Job Description
Senior Director of Design
Virtual
We are seeking a Senior Director of Design to lead the Product Design and Development Team at Orvis! This position is based out of our Sunderland, VT office. Remote candidates will be considered with the expectation of multiple visits to the head office seasonally.
The Senior Director of Design is responsible for leading the creative vision for Orvis’ Product Team, with a focus on Men’s and Women’s Apparel. In this role, your focus will be on creating seasonal collections of innovative, problem-solving products that deliver on our brand mission and fulfill the expectations of our customers. You will manage a team of designers, product developers and technical designers that are responsible for setting the design direction and executing product excellence for the Orvis apparel product line, focusing on style, color, quality and fit. You will align with cross functional partners in merchandising, creative and marketing to share the creative vision and see it come to life in market.
Position Interfaces:
This position reports to the Chief Product Officer. The position interfaces with Merchants, Sourcing, Creative and Marketing Teams.
Responsibilities:
- In alignment with Chief Product Officer (CPO), set and develop the design vision for Orvis Apparel.
- Together with the CPO and VP of Planning, create the strategy for Orvis Product to delight our customers.
- Lead the team through all aspects of the product design process, providing creative direction, coaching, and developing a motivated, high performing team.
- Together with the Product Leadership Team, create, lead and implement the strategic product lifecycle calendar.
- Advocate and present strategies to product teams, leadership and cross functional partners.
- Research marketplace and competition and identify seasonal trends, color palette, silhouettes, fabrics, prints and inspiration.
- Develop strong internal cross functional relationships with Merchandising, Production, Technical Design and Sourcing, to ensure product commercialization is executed as intended and at desired cost.
- Ensure excellent product execution. Lead process changes as necessary in order to ensure that our products exceed customer expectations. Identify opportunities to improve speed to market.
- Build strong partnership with Marketing to ensure that product strategies will provide fuel for our key marketing channels. Seek and understand feedback from marketing in order to build future strategies.
- Present key strategies to Marketing team to ensure product vision and strategy is clear to our customers.
- Lead a team of 15-20 associates across design, product development and technical design.
Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree with comprehensive professional experience in all facets of the product creation, design and development process.
- 10+ years of product design and development experience
- Strong ability to manage all phases of the design process
- Possess an elevated sense of style, aesthetic, and color and understand how to translate trends through the lens of the customer and brand filter
- Demonstrated experience with translating brand filters into design specifics across multiple categories
- Strong presentation skills and the ability to influence
- Exceptional attention to detail and strong follow-up
- Experience co-creating, managing and executing product lifecycle calendar and all supporting processes
- Ability to anticipate and meet deadlines and to work on multiple projects and seasons
- Excellent oral and written communication
- Experience managing, coaching and leading a high performing team that has multiple layers (i.e. managing managers)
- Flexible travel required in this position for shows, factories and to the home office if remote (roughly every 6 weeks in office in Vermont)
- Must be familiar with the Orvis product line, culture and lifestyle
- Ability to work in a fast paced, dynamic, and highly collaborative environment, with the ability to juggle multiple seasons at one time and track development deadlines
- Demonstrated proficiency in Adobe illustrator, Photoshop, Excel
- Outdoor and Women’s experience valued highly