Senior Director of Product Development

Comfrt•,

2d•Remote

About The Position

The Senior Director of Product Development will lead the Product Development organization across apparel and lifestyle categories, overseeing Directors, Product Managers, Developers and Coordinators. This leader will be responsible for scaling process, elevating team capability, driving product excellence, and ensuring seamless execution from design vision through production readiness. This leader will play a critical role in shaping the future product vision of the brand through a deep understanding of the modern premium casual, athletic, and sportswear customer. This role requires a strategic operator and strong people leader who can balance innovation, speed, quality, margin, and business growth in a fast-paced global environment. The ideal candidate has a strong eye for trend, understands the intersection of fashion, function, and culture, and can identify meaningful white space opportunities within the market. This person must be highly connected to evolving consumer behavior, trend shifts, silhouette evolution, fabric innovation, and competitive landscape across casual sportswear and athleisure. The ideal candidate is highly collaborative, detail-oriented, solutions-driven, and thrives in building high-performing teams and scalable systems. In addition to strong trend and product instincts, this leader must be an exceptional operator capable of scaling teams, improving process, driving product excellence, and ensuring seamless execution from concept through commercialization.

Requirements

15+ years of experience in Product Development, Product Management, or Product Operations within apparel, retail, or consumer goods.
Proven experience leading fast pace, lean product development organizations in high-growth environments.
Experience managing and leading Directors, Product Managers, and cross-functional teams.
Strong understanding of apparel product creation, commercialization, fit, materials, quality, costing, sourcing, and production processes.
Experience working across DTC, retail, wholesale, and global business channels preferred.
Strong eye for product, silhouette, fabric, color, and trend relevance within the active/lifestyle market.
Premium, fashion, activewear, or lifestyle brand experience strongly preferred.
Proven ability to coach, develop, and elevate teams and organizational capability.
Strong servant-leadership mindset with the ability to influence through collaboration and trust.
Comfortable operating both strategically and tactically in a fast-moving environment.
Excellent communication, prioritization, and decision-making skills.
Strong understanding of margin management, calendar management, inventory flow, and operational scaling.
Highly analytical with the ability to use data and customer insights to drive decisions.
Demonstrated success improving processes, driving efficiency, and scaling operations.
Experience managing complex cross-functional relationships and competing priorities.

Nice To Haves

Experience working across DTC, retail, wholesale, and global business channels
Premium, fashion, activewear, or lifestyle brand experience

Responsibilities

Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing Product Development organization, including Directors, Product Managers, Developers and Coordinators.
Build strong team structure, clear ownership, accountability, and scalable workflows across categories and business channels.
Develop talent and succession planning to strengthen organizational capability and long-term growth.
Foster a culture of collaboration, urgency, operational excellence, and continuous improvement.
Mentor teams to focus on delivering business impact, not simply timelines.
Own end-to-end product development execution from concept through commercialization across apparel and lifestyle categories.
Identify emerging trends, customer behaviors, and market white space opportunities across casual sportswear, activewear, and lifestyle categories.
Partner closely with Creative, Merchandising and Design to develop category-driving product strategies and commercially impactful big ideas.
Maintain strong awareness of competitive landscape, market shifts, fabric innovation, silhouette trends, and consumer insights.
Partner closely with Design, Merchandising, Sourcing, Technical Design, Production, Planning, and Quality teams to bring product vision to life.
Ensure product meets brand standards for quality, fit, performance, cost, margin, and customer expectations.
Drive process optimization and operational rigor to improve speed-to-market, communication, and execution consistency.
Lead cross-functional milestone management and seasonal calendar execution.
Establish best-in-class product development standards, SOPs, and commercialization processes.
Identify risks early and proactively solve development, quality, fit, and production challenges.
Partner with sourcing and manufacturing teams to elevate vendor capability, innovation, and execution.
Ensure product integrity through strong development, testing, wear trials, and quality assurance processes.
Partner with executive leadership on product strategy, category growth opportunities, and organizational scaling.
Collaborate closely with merchandising and planning teams to align product decisions with business goals, inventory strategy, margin targets, and customer demand.
Support quarterly and seasonal planning processes, ensuring teams are focused on the highest-impact initiatives.
Use customer insights, market trends, competitive analysis, and data to inform product and process decisions.
Drive scalable systems, tools, reporting, and workflow management across the development organization.
Improve visibility, accountability, and communication across cross-functional teams and global partners.
Balance innovation, speed, quality, and profitability while operating in a high-growth environment.
Lead by example as a hands-on operator willing to solve problems and support teams where needed.