Designer, Cook & Dine
About The Position
Earthbound is hiring a hands-on designer to create brand-right, trend-forward, and commercially viable hard kitchen products for multiple Walmart private label home brands. The designer will divide their time roughly evenly between original in-house design and supplier co-creation, providing direction and reviewing submissions to ensure products meet design intent, cost targets, and manufacturing requirements. The role works closely with the Design Director, Product Development team in Bentonville, Walmart merchants, cross-functional teams, and suppliers. The designer will track competitive products and sales data, propose innovation, and may also support kitchen textiles and broader home categories as workload requires. The role reports to the Design Director. Earthbound's office is in New York City's Flatiron District. The company currently follows a hybrid schedule, with employees in the office Monday through Wednesday and working remotely Thursday and Friday.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Industrial Design, Product Design, Ceramics, Surface or Textile Design, or a related field.
- 4–7 years of professional experience designing hard kitchen or housewares products that have been manufactured and sold at retail; portfolio must show produced products, not only concepts.
- Working knowledge of hard kitchen materials and processes, including stoneware, porcelain, glass, melamine, plastics, stainless steel, wood, and bamboo, and decoration methods such as decals, glazes, printing, and embossing.
- Awareness of food-contact safety, packaging, and set-building requirements in mass-market retail.
- Experience collaborating with suppliers or manufacturers through product development.
- Proficiency in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop for design and artwork, and PowerPoint for presentations.
- Willingness to travel occasionally to Bentonville, supplier factories, and trade shows.
- Strong communication skills, including the ability to convey design intent clearly in presentations, markups, and conversations with suppliers.
- Highly organized, detail-oriented, diligent with follow-up, adaptable, and proactive about design and innovation.
Nice To Haves
- Hands-on experience in tabletop, food storage, and/or decorative kitchenware.
- Direct experience working with overseas factories.
- Experience with kitchen textiles such as towels, oven mitts, aprons, or table linens.
- Experience working with or presenting to a major retail partner such as Walmart.
- InDesign proficiency.
- 3D modeling and rendering skills using Rhino, SolidWorks, or KeyShot.
Responsibilities
- Design original products for hard kitchen categories, including dinnerware, hard tabletop, drinkware, serveware, food storage, and pantry organization, from concept through production-ready artwork and design specifications.
- Co-create products with suppliers by sharing design direction, brainstorming materials and processes, and developing products that satisfy design intent, cost targets, and manufacturing realities.
- Review and redline supplier concepts, CADs, renderings, strike-offs, and physical samples, giving specific feedback on form, proportion, color, decoration, materials, finish, and function.
- Partner with the Product Development team in Bentonville to understand category needs and merchant strategy, execute design briefs, and keep timelines on track.
- Represent design in alignment meetings and line reviews with the Walmart team, clearly presenting concepts, collections, and rationale.
- Work with the Design Director, Product Development, and sourcing partners to resolve product and design issues while balancing design intent, cost, manufacturing, food-safety, and packaging requirements.
- Coordinate with peers to maintain brand continuity across Walmart private label home brands, including kitchen-textile coordination for a cohesive kitchen story.
- Monitor the competitive landscape, analyze sales data, and research materials, finishes, decoration techniques, and housewares innovations to develop proactive design proposals.
- Build trend and concept boards, line plans, specification sheets, and presentation decks.
- Support kitchen textiles and other home categories as needed.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
