London, UK
Design and product development manager
at Nine United
NINE is recruiting a design and product development manager to join its team in London.
NINE unites emergent and established European talent, creating confident and refined designs for contemporary spaces.
Nine United’s European team invited collaborators from the design industry’s creative and commercial communities around their offices in London, Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam and more to participate in the creation of a new design brand that could meet the demands of today and establish a platform for talent and collaboration.
This led to a collection of furniture, lighting and homeware displaying a fresh directness combined with a strong sense of economy and utility. NINE produces products designed to be used and enjoyed for many years and strives to practice efficient and responsible processes, utilising recycled and recyclable materials whenever feasible.
We are looking for a design and product development manager to join our team in London to drive our ambitious plans for the development of our collection and nurture our relationships with the designers we are privileged to be working with.
Our ideal candidate is an experienced product developer who has executed challenging furniture and lighting products and who is comfortable approaching projects with ambitious quality and pricing targets while keeping a growing collection in development on schedule.
The position is hands-on and requires a high degree of technical skills and experience working with suppliers to ensure we navigate production-related constraints and possibilities well and offer our customers products with excellent quality at a competitive price point. Passionate and conscious about designing and producing for the future, we continuously explore ways to limit environmental impact and are looking for a colleague who shares our mindset and helps us fulfil our ambitions around sustainability.
In our current set-up, the role will include concept development with external designers and a heavy focus on product development in collaboration with suppliers and production partners and requires further involvement in the product lifecycle with ongoing quality reviews and closeness to purchasing and commercial teams.
Responsibilities
Design management and range planning:
- managing our range plan and product pipeline according to our commercial strategies
- writing product briefs, reviewing design proposals and updating our product roadmap
- liaising closely with our existing designers and approaching new creatives we would like to work with
- product reviews with our brand and design board
Product development/design:
- responsible for product development of furniture, lighting and homeware from conceptual ideas through to production samples and launch; collaborating closely with designers, management and supply chain/sourcing and compliance
- keeping development on target RRPs, as well as margin expectations, quality standards and timelines
- curiosity about new materials and processes and fresh ideas to continuously improve our environmental practice and impact related to our products and production process
- close cooperation and knowledge sharing with a senior product developer who works on existing NINE products in development
Product development/sourcing and production:
- with product development success inherently linked to a sound understanding of sourcing and production, these go hand-in-hand and you will be required to be in continuous and close dialogue with suppliers and/or sourcing intermediaries as well as travel to maintain relationships, follow up on progress or troubleshoot any issues to keep our product execution on schedule
- quality control and communication with purchasing and sales if problems arise
- bring or build a strong network of production partners to deliver high-quality products across all of our product categories
- negotiations with suppliers ensuring that high-quality products are delivered at the best possible price
Planning, budgeting and commercial:
- product pipeline planning
- set and manage quarterly and annual development budgets and keep track of costs
- collaboration with sales, marketing on product launch
About you:
- seven to ten years’ successful track record in product development in furniture having worked closely with suppliers in a premium design or contract furniture brand
- experience with product development in lighting and/or homeware preferred
- keen eye for detail and design
- effective trouble-shooter with a can-do attitude
- proactive, flexible and resourceful
- natural relationship-builder who shares an interest and passion for our community including colleagues, sourcing partners, designers and customers
- meticulous attention to detail
- experienced in Solidworks, Rhino, Adobe Suite, Excel
- motivated by results, outcomes and commercial success
- willingness to travel
Employee benefits:
- attractive staff discounts for our design products and selected collections related to our brand
- 24 days of holiday, plus all UK bank holidays
- we also give world mental health day as an additional paid day off for our team to rest and re-charge
- to stimulate exchange with design communities internationally, we offer the option to work from one of our related offices in Europe for one week per year
- cultural allowance to see local exhibitions for inspiration twice annually
- social seasonal team event celebrating milestones achieved together
- work anniversary gift recognizing your loyalty and contribution to the company
- extensive opportunity for career development within our ambitious, growing business
- people’s pension scheme option
To apply, click the apply for job button below to share your application with us. We look forward to hearing from you.