portuguese: Resumo Profissional, Experiência Profissional, Formação Acadêmica, Idiomas, Cursos e Certificações, and (optional) Voluntariado. Avoid photos for international submissions; for Brazilian retail roles, photos are still common but not required.

recommended

Use a consistent, ATS-friendly format

Use a consistent, ATS-friendly format. Gupy's resume parser handles standard Word and PDF formats reliably but struggles with multi-column layouts, embedded tables, text boxes, and graphics-heavy templates. Choose a clean serif or sans-serif typeface (Calibri, Arial, Garamond, or Inter), 10-11 pt body text, with section headings clearly demarcated. Save as PDF unless the job explicitly requests .docx.

recommended

Add LinkedIn and a portfolio link where relevant

Add LinkedIn and a portfolio link where relevant. For design, marketing, content, and product-management roles, a Behance, personal portfolio, or Notion case-study link matters. For technology roles, GitHub or a public project repository carries weight. Make sure your LinkedIn matches your resume — Alpargatas recruiters routinely cross-check.

recommended

Mention values alignment explicitly

Mention values alignment explicitly. Alpargatas publicly emphasizes sustainability (Conexão Consciente, recycled rubber, low-water dyeing), diversity and inclusion (with explicit racial-equity and PCD commitments), and Brazilian cultural heritage. A short summary or achievement that speaks to one of these — a sustainability project, a D&I initiative, a community partnership — strengthens your candidacy when the hiring manager reads the resume.



Interview Culture

Interviewing at Alpargatas follows mainstream Brazilian large-employer conventions while reflecting the distinct identity of a publicly traded, Itaúsa-controlled consumer-goods company with deep manufacturing roots. The default language is Portuguese — for Brazil-based roles, expect every conversation from the recruiter triagem through the final director interview to be conducted in Portuguese. English is probed for international, technology, and certain marketing or supply-chain positions, but Portuguese fluency is non-negotiable for substantive participation in the company's day-to-day operations. The interview process is multi-round and structured. A typical mid-level corporate role moves through four steps: a recruiter screening (triagem) of 20-30 minutes covering motivation, salary expectations, and notice period; a hiring-manager interview of 45-60 minutes focused on functional and technical fit; a panel or peer interview with cross-functional colleagues; and a final interview with the area director. Senior roles add a board-level or C-suite conversation. Trainee and internship programs run as multi-stage assessment-center processes with online tests, group dynamics, business cases, and panel interviews — competitive ratios are typically over 200:1 for trainee spots. Brazilian corporate interviewing tends to be relational and conversational rather than purely technical. Expect early rapport-building, questions about your trajetória and motivação, and a real interest in why you specifically want to work at Alpargatas — saying 'I love Havaianas' is necessary but not sufficient; tying your motivation to the company's strategy, brand stewardship, sustainability program, or industrial heritage carries more weight. Behavioral interviewing using STAR-style questions is standard, particularly for management positions, and Alpargatas managers are often coached to probe for evidence of dono do negócio (owner mindset), paixão pela marca (brand passion), and colaboração (cross-functional collaboration). For commercial, trade marketing, and retail roles, expect role-play and scenario-based questions: 'Você é gerente de uma loja Havaianas no Shopping Iguatemi e o sell-out caiu 15% em três meses. O que você faz nas primeiras 30 dias?' For factory and supply-chain roles, expect technical depth on lean manufacturing, OEE, planning systems, and quality methodology, often with a process-improvement case. Technology roles use coding exercises, system-design discussions, and cultural-fit panels in roughly equal measure. Dress code skews business casual for HQ interviews — a notch more formal than San Francisco tech, a notch less formal than a Brazilian bank. Showing up in Havaianas is acceptable and arguably charming for casual store-level interviews; not recommended for the corporate panel. Salary negotiation is acceptable but typically modest, anchored to published market surveys (Catho, Robert Half, Mercer) and Alpargatas's internal bands. The company moves at a measured pace — full hiring cycles of 4-8 weeks are normal for corporate positions, faster for retail. Communication with candidates is generally professional and timely through Gupy's automated status updates, though radio silence between rounds happens.

