Technical Design Manager
About The Position
The Technical Design Manager is the technical authority and execution partner to the Chief Product Officer, responsible for translating creative vision into production-ready, scalable, and consistent product. This role owns fit, construction, technical specifications, and manufacturability across the entire collection, ensuring that every style can be produced at scale without compromising design intent, quality, or margin. The ideal candidate is deeply experienced in domestic production (LA) and International production (Europe), decisive, and respected across factories and internal teams, someone who prevents problems before they reach production.
Requirements
- 10+ years of technical design experience in apparel in domestic production (LA) and International production (Europe).
- Proven leadership at a senior level.
- Deep expertise in garment construction, patternmaking and grading, fabric performance, and factory communication.
- Strong experience taking products from concept through bulk production.
- Ability to execute product that looks as intended at scale.
- Excellent problem-solving and decision-making skills.
- Ability to balance design intent, cost, and manufacturability.
- Comfortable pushing back and offering solutions.
- Willingness to build a strong trust and partnership with the Chief Product Officer.
- Based in LA or willing to relocate.
Responsibilities
- Serve as the final authority on fit, construction, and technical viability.
- Partner closely with Chief Product Officer to interpret and execute design intent.
- Evaluate styles early for production risk, complexity, and scalability.
- Establish technical guardrails that support creativity without compromising execution.
- Own overall fit standards and block strategy across categories.
- Ensure consistency of fit across silhouettes, fabrics, and seasons.
- Lead fit sessions with clear, actionable direction.
- Diagnose fit issues accurately (pattern, construction, fabric, grading).
- Ensure all tech packs are complete, precise, and production-ready.
- Oversee: Measurement specs and grading rules Construction callouts and tolerances BOM accuracy (fabrics, trims, finishes)
- Eliminate ambiguity so factories can execute without interpretation.
- Guide styles through prototype, SMS, and PP with discipline.
- Decide when a style is ready to move forward vs. requires rework.
- Prevent over-sampling and late-stage changes.
- Partner with Production to ensure smooth transition into bulk.
- Validate fabric performance (shrinkage, stretch, recovery, colorfastness).
- Ensure trims and finishes are scalable and approved for bulk.
- Flag material risks early and recommend alternatives when needed.
- Act as the technical voice in conversations with Design, Sourcing, Production, and Merchandising.
- Support costing conversations with technical insight.
- Align factory capabilities with product requirements.
- Build and maintain technical design systems, tools, and workflows.
- Establish construction standards and shared components where possible.
- Create repeatable processes that reduce reliance on last-minute fixes.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Manager
Education Level
No Education Listed
Number of Employees
11-50 employees
