Senior Director, Product Development

Music is Universal
 
It's the passionate and dedicated team at Universal Music who help make us the world's leading music company. From A&R to finance, legal to digital, sales to marketing, Universal Music is the place to grow and develop your career within a truly commercial and innovative business that leads in everything it does.

Everyone is welcome to apply for our roles, and we are determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment because of gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion, belief, age, marital status, background, pregnancy, or caring responsibilities. We also recognise the importance of diversity of thought within our teams and are fully committed to embracing the talents of people with autism, dyslexia, ADHD, and other forms of neurocognitive variation.

We will always seek to make appropriate adjustments to recruitment, workplaces, and work processes to be fully inclusive to people with different needs and working styles. If you need us to make any reasonable adjustments for you from application onwards, including alternatives to the online form or to disclose a neurocognitive condition, please email

Director Product Development & Sourcing

The Director Product Development & Sourcing will be an essential part of the Famehouse team, helping to drive execution of merchandise needs for Retail, E-commerce, Tour and Popup development in UK and EU markets This position will report directly to the VP of Product Development in the US and work very closely with the regional department heads in support of all commercial channels.  The position will collaborate with the EU markets to ensure resources are optimized to support local and regional market demands.

This is a fast paced, high-volume position that requires tenured PD & sourcing experience for many different product categories, including Apparel, Hardline and Softline Accessories.

The ability to establish partner relationships with the current vendor base and to source new suppliers is critical for the role. Focusing on competitive pricing, new ideation, quick turn times, quality control and on time deliveries is key.

The Director Product Development & Sourcing is responsible for establishing, developing and directing the PD strategy for merchandise and accessories and effectively directing the business relationships with finished product suppliers.

Principal Responsibilities & Specific Duties

• Front facing position, working closely with Brand Management and Label Partners.

• Develop/source new and existing fabric, trims, washes/dyes vendors for all upcoming development.

• Develop and maintain libraries for fabric and wash developments.

• Leverage trade tools to stay updated with trends. Foresee new product opportunities. Identify new factories or expand facilities of existing factory base in the growing countries.

• Direct the Technical Design Team and Creative Team to ensure complete technical package is done to initiate development.

• Initiate time and action calendars. Drive activity alongside cross-functional teams as well as Artist Management to remain on schedule. 

• Management of pre-production/development timelines, reviewing reports and recommending solutions to exceptions.

• Manage all details regarding the development process, managing the sampling submits. Be responsible for effectively communicating all design comments to vendors to ensure product meets expectation. Work alongside Technical Design to ensure proper FIT comments are sent.

• Work collaboratively with the Brand Management and Creative Teams to develop a final assortment that is executable in production.

• Negotiate and cost engineer products with vendors across multiple programs and communicate needs to the design team to ensure product is being built around retail price point targets and margin requirements. 

• Manage overall pricing and P&L analysis along with Finance to ensure margin targets are met for new products and category introductions.

• Initiate weekly development touch bases with cross-functional meetings for potential order issues as appropriate.

• Develop and manage process workflow improvements.

• Work alongside Production counterparts to ensure products being developed align with deadlines in mind to ensure seamless transition of production scheduling and output.

• Manage supplier's product integrity and order specification compliance details including dye lots, wash effect, hand feel and shade bands. Provide risk assessment analysis based on complexity of design.

• Work alongside the Compliance team to ensure new products developed meets global requirements.

• Handle all eCommerce product set up details and work with the Store Management Team for product details inclusive of fabrication, SKUs, and overall design details that are necessary for marketing and product descriptions.

• Work alongside Tour team to ensure all product details and costing is supplied.

• Liaise with suppliers to provide technical advice and give direction for problem solving. Manage fabric or blank selection process, confirm fabric and trim materials are available for prototype development via direct communications with suppliers.

• Manage liability of raw material supplies to ensure it can be utilized in product that can be sold and minimize financial exposure. Work with Design Team to create future designs to utilize the excess raw materials.

• Attend Concept, Design Review and Selection meetings to understand upcoming styles to work with the appropriate vendors to create the product.

• Promote collaboration, communication, and teamwork within the brand between Merchandising, Product Development, Production, Creative and Tour Merchandising.

• Lead and Manage a PD team and collaborate on process improvements with both US team and Cross functional teams.

• Ability to travel.

Skills and Requirements

• Solid experience in Apparel and Accessories Production and/or Product Development Production/Buying/Sourcing experience.

• Diverse market segment background (men's, juniors, and children's wear, accessories).

• Strong costing and product engineering skills.

• Established vendor base and relationships for apparel (cut and sew knits, sleepwear and loungewear) and accessories.

• Detail oriented with strong follow through skills.

• Extensive technical knowledge of raw materials, garment constructions, wash and print processes.

• Microsoft Suite and Adobe proficiencies (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Illustrator).

• Ability to work in a demanding, fast-paced environment.

• Strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

• Excellent communicator with the ability to build and maintain relationships.

• Flexible and adaptable; priorities change frequently based on business demands, the ability to change direction quickly is critical.

• Strong long-term strategic planning capability.

• Experience ingesting requirements and adapting workflows to accommodate those requirements.

• Music Merch Production experience a plus.

• Bachelor's degree (US or foreign equivalent) in Product Development, Textile Science, Fashion Design or Sourcing.

• Extensive factory manufacturing process experience including production timeline management, fact-based costing, and pricing.

• Excellent written, verbal communication and presentation skills.

• Detail oriented but capable of developing and executing strategies as well.

• Strong negotiation skills.

• Proven ability to manage and develop teams.

• Works well under pressure.

Just So You Know…

The company presents this job description as a guide to the major areas and duties for which the jobholder is accountable. However, the business operates in an environment that demands change and the jobholder's specific responsibilities and activities will vary and develop. Therefore, the job description should be seen as indicative and not as a permanent, definitive, and exhaustive statement.