What Alpargatas Looks For

  • Authentic passion for the Havaianas brand and Brazilian consumer culture. Alpargatas treats Havaianas as a national asset, and hiring managers genuinely look for candidates who can articulate why the brand matters and how they would steward it. Generic 'I love consumer goods' answers fall flat.
  • Portuguese fluency at a working-professional level for Brazil-based roles. Reading, writing, and presenting in Portuguese — including in formal business contexts — is required for substantive participation in the company. English is a plus for international and technology roles but does not substitute for Portuguese.
  • Dono do negócio (ownership) mindset. Alpargatas, influenced by Itaúsa's Itaú-derived management culture, prizes candidates who treat their scope as if they personally owned it, take initiative beyond the job description, and bring evidence-based proposals rather than waiting for direction.
  • Cross-functional collaboration evidence. The company runs as an integrated consumer-goods operation where supply chain, commercial, marketing, and finance must coordinate constantly. Stories of leading or contributing to cross-functional initiatives — and naming the functions you collaborated with — matter more than individual hero work.
  • Sustainability literacy and lived commitment. With the Conexão Consciente program, recycled-rubber initiatives, and growing ESG disclosure requirements (Alpargatas reports against GRI and SASB), candidates who can speak credibly to circular economy, life-cycle assessment, supplier sustainability, or social-impact program design have an edge.
  • Industrial and operational discipline for factory-side roles. Paraíba operations are sophisticated manufacturing environments with World Class Manufacturing pillars, robust safety culture, and strong union relationships. Candidates need credible operational, engineering, or quality backgrounds with quantified results.
  • Brazilian retail and trade-marketing fluency for commercial roles. Understanding of the multibrand wholesale channel (lojistas multimarca), the modernos (chain) channel, regional consumer differences (the Northeast Havaianas market behaves differently from the Southeast), trade-marketing levers, and PDV execution.
  • Premium-fashion and luxury-retail credentials for Osklen roles. Osklen operates in a different competitive set from Havaianas — sustainable luxury, premium positioning, designer-led product development. Candidates with experience at premium Brazilian or global lifestyle brands stand out.
  • Diversity, equity, and inclusion alignment. Alpargatas has made public commitments to racial equity, gender parity in leadership, and PCD inclusion. The company actively recruits through diverse-talent partners and probes for candidates' alignment with these values during interviews.
  • Long-term tenure orientation. Itaúsa's controlling stake imposes a long-term horizon on the business, and Alpargatas's leadership team is heavy with multi-decade tenured executives. Candidates who present themselves as career-builders rather than 18-month resume-stops are favored, particularly for management track positions.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Alpargatas use Gupy or LinkedIn for hiring?
Alpargatas uses Gupy (alpargatas.gupy.io) as its primary applicant tracking system and the official application portal. Roles are also cross-posted to LinkedIn for visibility, but the actual application, screening assessments, and recruiter communication run through Gupy. Always apply through the Gupy portal directly — applications submitted through LinkedIn typically redirect there anyway, and applying through Gupy first lets you complete your profile and assessments fully.
Is Portuguese required to work at Alpargatas?
For any role based in Brazil — which is the majority of Alpargatas's workforce — Portuguese fluency at a working-professional level is required. Hiring managers, peers, internal documentation, performance reviews, and most meetings operate in Portuguese. English is valued and probed for international roles (Havaianas U.S., Europe, and Asia-Pacific teams), certain technology positions, and senior corporate roles, but English does not substitute for Portuguese for in-country positions.
What is the salary range at Alpargatas?
Alpargatas operates within structured salary bands aligned to Brazilian market surveys (Catho, Robert Half, Mercer, Korn Ferry). As of public disclosures and external sources like Glassdoor and Vagas.com, indicative ranges (in Brazilian reais, monthly base) include: store associate R$1,800-R$2,800; analyst R$5,000-R$9,000; senior analyst/specialist R$8,000-R$14,000; coordinator R$13,000-R$22,000; manager R$22,000-R$38,000; director R$50,000+. PLR (profit-sharing) typically adds 1-3 monthly salaries annually for eligible roles. Benefits include vale-refeição, vale-transporte, plano de saúde, plano odontológico, and seguro de vida. Negotiate with these benchmarks in mind, but expect modest flexibility within the bands.
Where are Alpargatas's main job locations?
