Product Development Manager

Vesta Home • Los Angeles, CA

3d

About The Position

Vesta Home is seeking a Product Development Manager to oversee the end-to-end development of proprietary furniture and décor collections. Reporting to the VP of Manufacturing, this role partners closely with Merchandising, Inventory, and Procurement to deliver best-in-class products aligned with the brand’s vision and standards. This position serves as the central driver of day-to-day product development execution across Vesta’s global vendor network. The role maintains full visibility into the product pipeline, ensures disciplined milestone management, and supports the company’s sourcing strategy. This role is primarily responsible for the pre-production phase of the product lifecycle, ensuring products are fully vetted, costed, specified, and ready for order placement. The ideal candidate brings a passion for thoughtful design and quality craftsmanship, along with hands-on experience in international manufacturing across major home furnishings categories. They possess strong fluency in materiality and construction, demonstrate effectiveness in cost negotiation and value engineering support, and excel at cross-functional execution in fast-paced environments.

The Product Development Manager manages vendor and material development activities across all categories while maintaining end-to-end visibility of Vesta’s global product pipeline. This role oversees execution with the existing vendor network while proactively surfacing new partner opportunities, material innovations, and emerging production techniques. The role leads new vendor onboarding execution, drives product readiness from concept through launch, and manages critical development workflows including cost tracking, product sampling, and testing coordination. This position owns the Master Product Development Calendar, drives cross-functional communication, and ensures real-time pipeline transparency for leadership. This role provides the VP of Manufacturing with forward visibility into sampling status, vendor workload, and upcoming production readiness.

Requirements

• 5+ years in product development, sourcing, merchandising operations, or supply chain coordination
• Experience working with global vendors or overseas production environments
• Experience with PLM, ERP, or product lifecycle systems
• Familiarity with UL, Prop 65, packaging, or product documentation workflows
• Strong project coordination and timeline management skills
• High proficiency in Excel / Google Sheets (pivots, trackers, dashboards)
• Experience working cross-functionally in fast-paced environments
• Strong attention to detail and follow-through
• Furniture, home, or hard goods experience

Nice To Haves

• Exposure to China, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, or Mexico vendor environments

Responsibilities

• Manage day-to-day product development from concept through production readiness
• Own and maintain the Master Product Development Calendar across all categories
• Track and report product status across key milestones (Concept → sampling → costing → compliance → production readiness)
• Ensure development timelines remain aligned with approved production plans
• Provide regular pipeline visibility and status reporting to leadership
• Manage day-to-day communication with vendors regarding samples, specifications, and timelines
• Support material sourcing and development initiatives across categories
• Identify and surface new vendor or material opportunities for leadership review
• Execute onboarding for new vendors
• Maintain vendor development scorecards (timelines, responsiveness, sample quality)
• Track product cost development and support value engineering initiatives
• Partner with Procurement and Merchandising on cost optimization opportunities
• Coordinate product sampling, testing, and technical review workflows
• Help ensure products are fully documented and production-ready, including: Specifications Cost inputs Packaging requirements Required compliance documentation Photography readiness
• Serve as the central coordinator across Merchandising, Procurement, Inventory, and Manufacturing
• Run regular development reviews and milestone checkpoints
• Ensure clean, timely handoffs between teams
• Surface risks, delays, and dependencies with recommended actions
• Support Merchandising in translating design intent into production-ready requirements
• Support the implementation and ongoing maintenance of product lifecycle management (PLM) tools and workflows
• Maintain accurate product status reporting in Eames, SSCI, or successor systems
• Partner with SKU Build and Inventory teams to ensure clean item setup
• Ensure development dashboards and trackers remain current and reliable
• Support Vesta’s transition to a more data-driven product organization
• Help build and maintain Vesta’s centralized materials library, including fabrics, finishes, hardware, and other key components
• Help standardize product development SOPs and milestone gates
• Partner with Merchandising and Supply Chain to ensure material standards, specifications, and reference samples remain current and accessible
• Contribute to improving data structure and visibility across the product development process
• Identify opportunities to improve development speed and vendor performance
• Support vendor performance improvement initiatives prior to production investment
• Contribute to a high-accountability, solutions-oriented team culture

Benefits

• 401k
• Medical Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• Employer-covered Life Insurance and Long-Term Disability (LTD) plans (with Medical Insurance election)

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: No Education Listed