New Product Development Manager

If you love moving fast, building products people actually want, and seeing your work hit shelves and screens within weeks instead of months, keep reading. This skincare brand is looking for a New Product Developer who’ll sit at the center of the machine: spotting opportunities, validating them with real customer signal, and turning them into products that scale through performance marketing.

This is a hands-on, high-impact role for someone who lives at the intersection of trend-spotting, briefing, and speed. You’ll be the one deciding what gets built next and making sure it actually ships.

This is a fully remote, full-time contractor role.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU

• Real ownership from day one: Lead new product development end to end, not just a slice of it.
• Direct founder access: Work shoulder to shoulder with someone who is still in the weeds of the business daily.
• Speed as a feature: Short, fast development cycles instead of bloated 12-month roadmaps.
• Room to shape the function: Build the NPD process as you go rather than inherit someone else’s broken one.

WHAT YOU’RE GETTING INTO

• Build and maintain a pipeline of validated product opportunities based on customer insight, performance data, and category trends
• Validate product market fit early using structured, insight-led testing before committing real budget
• Work closely with formulation labs, manufacturers, and sourcing partners to gather quotes, timelines, and samples
• Collaborate with internal creative and design teams to shape packaging, visuals, and launch assets
• Own the Product Definition Doc, including use cases, cost targets, margin goals, sourcing details, timeline, and launch strategy
• Run fast, structured development sprints so nothing sits idle waiting on approvals
• Find and vet new suppliers and manufacturing partners to support speed and product diversification
• Align closely with growth, creative, and marketing so every launch is built with performance in mind from day one

WHO YOU ARE

• You have 2 to 4 years of experience in product development or operations, ideally in DTC or beauty/skincare
• You know how to brief a sourcing team properly: clear specs, realistic costs, no back-and-forth
• You understand formulation basics well enough to have a real conversation with sourcing and manufacturers (cosmetics/skincare experience is a strong plus)
• You’re commercially sharp: you know what sells in beauty right now and how to get it to market fast
• You’re organised and resourceful, and you keep projects moving with minimal oversight
• You communicate clearly and thrive in a lean, fast-moving team
• You’re comfortable with ambiguity and speed over long approval chains

Bonus if you’ve:

• Worked in skincare, beauty, or a performance marketing-driven DTC brand