Product Development Associate

Museum of Ice Cream•Los Angeles, CA

9h•Remote

About The Position

Museum of Ice Cream is seeking a multi-disciplinary product developer who has lived inside the development cycle of CPG, apparel, hardgoods, toys, and paper goods - and can hold their own in any vendor conversation across those categories. You don't sit at the bench drawing tech packs yourself; you orchestrate a network of contract product engineers and tech pack designers, brief them sharply, review their work with technical authority, and protect speed and quality at every gate. You are obsessive about reducing sampling rounds - you know each round costs real money and real weeks, and you treat a fifth round as a process failure, not a fact of life. You can read a creative brief, see the engineering problem hiding inside it, and translate that into the right scope of work for the right contractor and the right vendor on day one. Reporting directly to the VP of Supply Chain, you will own end-to-end new product development for every product Museum of Ice Cream makes - retail merchandise, in-experience product, and F&B paper goods (cups, sleeves, lids, custom packaging, novelty serveware). You will work directly off creative briefs from your Rev Ops counterpart and translate them into developable, vendor-ready scopes - but you will not be authoring tech packs yourself. Instead, you will orchestrate a network of external product engineers and tech pack designers across disciplines, brief them, review their output, and use them to compress sampling rounds and accelerate time-to-market. You will partner closely with the Senior Procurement & Production Manager to align on which vendors are best suited for each sampling effort, and with the Director of Supply Chain on pipeline visibility and launch readiness.

Requirements

6+ years of product development experience across at least two of: CPG, apparel/softgoods, hardgoods/toys, or paper goods/packaging
Demonstrated technical fluency to speak vendor-to-vendor across disciplines - materials, construction, tolerances, compliance, packaging structures
Direct experience managing a network of external contract product engineers and tech pack designers (you brief them and review their work; you don't draft tech packs yourself)
Track record of reducing sampling rounds and compressing speed-to-market on multi-category development programs
Experience owning a WIP / development pipeline across simultaneous launches with disciplined gate management
Strong vendor-side experience including overseas factories (Asia, North America, Latin America) and domestic suppliers
Excellent written communication - your briefs and SOWs are precise enough that contractors and vendors get it right the first time

Nice To Haves

Background in lifestyle, cultural, or experience-driven brands
Licensing or co-brand product development experience
Food-contact paper goods and packaging development (FDA, BPI compostability, food-grade adhesives and inks)
Children's product compliance (CPSIA, ASTM F963)
Mold, tooling, and sample cost amortization experience
Familiarity with PLM systems, contractor management platforms, or product spec libraries

Responsibilities

Own the master Work-In-Progress (WIP) tracker for every product in development across retail, experience, and F&B paper goods - status, gate, owner, contractor, vendor, sampling round, and target launch
Run a weekly WIP review with the VP, Director, and Senior Procurement & Production Manager - surface risks, escalations, and trade-off decisions before they become missed launch dates
Make kill-or-accelerate calls on products in development based on cost, quality, timing, and creative-fit - and document the rationale
Maintain pipeline health metrics: average sample rounds per launch, sample-to-PO conversion rate, on-time launch rate, and cost-against-target by category
Lead end-to-end new product development for retail merchandise (apparel, accessories, plush, novelty, hardgoods), experience product (immersive room product, photo moments, branded fixtures), and F&B paper goods (custom cups, sleeves, lids, takeaway packaging, novelty serveware)
Take creative briefs from your Rev Ops counterpart and translate them into developable scopes of work - identifying the right discipline, contractor, vendor, and timeline for each
Define product requirements, performance specs, regulatory and compliance needs (food contact, child safety, flammability, etc.) for each category
Own go/no-go decisions at every development gate: brief, prototype, pre-production, production approval
Build and manage a vetted network of contract product engineers, tech pack designers, pattern makers, and packaging engineers across CPG, apparel, hardgoods, and paper goods
Brief each contractor with the discipline-appropriate level of specification - so the tech pack or engineering output that comes back is right the first time
Review contractor output with technical authority - flag construction issues, tolerance gaps, material substitutions, and compliance risks before they reach the vendor
Manage contractor SOWs, billing, and performance - keep only the best ones in rotation; replace the rest
Partner with the Senior Procurement & Production Manager to align on the right vendor for each sampling effort based on capability, cost band, lead time, and category fit
Drive a target of 2 sampling rounds (max 3) from first prototype to production approval - track every additional round as a process failure and root-cause it
Conduct hands-on sample reviews against spec - document issues, drive resolution with vendor and contractor, and close out gates cleanly
Manage sample logistics, costing, and amortization (mold, tooling, pre-production fees) and surface trade-offs to procurement and finance
Be the technical voice in the room when creative, marketing, or experience teams are scoping new product - flag what's developable, what isn't, and what changes scope or cost
Translate between creative intent and vendor execution - so a vendor in Vietnam, Shenzhen, or Brooklyn can build exactly what was briefed without back-and-forth
Maintain a centralized product spec and development library - reusable across launches, accessible to procurement, finance, and creative
Partner with the Director of Supply Chain on launch-readiness reviews and with the Merchandiser & Planner on demand alignment for new launches