VP of Product Development & Manufacturing

Can you walk into a factory in Shenzhen, China and know within the first hour whether they can actually build what you need?

Can you look at a failed EVT unit and know immediately whether it's a design problem, a supplier problem, or a tooling problem?

Have you actually taken a sophisticated electromechanical product from a sketch to millions of units in market - not managed a roadmap, but built something?

Freebird® is a 9-figure DTC brand serving over 2 million customers and redefining shaving for the modern consumer. We've built a loyal subscriber base, a portfolio of best-in-class grooming products, and one of the strongest direct-response engines in the space. Now we're entering our next stage of growth and investing significantly in the evolution of our physical product platform - and we're looking for the person who will own it.

We're looking for a VP, Product Development & Manufacturing to lead the development, engineering, sourcing, validation, and commercialization of Freebird's physical products. You'll serve as Freebird's senior product development authority, working closely with the CEO, President/COO, and broader leadership team to translate consumer and business needs into exceptional physical products.

This is not a program-management role. This is a builder role. If you've taken sophisticated hardware from concept through mass production before and want to do it again - keep reading.

Key Responsibilities

• Product Development
• Lead end-to-end development of Freebird's hardware and personal care products from concept through commercialization.
• Translate consumer needs, market opportunities, and business objectives into clear product requirements and development priorities.
• Define product architectures, specifications, performance requirements, and development plans.
• Evaluate potential development paths and determine when to build, adapt, source, customize, or partner.
• Lead product benchmarking, prototyping, testing, and iterative improvement.
• Make clear recommendations on technology, partners, resources, timing, cost, and development tradeoffs.
• Ensure product programs remain focused on delivering meaningful improvements to the customer experience.
• Bring structure, urgency, technical rigor, and strong judgment to product-development decisions.
• Product Design & Engineering
• Lead and coordinate industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and technical development across Freebird's product portfolio.
• Provide technical leadership across sophisticated electromechanical systems, including:
• Motors and drivetrains
• Batteries and charging systems
• Electronics and PCBs
• Mechanical systems and interfaces
• Cutting and grooming mechanisms
• Blades, foils, and precision components
• Waterproofing and sealing
• Materials and tolerances
• Tooling and molded components
• Ergonomics
• Reliability and manufacturability
• Establish clear engineering requirements, design reviews, technical milestones, and validation standards.
• Ensure products are designed for performance, durability, manufacturability, quality, and cost from the beginning.
• Select and manage the appropriate internal and external industrial design, engineering, and technical partners.
• Challenge engineering assumptions and supplier recommendations where necessary to ensure the strongest product outcome.
• You do not need to personally engineer every component, but you must have the technical fluency and judgment to effectively lead and challenge internal teams, external engineers, suppliers, and manufacturing partners.
• Sourcing & Manufacturing
• Build and manage a high-performing network of factories, ODMs, component suppliers, engineering partners, and specialist manufacturers.
• Develop strong direct relationships with China-based manufacturing and technology partners.
• Lead supplier identification, qualification, RFQs, negotiations, tooling, production readiness, and manufacturing ramp.
• Improve supplier performance, cost, quality, transparency, and supply-chain resilience.
• Establish appropriate second-source strategies and reduce unnecessary dependency on individual suppliers or intermediaries.

Requirements

• 12+ years of experience in consumer hardware product development, engineering, manufacturing, sourcing, NPI, or closely related functions.
• 5+ years of experience leading multidisciplinary product, engineering, development, or manufacturing teams.
• Demonstrated success taking sophisticated physical products from concept through mass production.
• Significant experience with high-volume electromechanical consumer products.
• Deep firsthand experience working directly with China-based factories and suppliers.
• Strong mechanical and electrical product fluency.
• Experience with motors, batteries, electronics, charging systems, PCBs, tooling, molded components, waterproofing, and precision mechanical systems.
• Strong knowledge of EVT, DVT, PVT, DFM, tooling, validation, and production ramp.
• Experience identifying, qualifying, negotiating with, and developing manufacturing and technology partners.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple concurrent development programs.
• Strong understanding of product quality, reliability, COGS, manufacturing economics, and supplier performance.
• Strong executive communication, decision-making, and cross-functional leadership skills.
• Preferred Experience
• Experience in one or more of the following categories is highly desirable: Shaving and grooming
• Trimmers, clippers, blades, foils, or cutting systems
• Personal care devices
• Beauty devices
• Small appliances
• Precision electromechanical consumer products
• Experience developing products for large-scale DTC, Amazon, and mass-retail distribution is also highly valuable.

What We're Looking For

• The ideal candidate combines strong product judgment with deep experience across consumer hardware, engineering, China sourcing and manufacturing, NPI, quality, supplier development, and product economics.
• You are a builder and operator, not simply a product strategist.
• You are comfortable entering an evolving environment, quickly understanding the customer and business need, evaluating multiple development paths, and making clear recommendations.
• You know how to identify the right technology, select the right engineering approach, find the right partners, challenge factories and suppliers, recognize technical risk early, and move programs forward with urgency.
• You are equally comfortable discussing customer experience, product strategy, design, engineering, manufacturing, quality, cost, and business impact.
• You communicate complex issues simply and give leadership confidence that the right decisions are being made.
• Most importantly, you care deeply about building great physical products that create meaningfully better experiences for customers.

What Success Looks Like

Success in this role means:

• Launching materially better products that customers love
• Shortening and improving the predictability of development cycles
• Building stronger design, engineering, supplier, and manufacturing relationships
• Improving product quality, reliability, and customer satisfaction
• Making better and faster technical and sourcing decisions
• Maintaining strong product economics and competitive pricing
• Creating a scalable foundation for continued product innovation
• Building greater confidence across Freebird in how physical products are developed and commercialized

This is an opportunity to have a significant impact on both the Freebird customer experience and the next stage of the company's growth.