Head of Product Development

Bedfolk; Cheltenham; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Bedfolk is seeking a hands-on Head of Product Development to lead an existing portfolio and deliver an exciting pipeline over a 12-month maternity cover.

Reporting to the Creative Director, you’ll own end-to-end product development, supplier relationships, pricing and range architecture, ensuring robust specifications, testing and compliance across sleep and home textiles.

Qualifications

• End-to-end product development experience.
• Experience with sleep products or home textiles is desirable.
• Ability to manage a Product team and external partners.

Responsibilities

• Deliver multiple product-development projects from brief to launch, collaborating with Creative Director, founders and external specialists.
• Own day-to-day relationships with mills, manufacturers and partners.
• Manage and optimise the existing portfolio using customer feedback and commercial insight.
• Ensure robust specifications, testing, compliance, quality standards and documentation.
• Lead and develop the Product Technologist ensuring priorities and critical paths move forward.
• Collaborate with Merchandising on pricing, margins, forecasts and supplier decisions.
• Identify risks and communicate decisions and delays clearly to the team.

Skills

Product development

Supplier management

Project management

Leadership

Job description

Product Lead / Head of Product Development — 12-month FTC - Full Time or Part Time / Contract.

Bedfolk operates at the intersection of interiors and sleep - we create beautifully designed products to elevate our customers’ sleep environment.

As we sharpen our product focus and enter our next phase of growth, we’re looking for an experienced Head of Product Development to take responsibility for our existing portfolio and deliver an exciting pipeline of new products during a 12-month maternity cover.

This is a hands-on, delivery-focused leadership role. Working from an agreed product strategy and roadmap, you’ll turn ideas and briefs into commercially successful, beautifully executed products.

What you’ll do

• Deliver multiple product-development projects from initial brief through sampling, testing, costing, production and launch. Collaborate with our Creative Director, founders and external specialists to translate strategic and creative direction into clear, deliverable product plans.
• Own day-to-day relationships with new & existing mills, manufacturers and specialist partners.
• Manage our existing product portfolio, using customer feedback and commercial insight to improve quality, resolve issues and identify products requiring development or rationalisation.
• Ensure specifications, testing, compliance, quality standards and technical documentation are robust and complete.
• Manage and develop our Product Technologist, setting clear priorities and ensuring critical paths keep moving.
• Work closely with Merchandising on pricing, margins, MOQs, forecasts, range architecture and supplier decisions.
• Proactively identify risks, solve problems and keep the wider team informed of decisions, delays and dependencies.

About you

You’ll have strong end-to-end product-development experience, ideally within sleep products or home textiles.

You understand materials, manufacturing, sampling, specifications, testing, compliance, costing and supplier management. You’re equally comfortable reviewing a sample, challenging a factory, managing a critical path or presenting a clear recommendation to the leadership team.

You’ll be practical, commercially aware and highly organised, with the confidence to make decisions and manage others. Most importantly, you take ownership: projects move forward because you are driving them.