Director, Product Development - Apparel
About The Position
YETI is seeking a highly experienced product development leader and subject matter expert to shape the future of its apparel business. The Director of Product Development, Apparel will lead apparel development across categories, genders, and age groups, building scalable processes and production-ready products that support the long-term success of the apparel function. The role owns development across the YETI apparel portfolio, including materials, fit, construction, commercialization, vendor management, and production readiness from concept through production. The Director works closely with Product Management, Design, Sourcing, Technical Design, Quality, PS&C, and manufacturing partners to bring premium apparel to market. The position calls for strong judgment, deep product creation expertise, and the ability to solve complex and sometimes ambiguous development challenges while ensuring apparel is purpose-built, brand-right, commercially viable, and durable.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Apparel Development, Fashion Design, Textile Science, Product Creation, or a related field.
- Deep expertise in garment construction, fit, grading, patternmaking, garment engineering, testing, and apparel manufacturing.
- Extensive experience developing technical performance apparel, including outerwear, woven shirts, knit tops, fleece, and insulated products.
- Strong understanding of fabrics, trims, wash techniques, embellishments, garment performance attributes, and commercialization requirements.
- Proven experience managing global factory, mill, and supplier relationships.
- Ability to manage complex seasonal calendars, multiple categories, and cross-functional deliverables simultaneously.
- Experience owning commercialization readiness and guiding products through development and production approval stages.
- Strong financial acumen and experience partnering on product costing, margin targets, and cost engineering initiatives.
- Exceptional project management, communication, and cross-functional leadership skills.
- Experience working with PLM systems and product development tools.
- Ability to travel domestically and internationally to support product development, factory partnerships, and commercialization activities.
Nice To Haves
- Twelve or more years of apparel product development experience across performance, outdoor, active, lifestyle, and/or branded apparel categories.
- Master’s degree.
- Eight or more years of management experience.
- Experience with Centric PLM.
Responsibilities
- Lead end-to-end product development across branded and performance apparel categories, ensuring quality, fit, durability, performance, manufacturability, and commercial viability.
- Build and continuously improve scalable apparel development processes, tools, operating rhythms, and organizational capabilities.
- Partner with Product Management, Design, Sourcing, PS&C, Quality, and manufacturing partners to bring seasonal product concepts to market.
- Own the apparel development calendar across seasons and categories, managing milestones, decision points, risks, and commercialization readiness from concept through production approval.
- Oversee technical product documentation and sample-stage execution, including tech packs, specifications, graded measurements, BOMs, PLM data, prototypes, fit samples, wear testing, salesman samples, pre-production samples, and final production approval.
- Lead decisions on materials, trims, packaging, construction, garment engineering, fit standards, and manufacturing methods.
- Develop and manage strategic relationships with global factories, mills, trim suppliers, and manufacturing partners to support innovation, quality, speed to market, cost optimization, and long-term capability building.
- Champion material, construction, manufacturing, and process innovation that improves product performance, consumer value, operational efficiency, and margin while preserving product integrity.
- Identify and resolve development, quality, costing, manufacturing, supply chain, compliance, and commercialization risks before production approval.
Benefits
- YETI directs applicants to its benefits and perks information, but specific benefits are not listed in the job description.
Stand Out From the Crowd
Upload your resume and get instant feedback on how well it matches this job.
What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
