NPD - Manager (Appliances)

The Indus Valley; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Job summary

The Indus Valley is seeking an experienced Manager – New Product Development (Appliances) to lead end-to-end development and launches of home and kitchen appliance products. You will work closely with vendors and internal teams to bring innovative, reliable, and safe appliances to market.

The role requires hands-on NPD experience in appliances, strong vendor management, and a track record of delivering successful launches, with emphasis on quality, safety, and cost optimization.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related field.
• 5–8 years of hands-on New Product Development experience in home/kitchen appliances.
• Experience with mixer grinders, blenders, induction cooktops, kettles, or similar appliances is preferred.
• Strong vendor, OEM/ODM management and negotiation skills.
• Knowledge of product testing, safety regulations, and manufacturing processes.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end NPD for home and kitchen appliances from concept to market launch.
• Drive market research, consumer insights, and category benchmarking to identify opportunities.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams and vendors for on-time product development and sampling.
• Develop detailed product specifications (wattage, voltage, capacity, materials, safety features).
• Oversee pilot production readiness, testing, and regulatory/compliance activities.
• Manage costs, tooling, and negotiations to achieve target margins.
• Track post-launch performance and implement improvements based on feedback.

Education

Engineering Degree

Tools

Vendor Management

Job description

We are looking for an experienced Manager – New Product Development (Appliances) to lead the end-to-end development and launch of new home and kitchen appliance products. The ideal candidate must have strong hands-on experience in the appliances category, including product development, vendor/OEM management, product specifications, sampling, testing, costing, compliance, commercialization, and new product launches. The role will work closely with vendors and internal cross-functional teams to bring innovative, reliable, safe, and commercially viable appliance products to market.

Key Responsibilities

• Appliances Category Development: Drive new product development specifically for home and kitchen appliances, with a strong understanding of product functionality, consumer use cases, category trends, and technical requirements.
• Market Research & Consumer Insights: Conduct market research, analyze customer feedback, ratings, reviews, complaints, and category trends to identify new product opportunities and improvements to existing products.
• New Product Launch Management: Own and coordinate end-to-end new product launches from concept identification and product specification through sampling, validation, commercialization, and market launch.
• Product Specification Development: Define detailed product specifications including wattage, voltage, capacity, material, motor or heating performance, safety features, accessories, functionality, and user requirements.
• Competitive Benchmarking: Benchmark competitor appliances across features, specifications, technology, performance, design, price points, customer ratings, reviews, and pain points to develop differentiated products.
• Vendor / OEM / ODM Development: Identify, evaluate, onboard, and manage domestic and international appliance manufacturers, OEMs, and ODM partners based on capability, quality, cost, capacity, compliance, and delivery performance.
• Vendor Management & Coordination: Maintain strong vendor relationships, follow up on development timelines, resolve technical and commercial issues, and ensure timely completion of samples, tooling, pilot production, and bulk production.
• Sample Development & Validation: Manage multiple sample iterations, coordinate testing, capture feedback, drive design and engineering corrections, and ensure final golden-sample approval before commercialization.
• Technical Evaluation & Product Testing: Work closely with QA and vendors to evaluate product performance, durability, electrical safety, usability, reliability, and functional consistency prior to launch.
• Compliance & Certification: Coordinate applicable regulatory and compliance requirements for electrical appliances, including BIS/ISI, product safety, testing, labeling, packaging, and other statutory requirements as relevant.
• Costing & Commercial Negotiation: Work with vendors on BOM understanding, target costing, tooling and mould costs, MOQ, lead time, payment terms, and commercial negotiations to achieve desired cost and margin targets.
• Pilot & Mass Production Readiness: Coordinate pilot batches, pre-production validation, manufacturing readiness, quality checkpoints, and smooth transition from development to mass production.
• Quality & Reliability Improvement: Analyze product failures, customer complaints, returns, warranty concerns, ratings, and reviews to identify root causes and implement corrective and preventive actions with vendors.
• Return Reduction: Develop product-level actions to reduce customer-initiated returns by addressing quality, functionality, usability, packaging, and expectation-related issues.
• Packaging & Branding Coordination: Collaborate with packaging, brand, and design teams to ensure appliance packaging protects the product, communicates specifications clearly, complies with labeling requirements, and optimizes cost and volumetric weight.
• Innovation & Product Roadmap: Identify emerging appliance technologies, features, consumer needs, and category opportunities to build a strong new product pipeline and long-term category roadmap.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Work closely with QA, Procurement, Packaging, Ecommerce, Marketing, Supply Chain, Customer Care, Finance, and other stakeholders to ensure successful product commercialization.
• Project Management: Manage multiple appliance development projects simultaneously with clear milestones, timelines, risk tracking, dependencies, stakeholder updates, and launch ownership.
• Post-launch Performance Monitoring: Track early-stage product performance, customer feedback, defects, reviews, service issues, and returns after launch and drive timely improvements wherever required.

Mandatory Experience & Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Electrical / Electronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Business Administration, Product Management, or a related field.
• Minimum 5–8 years of experience in New Product Development / Product Management, with mandatory hands-on experience in the Home / Kitchen Appliances category.
• Candidates must have worked on appliance products such as mixer grinders, blenders, choppers, induction cooktops, electric kettles, air fryers, rice cookers, OTGs, or similar electrical home appliances.
• Proven experience in handling end-to-end new product launch initiatives from concept / sourcing stage through commercialization and market launch.
• Strong experience in vendor, OEM, or ODM management, including vendor evaluation, development follow-up, negotiation, quality coordination, and production readiness.
• Good understanding of appliance specifications, product testing, electrical safety, regulatory requirements, quality parameters, and manufacturing processes.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, negotiation, and project-management skills.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to work effectively across cross-functional teams.
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously in a fast-paced environment while maintaining strong attention to detail.

Preferred Exposure

• Experience working with consumer durable, D2C, ecommerce, kitchen appliance, or home appliance brands.
• Exposure to domestic and/or international supplier sourcing and product development.
• Experience in cost optimization, value engineering, tooling, mould development, and product improvement projects.
• Understanding of customer reviews, return data, and post-launch product performance as inputs for NPD decisions.

About The Indus Valley

The Indus Valley is a Chennai-based direct-to-consumer cookware and kitchen brand focused on health, safety, quality, and innovation. We are committed to developing products that improve everyday cooking experiences while maintaining strong standards of reliability, functionality, customer satisfaction, and responsible product development.