Director, Product Design & Development

Four-Hands; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Four Hands, based in Austin, is seeking a Director of Product Design & Development to translate our brand vision into seasonal collections and keep the line cohesive across categories. This high-visibility role will lead design strategy and work with teams to ensure market relevance.

This leader oversees CAD, material libraries, vendor partnerships, and the seasonal road map, while guiding a team to deliver design-forward products that meet margins and launch timelines.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of international product development and design leadership experience.
• Proven ability to lead creative teams delivering design-forward products across categories.
• Deep knowledge of furniture construction across case goods, seating, upholstery, outdoor, and lighting.
• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally.

Responsibilities

• Lead trend research and creative brief development to define direction.
• Build seasonal material library and color stories across categories.
• Align design decisions with commercial goals, margins, and launch timing.
• Partner with Marketing, Merchandising, and Sales to tell brand stories.
• Translate briefs into complete seasonal design stories across suites and capsules.

Skills

Product design leadership

Brand storytelling

Cross-functional leadership

Furniture design knowledge

Education

BA/BBA in Industrial Design, Merchandising, International Business, or related field

Job description

Join one of the fastest growing, most dynamic companies in the furniture industry. For over 25 years, Four Hands has been a leading designer and wholesaler of furniture and décor, helping people create spaces that feel like home.

Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies and named one of Austin’s Top Workplaces year after year. We invest in exceptional people — with a team of over 800 and growing — fostering our employees’ careers and celebrating them at every step of the way. Four Hands is where passion meets purpose and where your next chapter begins.

Four Hands is seeking a Director, Product Design & Development to translate our long-term brand vision into seasonal product collections that are cohesive, commercially relevant, and unmistakably Four Hands.

This highly visible role sits at the intersection of design strategy, product development, materials innovation, and team leadership. The Director will partner closely with Merchandising, Planning, Sourcing, Marketing, Sales, and other teams to create design-forward products that lead the market while meeting expectations for margin, manufacturability, quality, and launch timing.

In This Role

• Partner with Senior VP of Design to lead trend research and creative brief development bringing a clear, informed point of view on where design is going and what Four Hands should do about it
• Build and evolve the seasonal material and finish library into a competitive advantage
• Develop the seasonal color story with Category Leaders, creating alignment on direction by launch
• Build out established design houses season over season, layering core and design-forward updates that keep the line fresh without losing coherence
• Partner with Marketing and Merchant Team on brand storytelling, editorial content, and design-led campaigns that build Four Hands' profile in the trade and consumer market
• Partner with Sales leadership to build training content and collection context that gives the sales team the language and confidence to sell design-forward products
• Execute the translation of the annual creative brief into a complete seasonal design story: cross-category suites, capsules, item stories, and a material, finish and fabric library that is cohesive across every launch
• Translate design direction at the suite and category level, guiding the team on form language, material, finish, hardware, and sub-category coverage before development begins
• Drive the creative road map with enough specificity that Product Development, Merchandising, and Marketing can all build from the same foundation
• Identify white space in the assortment: new categories, emerging formats and materials or functionalities, and build a plan to address them
• Enforce the standard for what "brand-right" means across every category and hold the Product Development team to it through weekly design review
• Review and approve CAD and render files for final design intent ensuring specifications and comments are fully resolved and actionable across international manufacturing teams
• Partner with Sourcing, Merchandising, and PD Operations to own the yearly development calendar and protect the milestones that matter most
• Partner with Merchandising and Planning to align design decisions with commercial goals, assortment strategy, and seasonal line plans and communicate changes to the PD team with clear context and prioritization

Material Development

• Create the strategic direction for the indoor case goods material library with Sr VP of Design— wood species, stone, ceramic, painted and specialty finishes, and hardware — ensuring it spans the right range of price points, aesthetics, and vendor capabilities
• Drive proprietary finish and material development that builds a competitive advantage — techniques and finishes that are distinctly Four Hands and cannot be easily replicated off the shelf

Fabric and Leather

• Create seasonal fabric and leather direction across categories with Sr VP of Design
• Build mill and tannery partnerships that give Four Hands access to colorways, textures, and materials not available to the broader market
• Drive the execution of proprietary leather and fabric development
• Create the outdoor material strategy across all weather-exposed categories with Sr VP of Design — solution-dyed acrylics, performance weaves, powder-coated aluminum, teak, reclaimed and treated woods, all-weather wicker, and concrete composites
• Drive outdoor finish development that aligns with seasonal creative direction and meets performance standards for UV, moisture, and fade resistance
• Evaluate and introduce new outdoor materials with a clear framework: performance data, sustainability credentials, commercial viability, and vendor capability to produce at scale
• Set material and finish direction for lighting across all categories with Sr VP of Design aligned with the seasonal brief and brand aesthetic
• Hold the standard for lighting development quality: shade construction, socket and hardware specifications, finish durability, and design intent from concept through production

Design Systems & Standards

• Own the design language of Four Hands at a systems level, defining the material, finish, form, and construction standards that make the line coherent across categories, seasons, and price points
• Establish CAD standards, specification templates, and design package requirements that allow the Product Development team to execute consistently and hand off to manufacturing without ambiguity
• Create and maintain documentation systems that build institutional knowledge: capturing design rationale, material development history, and vendor learnings in a form the team can access and build on

Technical Foundation

• Bring authoritative knowledge of furniture construction across all major categories, case goods, seating, upholstery, metal, outdoor, and lighting to every design, vendor, and development decision
• Apply value engineering discipline at the direction-setting level, so that cost and manufacturability are designed from the start, not corrected at sample
• Build and maintain deep knowledge of the Four Hands vendor base, understanding which manufacturers can deliver the required construction, materials, volume, quality, and design intent
• Hold a high standard for international communication: design intent should be fully resolved and clearly documented before it reaches a manufacturing partner
• Stay current on international freight procedures, certifications, and country-of-origin considerations that affect material sourcing and production decisions

The Ideal Person

• BA or BBA in Industrial Design, Merchandising, International Business, or a related field
• 15+ years of progressive experience in international product development and design leadership within the home furnishings industry
• Demonstrated track record of building and leading creative teams that deliver commercially successful, design-forward products across multiple categories
• Deep, hands‑on knowledge of furniture construction across case goods, seating, upholstery, metal, outdoor, and lighting
• Experience developing seasonal material libraries across indoor case goods, fabric and leather, outdoor performance materials, and lighting across multiple price levels and countries of origin
• Experience owning a seasonal design program end to end: creative brief through market delivery, across multiple categories simultaneously
• Strong commercial instincts with the ability to hold a design point of view and make it work within margin, assortment, and calendar constraints
• Established industry relationships with designers, material suppliers, mills, tanneries, trade press, and manufacturing partners
• Demonstrated external presence in the design industry: trade events, editorial, press, or design community leadership
• Clear, confident communicator across all levels of the organization and across cultures, languages, and time zones
• Expected domestic and international travel

About Four Hands

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, since 1996, Four Hands crafts furniture, art and décor — pieces that are all about creating space. Timeless, thoughtful designs with endless possibilities. Pieces meant to be experienced and form a whole that feels like home.

Our trade customers range from interior designers to large retailers who rely on our expertise to grow and guide their business to success. We treat our partners as part of the Four Hands family, championing them and rooting for their every win.

And, we are constantly pursuing better — from sourcing the finest materials and finishes to seeking fresh inspiration to elevate our designs — we are never settled, never done.

Four Hands is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Four Hands recruits qualified applicants and advances in employment its employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, disability, genetic information, ethnic or national origin, marital status, veteran status, or any other status protected by law.

Four Hands does not sponsor employment visas for any reason.