Industrial Design Manager

tms unites technology, marketing, and sourcing to drive transformational change for the world’s leading brands. With more than 1,400 employees across 28 countries, we offer an impressive range of solutions – from inspiration and innovation to category management and delivery. Operating as a creative agency, a strategic consultancy, a sourcing business, and a technology provider, we engage with over 110 million customers every single day for our clients, including McDonald’s, T-Mobile, O2, Starbucks, and adidas.

About the role

As an Industrial Design Manager, you will lead a team of industrial designers to generate breakthrough, business-driving ideas and bring cutting-edge yet balanced consumer goods to life. You will optimize the creative team to consistently deliver results that exceed customer and consumer expectations, on time and on budget. You will collaborate with Product Management, Engineering, and R&D teams to ensure a rich and considered user experience alongside beautiful, timeless, and on-trend design. This role thrives in an environment where ambiguity and possibility abound, and innovation is led by you.

Responsibilities

• Manage and lead the Industrial Design team, design process, and best practices while working cross-functionally within our New Product Development (NPD) community.
• Determine aesthetic direction, materials, construction methods, mechanisms, shape, finishes, and manufacturing processes of final products.
• Build, mentor, and support a team of dedicated industrial designers in bringing innovative, groundbreaking, and balanced products to life.
• Lead the industrial design team through high volumes of development work within expected and manageable timelines alongside cross-functional teams (Product Managers, Developers, Engineers, Quality Assurance, and Supply Chain).
• Build and cultivate a culture of continuous improvement, exceptional design impact, engagement, and celebration of wins.
• Guide and focus the team’s creation and execution of design work to excellence, from concept to design finalization, on time and on budget.
• Manage allocation of ID team resources across a large portfolio of products ranging in complexity, scope, and project stage.
• Review project status, refine project schedules, and communicate with cross-functional peers and leadership.
• Partner with leadership to determine product design strategy and priorities.
• Collaborate with engineering and product teams to problem-solve and envision intuitive user interfaces and functionality.
• Build and advocate for processes, documentation, and best practices that deliver design results.
• Drive ideation sessions with the ID team as well as cross-functional brainstorms, research activities on users, trends, materials, and processes.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Industrial Design.
• 10 years of proven experience as a practicing designer for consumer hard goods.
• 5+ years leading an Industrial Design team or studio (consumer hard goods preferred).
• Expert-level experience with SolidWorks, Rhino 3D, Keyshot (preferred) or other rendering software, Illustrator, and Photoshop.
• Proven skills in sketching and conceptualization.
• Ability to work accurately with close attention to detail.
• Proven knowledge of ‘Design for Manufacturability’ methods.
• Sophisticated knowledge of product manufacturing including plastic injection molding, metal forming, CMF (Color, Material, Finish) techniques.
• Proven experience working with and presenting to customers.
• Direct experience communicating directly with engineers and factories (Asia-based factories preferred).
• Willingness and ability to travel internationally up to 15% of the time.

Skills

• Strong people management skills with a passion for optimizing teams toward exceptional output.
• Ownership of ID team processes while continuously identifying, investigating, and adapting tools and techniques for product and process improvements.
• Successful track record delivering a constant flow of projects with timelines.
• Excellent analytical ability with a passion for product development and problem-solving.
• Ability to work with outside consultants when vital to drive design projects outside the scope of internal team abilities.
• Champion and contribute to efforts toward ‘design for sustainability’.
• Strong social skills, communicating effectively with individuals and large groups (internal and external) at all organizational levels.

Benefits

• Generous medical, dental, vision, and other benefits.
• Paid parental and medical leave programs.
• 401(k) with a company match component and profit-sharing.
• 15 days of paid time off plus company holidays.
• Hybrid work model.
• Tuition reimbursement and student loan repayment assistance.
• Inclusive employee resource groups.

Pay

Starting salary between $130,000 - $155,000.