Head of Product Development Premium Affordable Luxury Gentlemen Accessories

About Scriveiner

Scriveiner is a multi‑award‑winning affordable luxury men’s accessories brand built on British design, precision engineering, and uncompromising quality. The brand has received the King’s Award for Enterprise and six product design awards and is founder‑led, highly profitable, and growing fast. The company is expanding beyond writing instruments into a broader gentlemen’s accessories world and needs someone to build and lead the product development engine that makes that expansion happen with discipline, quality and commercial rigour.

The Role

The product development owner manages the end‑to‑end development process, defining the pipeline, building the processes, managing supplier relationships, enforcing commercial discipline, and driving launches while acting as the design authority to ensure every product embodies Scriveiner’s brand identity.

The Person We’re Looking For

Experience as the sole product development owner in a small, fast‑moving premium consumer goods business. Candidates should have hands‑on design direction, factory communication, costing, and pipeline management experience, typically from small premium DTC brands, accessories start‑ups, or the first product hire at a growing business.

If your strengths lie primarily in design and you are less confident about building the operational framework, a Senior Product Designer role may be a better fit.

What You’ll OwnPipeline and Roadmap

• Live 12‑24 month product roadmap with clear stage gates, risk flags, owners, costs, and target launch windows.
• Stage‑gate process that enforces discipline without bureaucracy, implemented in Notion and embedded in team cadences.
• Definition and enforcement of “handoff‑ready” standards so channel teams can execute launches without ambiguity.

Design Direction and Specification

• Full design authority for new product categories: CMF, proportions, weight, tactile quality, packaging and gifting experience.
• Factory‑executable specifications: dimensions, tolerances, materials, finishes, acceptance criteria.
• Sample assessment and iteration management with decisive, written, measurable feedback that drives progress.

Commercial and Supplier Discipline

• Costing feasibility from the earliest stage: target factory cost, margin awareness, MOQs, lead times, risk flags.
• QC plans, inspection criteria, and defect standards for each product category.
• Complete handoff packs that give channel teams everything needed to launch without returning to product.

System and Cadence Building

• Templates and standards: product briefs, spec sheets, sample feedback formats, QC plans, handoff packs.
• Governance cadences: weekly pipeline review, monthly quality and CX feedback loop, quarterly roadmap refresh.
• A closed feedback loop from CX and returns data into product improvements.

What Success Looks Like (12‑18 Months)

• Reliable product development engine delivering 6‑10 high‑quality launches per year with design excellence and commercial discipline.
• Predictable pipeline with no ambiguity about what is in progress, what is blocked, and what is next.
• Every product at launch is on‑brand, manufacturable at target cost, QC‑defined, and handed over with a complete launch pack.
• A design language coherent, premium, and scalable beyond pens.
• A product development system the business can rely on as it scales, not dependent on founders.

Must Haves

• Hands‑on experience taking physical consumer products from concept through sampling to production readiness.
• Strong design instinct for premium and luxury cues within an affordable luxury value equation.
• Ability to build product development systems from scratch: stage gates, pipeline tracking, templates, handoff standards.
• Direct factory communication capability: clear written specifications, measurable sample feedback, QC thinking.
• Commercial realism: cost targets, margin discipline, lead times, trade‑off decision‑making.
• Exceptional organisation and follow‑through to build and run the system.
• Comfortable as a senior individual contributor: no direct reports, high personal accountability.
• AI‑native working style, using AI as a genuine force multiplier.
• Business‑level fluency in spoken and written English. Must discuss complex design concepts, material specifications, commercial trade‑offs, and quality control decisions in real time across time zones.

Strongly Preferred

• Experience in gentlemen’s accessories, stationery, gifting, leather goods, metal goods, or closely adjacent categories.
• Experience with global manufacturing ecosystems and quality control.
• Strong packaging and gifting sensibility.
• Familiarity with affordable luxury positioning and its discipline.

Benefits

Senior leadership‑level compensation with performance bonus tied directly to launch cadence, product quality, and pipeline health. Open to employment or contractor arrangements.

• Significant annual performance bonus linked to launch cadence, product quality, and pipeline health.
• Paid annual leave and paid sick leave.
• Tools and support to do the job properly.
• Welcome gift: curated selection of Scriveiner products.

Why Join

• Direct access to founders who are deeply engaged with product quality and will be genuine partners.
• A brand with real proof: King’s Award for Enterprise, six design awards, profitable, growing, and ambitious.
• The satisfaction of building a product development function from scratch and owning it fully.
• A product canvas that is just opening – shape what Scriveiner becomes beyond pens.
• Meaningful financial upside through performance bonus if the engine delivers.