Product Development & Sourcing Lead
No salary listed
Senior
Presidio of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA
In Person
Product
About the job
Requirements
- At least 5 years of experience in product development, sourcing, design, manufacturing, or a related field.
- Experience managing physical products from concept through development, sampling, and production.
- Experience working directly with suppliers, manufacturers, or production partners.
- Strong understanding of materials, construction, manufacturing processes, and product quality.
- Ability to evaluate physical products and identify opportunities for improvement.
- Comfort working with product specifications, technical documentation, measurements, and production requirements.
- Strong understanding of product costing, supplier negotiations, and vendor relationships.
- Strong aesthetic judgment and attention to detail.
- Curiosity, resourcefulness, and interest in learning about new materials, processes, and production methods.
- Ability to work in a fast-moving environment and balance strategic thinking with hands-on execution.
- Comfort working in an environment with a high level of ambiguity.
Responsibilities
- Translate product concepts and requirements into clear specifications and production documentation.
- Coordinate with suppliers and manufacturers through pre-production steps, including concepting, sampling, iteration, and production preparation.
- Review prototypes and samples for quality, functionality, materials, construction, and overall execution.
- Recommend improvements to designs, materials, processes, and production plans to support quality, cost, and delivery goals.
- Evaluate new and different product types and learn new manufacturing techniques.
- Provide actionable, specific feedback to makers regarding prototypes, samples, and design iterations to move development forward.
- Establish clear product specifications and quality expectations.
- Source materials and production methods that meet product quality, cost, and timeline requirements.
- Coordinate with suppliers on pricing, order quantities, samples, terms, and delivery.
- Identify and develop relationships with high-quality manufacturers and suppliers and help bring products from concept through development to production.
Desired Qualifications
- Experience in product development for physical consumer products.
- Experience with design-led consumer products or related categories.
- Experience in private-label or custom product development.
- Industrial design experience with hands-on production.
- Manufacturing, sourcing, or product-development experience.
- Experience working directly with manufacturers and supplier networks.
- A portfolio of products the candidate has helped develop, particularly examples demonstrating involvement in product development, sourcing, materials, manufacturing, or production.
About the company
Arcade Studio runs a marketplace where dreamers design custom physical products with generative AI and makers manufacture them through a vetted global network. Dreamers submit prompts; the AI selects materials, picks a maker, and sets a price. The platform takes a percentage of each sale and offers an entrepreneur program for creators to launch product lines without inventory or logistics. Starting with jewelry and expanding to home goods, features like Magic Match generate designs from room photos to match spaces.
Company Size
11-50
Company Stage
Series A
Total Funding
$25M
Headquarters
Cape Town, South Africa
Founded
2017
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Arcade raised $25 million in March 2025 from Canaan and Forerunner.
- It expanded from jewelry into rugs, ceramics, pillows, and lampshades by November 2025.
- The February 2026 Maia agent deepens personalization and increases conversion on high-intent shoppers.
What critics are saying
- Arcade pulled its site in 2025 and again in March 2026 to fix usability.
- OpenAI, Midjourney, and Etsy can copy prompts-to-product workflows within twelve months.
- If artisan supply tightens, bad fulfillment destroys trust and marketplace liquidity quickly.
What makes Arcade Studio unique
- Mariam Naficy built Minted and Eve.com, proving marketplace taste and demand creation.
- Arcade sells one-off physical goods from prompts, not software mockups or print-on-demand.
- Its maker network spans countries, letting AI route designs to specialized artisans.
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Benefits
- Hybrid Work Options