Print & Promotional Production Lead

About the role

Hagerty is a company built by drivers for drivers. We put our members at the center of everything we do, and are dedicated to making it easier and more enjoyable for enthusiasts to drive and celebrate the machines they love. We're proud to be the world's largest insurer of collectible and enthusiast vehicles and home to the Hagerty Drivers Club, the world's largest car club. Our Marketplace business presents live and digital sales across the U.S. and Europe, we host a number of driving events and concours, and our award-winning automotive journalists produce the most popular car magazine globally, alongside internationally awarded videos. We're committed to Never Stop Driving.

As a Print & Promotional Production Lead, you'll serve as the most senior individual contributor on the print and promotional production team, independently leading key production workstreams, driving procurement strategy, and ensuring the highest standards of quality, efficiency, and brand integrity across all merchandise and production programs. You're the first and final word on whether a request is feasible, what it will realistically take to execute, and when it can be delivered — translating incoming asks into honest, well-scoped production plans that the team can actually execute. You bring deep expertise in procurement, vendor management, and merchandise production — and most importantly, you walk in the door with an established network of vendor relationships across promotional, apparel, print, and experiential categories that you can leverage from day one. This is a transformational hire for a team that is actively rebuilding its operational foundation. The right person won't just execute production work — they'll help define the standards, structures, and vendor ecosystem that make the team more effective and scalable for the future.

Responsibilities

Procurement Strategy & Vendor Management

• Walk in with an established network of trusted vendor relationships across promotional products, branded apparel, print production, and experiential merchandise — and activate that network immediately to improve quality, cost, and lead times for the team.
• Lead procurement activities for assigned merchandise and production programs, independently managing vendor relationships, negotiating pricing and terms, and securing contracts that deliver quality, value, and reliability.
• Identify, evaluate, and onboard new vendors, applying deep knowledge of garment construction, materials, and production capabilities to assess fit and quality potential.
• Manage ongoing vendor performance, holding partners accountable to agreed-upon timelines, quality standards, and contractual terms, and escalating or resolving issues decisively.
• Develop and maintain a strategic vendor portfolio that draws on your existing relationships and supplements them with new partners — ensuring Hagerty has diverse, cost-effective, and brand-appropriate production options across print, promotional, apparel, and experiential categories.
• Analyze procurement data and vendor performance metrics to identify opportunities to reduce costs, improve lead times, or enhance quality outcomes, and recommend modifications to existing sourcing strategies.
• Serve as the team's primary resource on procurement best practices, market conditions, and vendor capabilities, sharing knowledge to improve the team's sourcing decisions.
• Lead or support vendor RFP processes, including requirements development, proposal evaluation, vendor scoring, and transition planning when sourcing strategies require a change in vendor partnerships.
• Serve as the team's gatekeeper for vendor compliance — ensuring all merchandise and production is sourced through approved vendor channels and meets creative approval requirements before production begins. Proactively address situations where internal teams attempt to source through unapproved vendors.

Feasibility, Scoping & Production Planning

• Serve as the authoritative voice on production feasibility — when a request comes in, you assess what's actually possible given the specs, budget, and timeline, and you communicate that assessment clearly and early, before work begins or commitments are made.
• Translate incoming production requests into realistic, well-scoped project plans — including honest timelines, vendor lead times, QC windows, and shipping buffers — so internal stakeholders have an accurate picture of what delivery actually requires.
• Push back constructively when requests are under-scoped, under-budgeted, or on unrealistic timelines. Educate internal partners on what quality production takes, and work collaboratively to find solutions that meet business needs without compromising standards.
• Maintain visibility into the production calendar across all active programs, identifying scheduling conflicts, capacity constraints, and timeline risks before they become delivery failures.
• Partner with Project Managers and Marketing Strategists early in the briefing process to ensure production requirements — including vendor lead times, sampling windows, and shipping logistics — are built into project schedules from the start, not bolted on at the end.

Production Leadership & Quality Control

• Take the lead on complex, high-visibility production projects from brief through delivery, working independently with general oversight and coordinating across internal teams and external vendors.
• Establish and maintain a structured sampling and quality control process across merchandise programs, ensuring QC checkpoints are built into production timelines and treated as a non-negotiable step — not an afterthought. Review samples, approve production outputs, and ensure all items meet brand standards, specifications, and business objectives before delivery.
• Identify and resolve production, shipping, and quality issues proactively, applying proven expertise to develop solutions and prevent recurrence.
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