Alpargatas's three primary geographic concentrations are: corporate headquarters at Avenida Doutor Cardoso de Melo in São Paulo's Vila Olímpia (corporate, marketing, design, finance, technology, supply chain leadership); the manufacturing complex in Campina Grande and Santa Rita, Paraíba (industrial engineering, production, quality, plant management, logistics); and Havaianas and Osklen own-brand retail stores in major Brazilian cities including São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, and select international markets. International corporate offices supporting the global Havaianas business operate from select hubs but represent a small fraction of total headcount.
Does Alpargatas hire remote or hybrid workers?
Alpargatas operates a hybrid model for most corporate roles at the São Paulo HQ — typically 2-3 days in-office per week, with specific arrangements set by team and role. Manufacturing, retail, and operationally on-site roles are necessarily fully on-site. Fully remote roles are rare and tend to be limited to specific specialist positions. Confirm the work arrangement explicitly during the recruiter screening, as policies have evolved over time and vary by area director.
How long does the Alpargatas hiring process take?
Typical timing is 4-8 weeks from application to offer for corporate roles, faster (1-3 weeks) for retail store positions, and longer (8-16 weeks plus assessment-center stages) for trainee and internship programs. Senior leadership searches can extend to 3-6 months. Gupy provides automated status updates after each stage, though communication between rounds can be intermittent. If you have not heard back within two weeks of a stage, a polite Portuguese-language follow-up to the recruiter is acceptable.
What is Alpargatas's connection to Itaúsa, and how does it affect the culture?
Itaúsa, the holding company of the Itaú-Unibanco family, acquired control of Alpargatas in 2017 in a joint venture with Cambuhy Investimentos. This ownership structure brings several cultural traits: a long-term horizon to capital allocation and strategy (Itaúsa famously holds investments for decades), conservative financial discipline, formal governance practices common to Brazilian banking-adjacent businesses, and strong attention to ESG disclosure and risk management. For employees, this manifests as structured processes, deliberate decision-making, robust controls, and a culture that values judgment and tenure. It is not a fast-moving startup environment; it is a long-haul, well-governed consumer multinational with creative brand DNA.
Does Alpargatas offer trainee or internship programs?
Yes. Alpargatas runs a Programa de Trainee for recent graduates (typically 1-2 years post-graduation, or final-year students) that recruits across functional areas including commercial, marketing, finance, supply chain, technology, and HR. The program runs as a competitive multi-stage assessment-center process with online tests, group dynamics, business cases, and panel interviews. The company also runs Estágio (internship) and Jovem Aprendiz (youth apprentice) programs continuously throughout the year. All are posted and managed through alpargatas.gupy.io. Both trainee and internship pipelines have produced many of Alpargatas's current senior leaders, so they are taken seriously as career entry points.
What recent strategic moves should I know about for an interview?
Three pieces of recent context are worth referencing in interviews: (1) The 2023 exit from Rothy's, the U.S. recycled-materials footwear startup in which Alpargatas had taken a meaningful minority stake, after a strategic reset and write-down — this prompted a renewed focus on core brands. (2) The continued scaling of Havaianas distribution in the United States, including direct-to-consumer e-commerce, expanded retail presence, and brand-marketing investments aimed at converting Havaianas from a beachwear novelty to a year-round lifestyle category. (3) Osklen's growth as a premium Brazilian fashion brand under Alpargatas's ownership, with international expansion and sustainable-fashion positioning. Demonstrating awareness of these moves — and having a thoughtful point of view — signals genuine interest beyond brand affinity.
What does Alpargatas look for in factory and supply-chain candidates in Paraíba?
The Paraíba complex (Campina Grande and Santa Rita) is a sophisticated, certified manufacturing operation producing roughly 200 million pairs of Havaianas annually. The company looks for candidates with: technical depth in production engineering, industrial engineering, quality (ISO 9001, ISO 14001), safety (ISO 45001), and lean methodologies (WCM, TPM, Six Sigma); demonstrated process-improvement results with quantified outcomes (OEE gains, scrap reduction, throughput improvements); supply-chain planning capability for high-volume, seasonal demand; and people-management experience compatible with Brazilian unionized industrial environments. Local roots in the Northeast are a plus but not required — relocation support is typically discussed for candidates outside the region.

Open Positions

Alpargatas currently has 2 open positions.

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Sources

  1. Alpargatas — Carreiras (Gupy Portal)
  2. Alpargatas — Carreira (Corporate Site)
  3. Alpargatas Investor Relations — Corporate Information
  4. B3 — ALPA4 Listing Information
  5. Itaúsa — Investimentos (Alpargatas controlling stake)
  6. Havaianas — Sobre a Marca
  7. Osklen — Sobre
  8. Gupy — Plataforma de Recrutamento
  9. Alpargatas — Reuters Company Profile (Rothy's exit, strategic reset)
  10. Alpargatas — Sustainability and Conexão Consciente