Product Development Associate

Who You Are

Museum of Ice Cream is seeking a multi-disciplinary product developer who has lived inside the development cycle of CPG, apparel, hardgoods, toys, and paper goods - and can hold their own in any vendor conversation across those categories. You don't sit at the bench drawing tech packs yourself; you orchestrate a network of contract product engineers and tech pack designers, brief them sharply, review their work with technical authority, and protect speed and quality at every gate.

• Obsessive about reducing sampling rounds - you know each round costs real money and real weeks, and you treat a fifth round as a process failure, not a fact of life.
• Can read a creative brief, see the engineering problem hiding inside it, and translate that into the right scope of work for the right contractor and the right vendor on day one.

What You Will Do

You will own end-to-end new product development for every product Museum of Ice Cream makes - retail merchandise, in-experience product, and F&B paper goods (cups, sleeves, lids, custom packaging, novelty serveware).

• Take creative briefs from your Rev Ops counterpart and translate them into developable scopes of work - identifying the right discipline, contractor, vendor, and timeline for each.
• Define product requirements, performance specs, regulatory and compliance needs (food contact, child safety, flammability, etc.) for each category.
• Own go/no-go decisions at every development gate: brief, prototype, pre-production, production approval.
• Build and manage a vetted network of contract product engineers, tech pack designers, pattern makers, and packaging engineers across CPG, apparel, hardgoods, and paper goods.
• Brief each contractor with the discipline-appropriate level of specification - so the tech pack or engineering output that comes back is right the first time.
• Review contractor output with technical authority - flag construction issues, tolerance gaps, material substitutions, and compliance risks before they reach the vendor.
• Manage contractor SOWs, billing, and performance - keep only the best ones in rotation; replace the rest.
• Partner with the Senior Procurement & Production Manager to align on which vendors are best suited for each sampling effort, and with the Director of Supply Chain on pipeline visibility and launch readiness.

Contractor Network Orchestration

• Orchestrate a network of external product engineers and tech pack designers across disciplines, brief them, review their work, and protect speed and quality at every gate.
• Manage contractor SOWs, billing, and performance - keep only the best ones in rotation; replace the rest.

Vendor Sampling & Round Reduction

• Drive a target of 2 sampling rounds (max 3) from first prototype to production approval - track every additional round as a process failure and root-cause it.
• Conduct hands-on sample reviews against spec - document issues, drive resolution with vendor and contractor, and close out gates cleanly.
• Manage sample logistics, costing, and amortization (mold, tooling, pre-production fees) and surface trade-offs to procurement and finance.

Technical Fluency & Cross-Functional Partnership

• Be the technical voice in the room when creative, marketing, or experience teams are scoping new product - flag what's developable, what isn't, and what changes scope or cost.
• Translate between creative intent and vendor execution - so a vendor in Vietnam, Shenzhen, or Brooklyn can build exactly what was briefed without back-and-forth.
• Maintain a centralized product spec and development library - reusable across launches, accessible to procurement, finance, and creative.
• Partner with the Director of Supply Chain on launch-readiness reviews and with the Merchandiser & Planner on demand alignment for new launches.

Commitment

• This is a temporary contractor role.
• The hourly pay is between $50/hr-$55/hr.
• Commitment: 40 hours per week, occasional overtime.
• Duraton: 6 months, with potential to extend.

Location

Remote with occasional visits to LA office.

Requirements

• Must Haves:
• 6+ years of product development experience across at least two of: CPG, apparel/softgoods, hardgoods/toys, or paper goods/packaging.
• Demonstrated technical fluency to speak vendor-to-vendor across disciplines - materials, construction, tolerances, compliance, packaging structures.
• Direct experience managing a network of external contract product engineers and tech pack designers (you brief them and review their work; you don't draft tech packs yourself).
• Track record of reducing sampling rounds and compressing speed-to-market on multi-category development programs.
• Experience owning a WIP / development pipeline across simultaneous launches with disciplined gate management.
• Strong vendor-side experience including overseas factories (Asia, North America, Latin America) and domestic suppliers.
• Excellent written communication - your briefs and SOWs are precise enough that contractors and vendors get it right the first time.

• Nice to Haves:
• Background in lifestyle, cultural, or experience-driven brands.
• Licensing or co-brand product development experience.
• Food-contact paper goods and packaging development (FDA, BPI compostability, food-grade adhesives and inks).
• Children's product compliance (CPSIA, ASTM F963).
• Mold, tooling, and sample cost amortization experience.
• Familiarity with PLM systems, contractor management platforms, or product spec libraries.