[Hiring] VP of Product Development & Manufacturing @Freebird

Role Description

Freebird® is looking for a VP, Product Development & Manufacturing to lead the development, engineering, sourcing, validation, and commercialization of Freebird's physical products. You'll serve as Freebird's senior product development authority, working closely with the CEO, President/COO, and broader leadership team to translate consumer and business needs into exceptional physical products.

This is not a program-management role. This is a builder role. If you've taken sophisticated hardware from concept through mass production before and want to do it again - keep reading.

Key Responsibilities

• Product Development
  • Lead end-to-end development of Freebird's hardware and personal care products from concept through commercialization.
  • Translate consumer needs, market opportunities, and business objectives into clear product requirements and development priorities.
  • Define product architectures, specifications, performance requirements, and development plans.
  • Evaluate potential development paths and determine when to build, adapt, source, customize, or partner.
  • Lead product benchmarking, prototyping, testing, and iterative improvement.
  • Make clear recommendations on technology, partners, resources, timing, cost, and development tradeoffs.
  • Ensure product programs remain focused on delivering meaningful improvements to the customer experience.
  • Bring structure, urgency, technical rigor, and strong judgment to product-development decisions.
• Product Design & Engineering
  • Lead and coordinate industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and technical development across Freebird's product portfolio.
  • Provide technical leadership across sophisticated electromechanical systems, including:
    • Motors and drivetrains
    • Batteries and charging systems
    • Electronics and PCBs
    • Mechanical systems and interfaces
    • Cutting and grooming mechanisms
    • Blades, foils, and precision components
    • Waterproofing and sealing
    • Materials and tolerances
    • Tooling and molded components
    • Ergonomics
    • Reliability and manufacturability
  • Establish clear engineering requirements, design reviews, technical milestones, and validation standards.
  • Ensure products are designed for performance, durability, manufacturability, quality, and cost from the beginning.
  • Select and manage the appropriate internal and external industrial design, engineering, and technical partners.
  • Challenge engineering assumptions and supplier recommendations where necessary to ensure the strongest product outcome.
• Sourcing & Manufacturing
  • Build and manage a high-performing network of factories, ODMs, component suppliers, engineering partners, and specialist manufacturers.
  • Develop strong direct relationships with China-based manufacturing and technology partners.
  • Lead supplier identification, qualification, RFQs, negotiations, tooling, production readiness, and manufacturing ramp.
  • Improve supplier performance, cost, quality, transparency, and supply-chain resilience.
  • Establish appropriate second-source strategies and reduce unnecessary dependency on individual suppliers or intermediaries.
  • Travel to China and other manufacturing locations as required.
• New Product Introduction & Execution
  • Own the development process from concept through engineering, prototype, validation, EVT, DVT, PVT, tooling, pilot production, and mass production.
  • Improve the speed, predictability, and quality of Freebird's product development process.
  • Establish clear milestones, development gates, critical paths, risk management, and launch-readiness criteria.
  • Lead multiple concurrent hardware-development programs while maintaining strong execution discipline.
• Quality, Reliability & Validation
  • Establish rigorous engineering, reliability, and consumer-validation standards.
  • Ensure products meet high standards for performance, durability, safety, usability, and customer experience.
  • Build strong processes around lifecycle testing, supplier quality, factory quality controls, failure analysis, and corrective actions.
  • Use consumer testing and competitive benchmarking to validate products before commercialization.
  • Drive continuous improvement based on customer feedback, returns, warranty data, and product performance.
• Product Economics
  • Ensure products achieve strong customer outcomes while supporting competitive mass-market pricing and attractive economics.
  • Own or influence target COGS, BOM architecture, DFM/DFA, tooling economics, manufacturing yields, supplier negotiations, and value engineering.
  • Identify opportunities to improve cost without compromising product quality or customer experience.
• Team & Partner Leadership
  • Lead and develop Freebird's product-development capabilities across engineering, sourcing, NPI, quality, program management, and manufacturing.
  • Build the right combination of internal talent and specialized external expertise.
  • Select and manage high-quality industrial design, engineering, testing, manufacturing, and technology partners.
  • Create organizational confidence through clear recommendations, strong technical judgment, and consistent execution.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of experience in consumer hardware product development, engineering, manufacturing, sourcing, NPI, or closely related functions.
• 5+ years of experience leading multidisciplinary product, engineering, development, or manufacturing teams.
• Demonstrated success taking sophisticated physical products from concept through mass production.
• Significant experience with high-volume electromechanical consumer products.
• Deep firsthand experience working directly with China-based factories and suppliers.
• Strong mechanical and electrical product fluency.
• Experience with motors, batteries, electronics, charging systems, PCBs, tooling, molded components, waterproofing, and precision mechanical systems.
• Strong knowledge of EVT, DVT, PVT, DFM, tooling, validation, and production ramp.
• Experience identifying, qualifying, negotiating with, and developing manufacturing and technology partners.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple concurrent development programs.
• Strong understanding of product quality, reliability, COGS, manufacturing economics, and supplier performance.
• Strong executive communication, decision-making, and cross-functional leadership skills.

Preferred Experience

• Experience in one or more of the following categories is highly desirable:
  • Shaving and grooming
  • Trimmers, clippers, blades, foils, or cutting systems
  • Personal care devices
  • Beauty devices
  • Small appliances
  • Precision electromechanical consumer products
• Experience developing products for large-scale DTC, Amazon, and mass-retail distribution is also highly valuable.

What We're Looking For

The ideal candidate combines strong product judgment with deep experience across consumer hardware, engineering, China sourcing and manufacturing, NPI, quality, supplier development, and product economics. You are a builder and operator, not simply a product strategist. You are comfortable entering an evolving environment, quickly understanding the customer and business need, evaluating multiple development paths, and making clear recommendations. You know how to identify the right technology, select the right engineering approach, find the right partners, challenge factories and suppliers, recognize technical risk early, and move programs forward with urgency. You are equally comfortable discussing customer experience, product strategy, design, engineering, manufacturing, quality, cost, and business impact. You communicate complex issues simply and give leadership confidence that the right decisions are being made. Most importantly, you care deeply about building great physical products that create meaningfully better experiences for customers.

What Success Looks Like

• Launching materially better products that customers love
• Shortening and improving the predictability of development cycles
• Building stronger design, engineering, supplier, and manufacturing relationships
• Improving product quality, reliability, and customer satisfaction
• Making better and faster technical and sourcing decisions
• Maintaining strong product economics and competitive pricing
• Creating a scalable foundation for continued product innovation
• Building greater confidence across Freebird in how physical products are developed and commercialized

Benefits

• Remote-first & flexible. Work from anywhere with autonomy and trust (regular travel to China and other manufacturing locations required).
• Competitive compensation, rewarding the impact you make.
• Medical, dental & vision insurance. Health coverage for you and your family.
• 401(k) with company match.
• Unlimited PTO. Recharge when you need it.
• Own the entire physical product platform, with the authority and accountability that comes with it.
• Proven consumer demand and brand awareness already in place - you're building the next generation of product, not starting from zero.
• A product roadmap built for real engineering: sophisticated electromechanical hardware with room to push materials, performance, and manufacturability.
• A leadership team that moves fast, makes decisions, and gives operators room to operate.
• No politics, just execution. We value ownership, collaboration, and solving problems together.
• The chance to write the product-development playbook for a brand that has already proven it can win.