Product Development Executive

The Early Careers Company; Greater London; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a fast-growing online retailer as a Product Development Executive in London. This role involves identifying product opportunities, coordinating with international teams, and ensuring successful product launches. With a focus on consumer needs and market trends, you'll play a key role in shaping the company's product portfolio.

Benefits

33 days annual leave (including UK bank holidays)

Employee discounts across all brands

Cycle to Work scheme

Quarterly socials

Bagel Tuesdays & fresh fruit

Qualifications

• At least 3 years’ experience in product development, buying, or merchandising.
• Deep interest in consumer behaviour and market trends.
• Experience working with international sourcing teams.

Responsibilities

• Conduct structured research to identify product opportunities.
• Coordinate with sourcing teams to develop product specifications.
• Support post-launch reviews and product performance tracking.

Skills

Analytical skills

Market analysis

Communication

Project management

Job description

Join to apply for the Product Development Executive role at The Early Careers Company

Project Lead at The Early Careers Company

Product Development Executive – Fast-Growing Online Retailer (London Office)

The Company:

We’re partnering with a rapidly growing international online retailer to find a Product Development Executive; a product-obsessed individual to join the Product Development team and help drive the discovery, development, and launch of new products across their global portfolio of consumer goods – predominantly small domestic appliances.

The Role:

This role is ideal for someone who’s analytical, commercially minded, and thrives on finding untapped product opportunities. Someone who can combine creativity with data and instinct with logic.

You’ll work closely with the Product Development Lead to identify new product ideas, analyse market gaps, support specification development, and coordinate with our sourcing team in China to bring products to life. You’ll play a key role in ensuring we only bring to market products that are deeply understood, clearly positioned, and commercially viable from day one.

This isn’t just a coordination role, it’s about doing the legwork: scanning data, studying customer behavior, reviewing competitors, tracking trends, and building out actionable briefs with precision and pace.

Key Responsibilities:

Product Opportunity Identification & Research

• Conduct structured research across categories to spot patterns, emerging trends, and underserved customer needs
• Analyse competitor products, customer feedback, pricing, and performance data to identify areas of differentiation
• Support opportunity scoring and shortlisting through insight gathering, structured evaluation frameworks, and collaboration with trading teams
• Constantly monitor channels to track what’s working, what’s changing, and where customer demand is shifting

Product Specification & Development Support

• Help translate identified opportunities into clear product concepts and specifications
• Build out detailed feature sets, technical requirements, packaging ideas, and cost pricing targets that match both customer expectations and internal margin goals
• Coordinate with the China-based sourcing team to ensure clarity on specifications, development priorities, and timelines
• Support with sample reviews and technical testing processes, capturing and escalating issues as needed

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work with Purchasing, QA, Design, Marketing, Trading, and Operations to keep product development moving from ideation to launch
• Coordinate internal stakeholders and ensure product briefs are shared, updated, and well-communicated across departments
• Support the creation of handover materials for launch, including core spec sheets, image briefs, and basic positioning input
• Product Performance & Lifecycle Tracking
• Support post-launch reviews with data gathering on reviews, sales, returns, and margin
• Assist in proposing optimisations or extensions to products based on performance insight
• Help maintain an internal roadmap of in-progress and potential opportunities

What We’re Looking For

• At least 3 years’ experience in a product development, buying, or merchandising role within consumer goods
• Deep interest in consumer behaviour and market trends, and someone that naturally spots things others overlook
• Analytical and methodical: able to gather data, draw insights, and turn research into direction
• Experience working alongside international sourcing teams and communicating product needs across functions
• Passion for physical products and someone who genuinely gets excited by great design, unmet customer needs, and clever product ideas
• A strong sense of ownership, accountability, and drive. You're energised by a fast-paced environment and motivated to dig deeper to find the right ideas
• Clear communicator and highly organised, able to manage multiple projects simultaneously and keep stakeholders aligned

Why Join This Company?

This is a fantastic opportunity to join a rapidly growing online retailer that is expanding across international markets. The company is fast-paced, dynamic, and ambitious, offering an exciting chance to play a key role in shaping its global operations.

What’s in it for you?

• 33 days annual leave (including UK bank holidays)
• Employee discounts across all brands
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Quarterly socials – Think speedboat trips, cocktail making, roller discos & more!
• Bagel Tuesdays & fresh fruit to keep you fueled throughout the week

If you’re looking for a new challenge in operations and logistics and want to join a company where you can make a real impact, we’d love to hear from you!

Apply now to find out more.

Seniority level

• Associate

Employment type

• Full-time

Job function

• Design, Product Management, and Strategy/Planning

Industries

• Retail, Health and Personal Care Products, Consumer Services, and Personal Care Product Manufacturing