Mens Product Development Manager - Wovens

KITH is seeking a Product Development Manager to oversee Men's wovens.

Primary responsibilities include working closely with the Design, Merchandising/Sales, and Production departments. The Product Development Manager is responsible for the creation and execution of new products in conjunction with the design, production, and technical team. The Product Development Manager manages external development and research partners and identifies new opportunities to create a competitive advantage, ensuring to bring stellar products to the KITH customer experience.

Our Product Development Manager should understand marketing factors, fashion garment construction, and design. The role of the Product Development Manager is to ensure the new product design is interpreted and manufactured to brand aesthetic and standard.

Responsibilities

● Develop strong relationships with strategic manufacturing partners and members of internal cross-functional departments.

● Communicate with management regularly regarding the efficient flow of goods and services affecting development/pre-production; evaluate, manage, and mitigate potential risks to collection deadlines and new initiatives.

● Organize, monitor, and prioritize tasks to meet calendar milestones; manage compliance with the T&A calendar in conjunction with important milestones.

● Enforce that the TNA calendar and seasonal milestones are met and elevate any potential delays to management as needed.

● Facilitate regular cross-functional team meetings with sales/mech, design, and raw materials to troubleshoot and resolve development or quality issues.

● Identify sourcing and development opportunities for volume-driving products; manage and executes effective sourcing strategies.

● Responsible for building the development and wips chart for all styles and materials per season; maintaining and updating as needed.

● Work with design to select fabrics and trims to meet design aesthetics, price points, and quality needs.; identifying alternative solutions so garments meet cost requirements from initial launch thru final costing

● Ensure that costing is accurate and up to date and aligns with the company’s IMU targets; create and maintain style profiles and costing information while managing necessary reports; request and follows up on costing for all styles in development.

● Own seasonal costing activities encompassing; securing and communicating IMU targets, reviewing and analyzing costs identifying opportunities for improvement, and taking action based on IMU results; elevation costing issues to supervisor and executing to direction; communicating IMU results to cross-functional partners; confirming costing at style level.

● Document and communicate accurate records of style FIT corrections, communicating all design changes/updates to appropriate internal and external partners.

● Ensure that all samples are 100% market ready and on time.

● Provide situational leadership at an advanced level.

● Perform related duties as directed when such duties are a logical and appropriate assignment to the position.

SKILLS, QUALITIES & BEHAVIORS:

● Bachelor’s degree required; 8-10 years of development experience required.

● Strong Men's Woven's experience preferred

● Advanced knowledge of construction and costing; ability to leverage analytical skills to evaluate information carefully and solve complex problems.

● Luxury, fashion or direct to consumer ecommerce experience.

● Excellent communication skills (phone, e-mail, and presentations).

● Writing skills and the ability to speak in the tone of the brand; intentional communication, being able to communicate well both online and offline and across different departments.

● Ability to think quickly and adapt to changing requirements and technologies.

● Knowledge of: Microsoft Office Suite (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Adobe Design Suite (Photoshop, InDesign, Acrobat)