Head of Product
Location: New York City, NY (Downtown)
Employment Type: Full-time
Schedule: Monday — Friday, 9:00 AM — 6:00 PM
Overview:
As the Head of Product, you will be the cornerstone of our product operations from development through pre-production. This role oversees vendor relationships, drives operational efficiency, and ensures the team can scale without sacrificing creative bandwidth.
Key Responsibilities:
Vendor Management & Sourcing:
- Strengthen current vendor relationships and diversify the vendor base to support brand growth and scalability.
Operational Streamlining & Documentation:
- Analyze and optimize existing operational systems and documents, consolidating them into a more efficient and user-friendly structure.
- Maintain and continuously improve these systems to ensure all documentation remains up-to-date and streamlined.
Product Development Calendar:
- Create and maintain a comprehensive product development calendar, aligning internal milestones with external vendor timelines, lead times, and holidays (e.g., Chinese New Year).
- Serve as the point person for coordinating timelines across design and technical teams, ensuring all cross-functional partners are aligned.
Product Development / Pre-Production Oversight:
- Oversee the full product development lifecycle, including sourcing, building Bills of Materials (BOMs), wash development, proto development, salesman sample development, and fit samples from PPS through TOP.
- Manage all aspects of sample logistics, including receiving, shipping, organizing samples, and coordinating fittings in partnership with the design and technical teams.
- Own product costing from proto through final cost confirmation, ensuring costs meet margin targets while maintaining product quality.
- Act as the primary liaison between factories and internal teams, ensuring clear communication, alignment, and timely execution to deliver high-quality products.
- Maintain and communicate weekly T&A updates across all active styles, proactively identifying delays and partnering with cross-functional teams to troubleshoot and stay on schedule.
Raw Material & Trim Management:
- Manage fabric, trim, and wash development with suppliers, ensuring materials meet aesthetic, quality, cost, and lead-time requirements.
- Maintain organized raw material libraries and track MOQs, liabilities, and seasonal material needs.
Quality Control (QC):
- Work closely with the customer service team to address product issues, coordinate repairs, and ensure any necessary fixes are completed efficiently.
- Implement improvements in future products based on repair learnings and feedback relayed by customer service and QC partners.
Budget & Team Management:
- Manage the product team, overseeing direct reports and ensuring the team operates efficiently and collaboratively.
- Partner with the COO/CFO to manage the team’s budget, balancing financial resources to meet development goals and timelines.
Qualifications:
- Minimum of 8 years in a management role in the Production Department at a denim brand or a luxury fashion house; If denim brand, is your experience in premium denim (e.g. $300 retail)
- Experience in denim is a plus; If yes to denim experience, how many years?
Benefits: health insurance, PTO and sick leave, clothing and tech allowance