Overview
Product Development Manager Jobs in United States at Zazu Digital Talent
Title: Product Development Manager
Company: Zazu Digital Talent
Location: United States
Product Development Manager – Premium DTC Arts & Crafts Brand | Fully Remote (US)
We are partnering with the premium leader in a craft category that has quietly become one of the fastest growing in arts and crafts. Their customers treat the craft like meditation: hours of immersive making to create something they can hang, gift, or display. The core audience is adult women, with strong intergenerational growth as moms teach kids and grandmothers make pieces alongside their grandchildren.
The licensing portfolio is one of the deepest in the category: Disney, Warner Bros, and other major studio and entertainment licensors, plus regular artist collabs. They ship new collections constantly across multiple formats: kits, collectibles, gifting, advent calendars. The brand is scaling fast into major retail (Walmart, Hobby Lobby, and others) alongside their core DTC business, so the runway in front of this seat is substantial.
This is a hands-on, high-impact role. You will lead the full lifecycle of product creation, from early concepting and prototyping to sampling, testing, packaging development, compliance, and all stages of manufacturing through mass production and launch. You will report directly to the Co-Founder and Head of Creative and PD. No committee approvals, no roadmap-by-spreadsheet, no waiting for someone else to make the call. Fast decisions, real ownership, your fingerprints on everything that ships.
What you will own
- The end-to-end product development lifecycle, ideation through mass production
- A multi-year roadmap aligned with brand strategy, licensing timelines, and consumer insights
- Daily relationships with the China factory partners
- Sampling, prototyping, and hands-on sample review (you must be able to pick up a sample and immediately know whether it is right)
- Compliance against CPSIA, ASTM, EN71 and other global standards
- Cross-functional execution alongside creative, licensing, design, and operations
- Process, documentation, and SOPs that scale as the brand grows
What success looks like at 12 months
- Fully ramped on the products, customers, and quality standards
- A product pipeline that feels fresh, innovative, and commercially strong
- Multiple development projects independently managed from ideation through launch
- China factory onboarding completed and strong relationships established
- Known internally as the dependable business unit owner who gets products across the finish line
Who you are
- 7+ years in product development, ideally 3 to 5 of them in toys, collectibles, arts and crafts, or consumer goods
- A genuine love for arts and crafts, you make things yourself
- Tactile instinct for product quality, you can hold a sample and immediately spot what needs fixing
- A creative bent, you bring ideas, not just project plans
- Direct experience working with overseas factories and navigating production cycles
- Hands-on by preference, you would rather do the work than only manage it
- Excellent organizational skills, detail obsessed, proactive
- Comfortable with light travel to Asia (1 to 2 times per year)
- Nice to have – Mandarin speaker
Practical details
- Fully remote, anywhere in the US
- Travel to China 1 to 2 times per year for factory onboarding and the occasional trade show
- Reports directly to the Co-Founder
- Strong benefits (100% employer-paid medical, dental, vision, plus 401k and additional cover)
