TEMP TO HIRE

•PRODUCT

DEVELOPMENT MANAGER-ONSITE

•LOS ANGELES Contract type Freelance Location Vernon, CA Specialty Fashion Salary $90K

•$110K Remote No Reference 515251 Contact name Zoe Huse Job description We're looking for an experienced Product Development Manager to lead the apparel product development process from development through pre-production. This person will drive executional excellence, quality, cost discipline, and on-time delivery across every stage of development.

Role Overview:

You'll partner closely with Design, Merchandising, Technical Design, Production, Compliance, and vendors to ensure products are delivered in line with design intent, margin targets, production requirements, and timelines. This is a highly data-driven, metrics-heavy environment. You should be comfortable analyzing data, drawing meaningful business insights, and clearly communicating recommendations and rationale. The team operates in a non-seasonal, weekly-drop model averaging approximately 160-200 SKUs per week. Experience managing product development at this pace and volume is essential.

What You'll Be Doing:

Lead, coach, and develop the Product Development team, including direct people management.

Own the product development process from development through pre-production.

Manage the team against the development calendar to ensure on-time delivery.

Drive team performance against KPIs and OKRs, including lead-time, margin, and allocation targets.

Maintain execution discipline to improve development speed, accuracy, and on-time delivery.

Identify risks, dependencies, and timing issues early, bringing clear solutions and recommendations.

Drive product engineering that supports design intent, margin goals, and production readiness.

Oversee day-to-day execution of the development calendar across assigned categories.

Maintain accurate BOMs, product data, and supporting documentation throughout the development lifecycle.

Manage sample development, approvals, and vendor communication.

Ensure development data is complete, current, and reliable for cross-functional partners.

Partner with Design, Merchandising, Technical Design, Production, Compliance, and suppliers.

Support vendor accountability through clear communication, calendar adherence, and issue escalation.

Use data and metrics to identify business insights and drive decisions.

Lead effectively in a high-velocity, weekly-drop environment.

What You'll Need:

5+ years of apparel Product Development experience.

Proven people-management experience with at least 1-2 direct reports.

True leadership experience; this is not an individual contributor role.

Strong knowledge of apparel development and production processes.

Experience owning the end-to-end product development process independently.

Experience working in a high-volume, fast-paced product environment.

Experience with non-seasonal and/or weekly-drop business models strongly preferred.

Strong analytical skills and the ability to turn metrics into actionable recommendations.

Confidence explaining and defending data-driven decisions.

Excellent attention to detail, organization, efficiency, and follow-through.

Strong cross-functional leadership and communication skills.

A proactive, solutions-oriented approach to problem-solving.

What Makes Someone a

Strong Fit:

5+ years of apparel Product Development experience with direct people-management responsibility.

Experience leading a Product Development team, not solely working as an individual contributor.

A strong ability to turn data into business insights and recommendations.

Experience operating at significant SKU volume and development speed.

Comfort working within a non-seasonal, weekly-drop model.

A track record of holding teams accountable to KPIs, timelines, and business goals.

A proactive approach to identifying risks and bringing solutions.

Strong cross-functional influence through expertise, data, and collaboration.

Recruiter

Zoe Huse

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Benefits offered