Senior Product Development Manager

Location: Chelsea, London (with travel to UK and international workshops)

Employment Type: Full‑time (37.5 hours per week)

Overview

This hands‑on role sits at the heart of how we bring designs to life. The role owns the journey from design drawing to finished piece, working closely with the Creative Director and Head of Jewellery Design to translate concepts into clear, technically rigorous briefs for our workshops. The right person will combine craft knowledge, commercial sharpness, and the confidence to hold a brand standard and challenge a workshop when the work is not right. Bespoke production also sits within this role, so the ability to communicate clearly across design, bespoke, and product development is essential.

Responsibilities

• Design translation: Translate design briefs into detailed production briefs for workshops, including specifications, tolerances, finishes, and stone requirements. Read CAD drawings fluently in Rhino or Matrix, anticipating production problems before they happen. Hold the line on design integrity from drawing through to first sample and final piece.
• Production management: Own the end‑to‑end production timeline across collections and one‑off pieces, with clear milestones and accountable workshop dates. Manage capacity planning across multiple workshops and product lines, balancing collection launches against bespoke and ongoing replenishment. Identify production risks early and resolve them before they affect a launch or a customer.
• Workshop and supplier relationships: Build deep relationships with our existing UK and international workshops, including pricing benchmarks and lead‑time expectations, capturing verbal agreements in writing. Proactively source new workshops and manufacturers in any part of the world. Vet new workshops rigorously before they enter the production pipeline, including sample work, capacity assessment and clear understanding of their commercial terms. Maintain a reliable and robust living supplier handbook.
• Quality control and samples: Own quality control across all product development and production, anticipating quality issues at the briefing stage. Sign off samples against the design brief, maintain a clear and consistent grading standard, and reject pieces that do not meet it. Be responsible for the implementation of quality standards and tests across collections and bespoke commissions, keeping these standards live and up to date. Ensure samples are handled with care both in transit and on‑site, and educate the wider team and stakeholders in handling protocols. Log receipt of samples clearly and consistently.
• Commercial and cost management: Challenge quotes, negotiate firmly on price, lead times, and quality thresholds, and protect margin without compromising craft. Develop and maintain a costing reference for our most‑produced pieces and stone categories, so that pricing decisions are grounded in real data. Keep product development budget sheets up to date and liaise with the Head of Merchandising & Operations to ensure development stays within budget parameters.
• Bespoke Studio: Oversee the production side of the Bespoke Studio, ensuring bespoke commissions are briefed, made and delivered to the same high standards as collection pieces. Work closely with the Bespoke team on technical feasibility, stone sourcing and customer‑facing timelines.
• Team training and communication: Elevate the technical literacy of the business by training and developing team members on technical jewellery knowledge, materials, and production realities. Act as the central communication link between design, bespoke and production, making sure each function understands what the others need and when.

Qualifications

Essential: Minimum four years’ experience in fine jewellery product development or production, ideally with time spent in both a design‑led brand and a workshop/manufacturing environment. Strong CAD literacy in Rhino and Matrix. Ability to read a drawing critically, anticipate setting and structural issues, and translate concepts into clear, technically rigorous briefs. A practical understanding of how fine jewellery is made, gained through time spent in or around workshops and manufacturers. Bench training welcomed but not essential. A working network of workshops in different parts of the world, and the judgement to use it intelligently to source new makers based on capability and quality. Commercial confidence with suppliers. Comfortable challenging a quote, negotiating lead times, and pushing back on quality. Strong project and timeline management across multiple collections or product lines. Clear, calm communicator. Ability to brief workshops, train colleagues and translate between design and production. Methodical and detail‑driven without losing sight of the bigger picture. A team‑builder, comfortable training and developing colleagues.

Desirable: Gemological qualification (FGA from the Gemmological Association of Great Britain, or GIA Graduate Gemologist), or equivalent depth of stone knowledge gained on the job. Direct experience of working with Italian or other international fine jewellery manufacturers. Experience of bespoke and high‑jewellery commissions alongside collection production.