[Hiring] Head of Product Development @KittySpout

Role Description

A profitable DTC pet brand doing $50M+ a year is looking for a Head of Product Development to join our team! You will own every new product end to end, from the customer problem to mass production:

• Industrial design
• Engineering
• Prototypes
• Patents
• Factories
• Cost and quality

This is a builder role: you will build our product function from the ground up, using contract engineers, design studios, building your team and factories in Shenzhen rather than an already set team.

Qualifications

• 6–8+ years of building great physical products end to end
• Experience in building and running a product team (design, patents, factories)
• Fluent in English and Mandarin
• Based in Shenzhen, Dongguan or Hong Kong
• In factories, design agencies and studios in person every week

Requirements

• Build the products that make our brands the best pet brands in their categories
• Success is great products launched on time, at their target cost and margin
• Protected designs before any factory sees them
• Better than anything competitors sell

Benefits

• Work directly with the founder
• Play a big role in scaling the company to $100M+
• Drive results with a group of passionate, smart, hardworking people
• Hands-on and active environment without politics or corporate chicanery

Outcomes (what success looks like)

• New products launch on time: launch date vs the date agreed in the brief, per product
• Products hit their target cost and margin: landed cost per unit and gross margin at launch vs the brief
• Customers love the new products: star rating, return rate and defect rate in the first 90 days vs our core products
• New products grow revenue: revenue from products launched in the last 24 months as a % of total revenue
• Every design is protected before a factory sees it: patents filed before factory contact; NNN and IP assignment signed with every supplier and contractor

Key Objectives

• Build and own the product roadmap for both brands
• Turn customer reviews, support tickets, return reasons and competitor products into product ideas
• Hire and run contract industrial designers, engineers and design studios in Shenzhen
• File patents in China and the US and lock down every design with NNNs, IP assignments and mold ownership
• Find, vet and run Pearl River Delta factories
• Set the quality standard for each product
• Build the product function: documented processes and a weekly product update

Accountabilities

• Agree the roadmap with the CEO each quarter
• Move every product in development forward each week through the stage gates
• File every design before any factory sees it
• Pick the factory for each new product
• Pass testing, certification and inspection before mass production
• Post a weekly product update and set monthly Rocks with the CEO

How Our Hiring Works & How We Operate

• Application + Screening Interview
• In-depth Interview with the CEO
• Reference Calls
• Final Interview with the CEO

Salary Expectation

US$135,000–175,000 per year base, plus up to 20% of base in milestone bonuses (stage gates hit on time, landed cost on target, defect and return rates, patents filed). Contractor role.