Technical Design Manager

Technical Design Manager

Chic. Timeless. Empowering. At HATCH, we design for every stage of womanhood-before, during, and after pregnancy-offering effortless clothing essentials and clean beauty solutions that put women first. What began as a modern answer to maternity style has grown into a full lifestyle brand. Beyond our collections, HATCH is a trusted resource and community, offering thoughtful services, inspiring events, and Babe-our content platform created to inform, inspire, and connect mothers everywhere.

About the job

The Technical Design Manager owns fit, fit consistency, construction, and technical execution across all HATCH apparel categories, ensuring products meet our standards for design intent, quality, customer experience, and manufacturability.

This role is accountable for the fit outcome—not simply the fit process. The Technical Design Manager will establish and maintain fit, construction, and technical standards; identify and resolve systemic issues; and partner with internal teams and external suppliers to continuously improve product performance while maintaining design intent.

For baby and children’s product, this role must also have a strong understanding of applicable product safety requirements and standards, ensuring safety considerations are incorporated into product development, construction, fit, and technical execution from development through production. The Technical Design Manager is expected to proactively identify potential fit, construction, quality, or safety risks and work cross-functionally to resolve them before they impact the customer.

What you’ll do

Fit Strategy & Standards

• Own fit consistency across categories, seasons, and factories.
• Develop, document, and maintain core blocks, measurement standards, grade rules, and construction standards.
• Conduct an annual fit and block calibration to ensure standards remain relevant and consistent.
• Benchmark fit and measurements against relevant industry, competitive, and aspirational brands to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Ensure vendors and factories understand and consistently execute HATCH fit and technical standards.

Customer-Led Fit Improvement

• Use customer feedback, reviews, returns data, and product performance to identify recurring fit, construction, or quality issues.
• Conduct root-cause analysis and establish clear corrective actions with internal teams and suppliers.
• Measure results to ensure solutions improve product performance and the customer experience.
• Proactively identify systemic issues and drive solutions rather than addressing problems style by style.

Technical Execution

• Own technical accuracy from development through production, including tech packs, specifications, measurements, grading, construction details, fit comments, and sample approvals.
• Troubleshoot fit, pattern, grading, construction, and production issues directly with factories and vendors.
• Identify solutions that improve fit, quality, cost, speed, and manufacturability without compromising design intent.
• Ensure technical information and approvals are accurate, complete, and delivered on time.

Cross-Functional & Supplier Partnership

• Partner closely with Design, Product Development, Production, Sourcing, Merchandising, Customer Experience, and external suppliers.
• Serve as the technical authority on fit, construction, measurements, and grading.
• Communicate issues clearly, recommend solutions, and drive decisions to resolution.
• Leverage factory and vendor technical expertise where appropriate while maintaining ownership of HATCH standards and outcomes.

Leadership & Ways of Working

• Manage and develop Assistant-level Technical Design support, delegating executional work appropriately while maintaining focus on business-critical priorities.
• Effectively manage multiple seasons and competing priorities based on customer and business impact.
• Anticipate risks and resolve issues before they impact timelines, quality, cost, or the customer.
• Bring a proactive, solutions-oriented approach and continually improve technical processes and ways of working.

What you’ll bring

• 10+ years of apparel technical design experience, including people management and team leadership.
• Associate degree or professional certification in Patternmaking, Apparel Manufacturing, Fashion Design, or a related field.
• Demonstrated expertise in fit, patternmaking, grading, speci…