Product Development Manager

Location: London or Oakham / Hybrid (with travel to our factory in Morocco and third-party suppliers)

Contract type: Permanent / Full-time

Closing date for applications: 5th June 2026

The Product Development Manager is responsible for leading the end-to-end product development process for Le Chameau, from initial brief through to bulk production handover. Working closely with the team on Design, Technical Specification, Production and external manufacturing partners, the role ensures that every product is developed on time, to specification, at the agreed cost and to the highest quality standards. The role owns the product critical path: managing prototypes, tooling, raw materials, samples, costing and supplier relationships, and ensuring the smooth transition from development into production. The Product Development Manager will also play a key role in establishing and embedding the new critical path development process, raising standards across briefs, reviews, sign-offs and go-to-market planning.

Key responsibilities

• The role covers both day-to-day product development activity and ownership of the forward-looking critical path development process.
• Partner with the Design and Technical teams to translate creative concepts into commercially viable, manufacturable products.
• Support the Design & Development team throughout the seasonal range build, including blueprint reviews, pattern amendments and pullover reviews.
• Schedule and coordinate fittings, design reviews and factory reviews with internal teams and manufacturing partners.
• Provide administrative and technical support to the technical team to keep development on track.
• Issue Product Confirmation communications to our factory once new products are signed off and ready to progress.
• Support our factory with homologation and industrialisation of new product into bulk production.

Critical path, briefing & range planning

• Own and manage the product development critical path across all product categories.
• Brief the range to our factory and third-party suppliers, including protos, last development, colour development and material development.
• Forecast SMS (sales samples), wear-trial and bulk requirements and communicate these to suppliers and internal Production Planning.
• Build and issue Tech Packs with complete and accurate specifications.
• Coordinate multiple rounds of blueprint review and amendment with Design team.
• Coordinate first and second colour dips, print reviews and print approvals through to tooling sign-off.

Prototype, sample and seal management

• Drive first proto-making and production feasibility, launch protos, and chair internal first and second prototype reviews.
• Manage proto samples, gold seals, SMS and black seals, including raising sample purchase orders and tracking the sample critical path with suppliers.
• Coordinate distribution of samples to internal stakeholders and partners.
• Manage SMS and wear-trial orders, production, delivery and distribution, and approval deadlines.
• Lead final range review and adoption meetings and communicate the adopted range to the wider business.

Tooling, lasts and raw material development

• Provide end-to-end, cross-departmental support on sole, last and tooling programmes across our suppliers.
• Coordinate the validation and approval of new lasts with our factory and internal teams.
• Manage the development of raw materials and components, including supplier liaison, sample requests and approvals.
• Maintain the raw material sample library and ensure it is accurate and accessible.
• Coordinate approval of bulk raw materials prior to bulk production.
• Manage wooden mold launches and mold approvals for model sizes and additional sizes.
• Sign off new components and materials and ensure required codes are created in our factory systems.
• Forecast and manage the transfer of product development spend from expense to capex (tooling).

Quality

• Support the Technical Manager and our factory Quality team on management of quality issues with suppliers and internal teams.
• Drive wear-trial approval, gold-seal approval and black-seal pre-shipment sample validation to deadline.
• Lead the weekly NPD & Quality meeting with our factory and internal stakeholders.

Costing and commercial sign-off

• Obtain cost prices for all new product development from our factory and third-party suppliers.
• Issue first and second pricing views and shepherd products through finance and commercial price sign-off, including margin review.
• Share cost prices with Senior Management following the agreed process and ensure transparent communication of cost movements.
• Coordinate finance and production audits where required.

Data, systems and tools

• Assign item codes and EAN numbers for new products and complete new item code templates.
• Create new item codes in BC and M3 and ensure accurate master data across systems.
• For our factory, complete new item code templates, obtain examples of barcode labels for checking, and obtain and check Bills of Materials (BOMs) for accuracy.
• Collaborate cross-departmentally to keep systems aligned as new products and processes are introduced.

Collaborations and SMUs

• Manage collaborations and Special Make-Ups (SMUs) with partner brands and customers, from brief through to production handover.
• Support the Design team on style developments specific to collaboration and SMU programmes.
• Drive the development of bespoke raw materials, components and trims for collaborations and SMUs.
• Day-to-day management of communications with collaboration customers and partner brands.
• Sign off supplier invoices related to product development.
• Re-invoice development costs to customers where applicable.

Contracts, NDAs and supplier management

• Work with Legal to draft and issue contracts and NDAs for new suppliers, new materials and collaboration partners.
• Manage new supplier onboarding (third-party only) for development.
• Build and maintain strong working relationships with suppliers, factories and partner brands.

Production planning and go-to-market handover

• Work with Production Planning and Marketing to align product launches, stock build and go-to-market plans.
• Review bulk orders with suppliers, confirm delivery commitments and ensure a smooth handover of new products into bulk production.
• Act as the bridge between Product Development and Production, ensuring the new Production Manager and wider supply chain have everything required to take a product into volume manufacture.

Skills, experience and qualifications

• Proven experience in a product development management role within footwear, apparel, accessories or a similarly technical consumer-goods category.
• Demonstrable track record of running a seasonal critical path from brief through to bulk handover.
• Hands-on experience working with offshore and/or third-party manufacturing partners and managing factory relationships.
• Experience managing tooling, lasts, moulds, raw materials, samples and seals through structured approval gates.
• Strong commercial awareness, including experience of cost-price negotiation, margin management and finance sign-off processes.
• Experience drafting and managing Tech Packs and working closely with Design and Technical teams.

Essential skills and capabilities

• Excellent project and critical-path management; able to hold multiple workstreams to deadline without losing the detail.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills across Design, Technical, Production, Finance, Marketing and external partners.
• Comfortable making decisions under pressure and escalating risk to senior leadership with clear options.
• Highly numerate, with a strong grasp of cost build-ups, margin, and the commercial implications of development choices.
• Confident user of business systems and ERP/PLM tools (e.g. Microsoft Dynamics Business Central, M3 or equivalent).
• Excellent attention to detail across BOMs, item codes, specifications and approvals.
• Calm, collaborative and solutions-oriented; able to lead through influence and build trust with internal teams and suppliers alike.
• Working knowledge of French or Spanish (to support communication with our factory and European suppliers).
• Experience of contracts and NDAs in a development or collaboration context.
• Experience embedding new processes or critical-path frameworks within a growing product team.
• Familiarity with sustainability/ESG considerations in product development and raw-material sourcing.

Qualifications

• Degree (or equivalent professional experience) in a relevant discipline — e.g. Product Development, Footwear/Fashion Technology, Industrial Design, Engineering, Supply Chain or related.

Other requirements

• Willingness and ability to travel to our factory and third-party suppliers as required to support development, factory reviews and pre-shipment activity.