About Whimsocal Studios
Since 2009, Whimsocal Studios (formerly Orange Circle Studio) has been creating thoughtfully designed products that transform everyday moments into something extraordinary. Today, we are a growing portfolio of purpose-led brands across stationery, gifting, lifestyle, and baby categories, including Orange Circle Studio, Studio Oh!, Saturday Sundae, JuJuBe, Bella Tunno, and Scoops. Together, we create products that spark delight, celebrate everyday moments, and make a meaningful impact.
Everything we create is guided by one simple purpose: To Curate Small Joys.
Whether it's bringing a smile through beautiful design, supporting independent artists, or giving back to our communities, we believe the smallest moments have the power to create the greatest impact.
At Whimsocal, our greatest strength is our people. We're a collaborative team of curious thinkers, creative problem-solvers, and passionate brand builders who believe creativity, innovation, and purpose can brighten everyday life. Together, we're creating brands that inspire joy, foster connection, and make a meaningful difference for our consumers, our retail partners, our employees, and the communities we serve.
About the Position
Reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer, the Lead of Product Development is a senior leadership role responsible for setting the product vision and leading strategy, innovation, development and commercialization across gift, stationery, dated, hydration, beauty and pet categories. This leader will translate consumer, retailer and market insights into differentiated products that strengthen each brand, expand categories, improve profitability and accelerate growth. The lead will manage the product development organization and partner closely with Creative, Sales, Marketing, Licensing, Finance, Supply Chain, Quality, Operations and global manufacturing partners to deliver compelling products on time, at the right cost and with exceptional quality.
Leadership Expectations
· Lead with integrity, transparency, urgency and accountability.
· Create a high-performance culture that balances creativity, disciplined execution and commercial results.
· Build, coach and develop a best-in-class product development organization and a strong pipeline of future leaders.
· Champion cross-functional collaboration and communicate clearly across teams, brands and levels of the organization.
· Make consumer-informed and data-driven decisions while maintaining an entrepreneurial mindset.
· Challenge the status quo, simplify processes and continuously improve speed, quality and effectiveness.
· Champion Whimsocal Studios’ commitment to Performance with Purpose and responsible business practices.
Key Responsibilities
Product Strategy & Portfolio Leadership
· Develop and lead the multi-year product strategy, innovation pipeline and category roadmap across Orange Circle Studio, Studio Oh!, Saturday Sundae and Scoops.
· Define clear roles, consumer targets and points of differentiation for each brand while identifying opportunities to leverage capabilities across the portfolio.
· Identify white-space opportunities, new categories, formats, price points, channels and partnerships that can drive sustainable growth.
· Balance core business, line extensions, licensed products, retailer exclusives and breakthrough innovation within the overall portfolio.
· Lead annual and seasonal assortment planning in partnership with Sales, Marketing, Creative and Finance.
· Establish product lifecycle strategies, including launch, replenishment, refresh, rationalization and discontinuation recommendations.
Consumer Insights, Trends & Innovation
· Build a consumer-first innovation process grounded in consumer behavior, cultural trends, social listening, retail insights, competitive intelligence and sales performance.
· Lead research, category reviews, competitive shopping, innovation workshops and concept development across brands.
· Translate insights into clear product briefs that define the consumer need, product proposition, target cost, retail price, channel strategy and success criteria.
· Create and maintain a robust pipeline of near-, mid- and long-term innovation opportunities.
· Use testing, consumer feedback and sales data to improve concepts before commercialization and optimize products after launch.
· Identify and responsibly implement AI and emerging technologies that improve trend discovery, ideation, development speed, collaboration and decision-making.
End-to-End Product Development & Commercialization
· Partner with creative and production on the development process from concept through costing, sampling, testing, approvals, production readiness and launch.
· Own the master product development calendar and establish clear stage gates, milestones, decision rights and escalation processes.
· Ensure development programs meet customer commitments, licensor requirements, quality standards, margin targets and delivery timelines.
· Partner with Creative and Design to ensure products are differentiated, on-brand, commercially relevant and manufacturable.
· Conduct regular portfolio and development reviews to identify risks, make decisions and keep priority programs on track.
· Drive disciplined post-launch reviews and apply learnings to future product development.
Licensing & Retailer-Exclusive Development
· Lead product development for licensed brands and ensure products authentically bring each property to life while complying with licensor guidelines.
· Develop compelling retailer-exclusive programs tailored to customer strategies, consumers, price points and channels.
Global Manufacturing, Costing & Quality
· Partner with Supply Chain, Quality and global manufacturing partners to identify the right factory capabilities, materials, techniques and production solutions.
· Lead product cost engineering and value engineering to meet margin objectives without compromising consumer value, quality or brand integrity.
· Establish target costs early in the development process and maintain visibility to cost, retail price, margin and investment throughout development.
· Identify sourcing risks and alternatives related to capacity, tariffs, lead times, materials, quality and geographic concentration.
· Encourage factories and suppliers to bring forward new materials, capabilities, technologies and innovation.
Financial & Commercial Accountability
· Drive gross-margin improvement through assortment choices, pricing, cost negotiation, value engineering, packaging optimization and sourcing strategy.
· Monitor development spending, tooling, samples and other product investments against approved budgets.
· Use sell-through, profitability, inventory and customer performance data to make informed portfolio decisions.
· Prioritize resources and development capacity toward the highest-potential opportunities and stop projects that no longer meet strategic or financial requirements.
Team Leadership & Organizational Excellence
· Lead, organize and develop Product Development, Product Management and related functions across the gift, stationery, dated, hydration, beauty and pet products.
· Clarify roles, responsibilities, priorities, workload and decision-making to improve accountability and execution.
· Recruit, onboard, coach and retain exceptional talent; establish annual goals and provide consistent feedback and development.
· Build scalable processes, templates, standards and systems that support multiple brands and categories without unnecessary complexity.
· Create strong communication rhythms and dashboards that provide transparency to priorities, status, risks and key decisions.
· Partner with leaders across the company to resolve obstacles quickly and foster a one-team mindset.
What Success Looks Like
· A clear, consumer-led product strategy and multi-year innovation roadmap across gift, stationery, dated, hydration, beauty and pet categories.
· High-potential products and categories are commercialized successfully and contribute meaningful incremental sales and profit.
· Product development calendars are consistently achieved, with improved speed to market and fewer late-stage surprises.
· Gross margins improve through stronger upfront costing, value engineering, sourcing and portfolio decisions.
· Product quality, sample accuracy and production readiness improve across categories and manufacturing partners.
· Retailers and licensors view Whimsocal as a strategic, innovative and highly reliable partner.
· Cross-functional teams have clear priorities, timely information and confidence in the product development process.
· The product development organization is engaged, accountable, appropriately staffed and developing future leaders.
· Whimsocal maintains a balanced pipeline of core growth, category expansion, licensed programs and breakthrough innovation.
Qualifications
· 10+ years of progressive product development, product management or innovation leadership experience in consumer products, gifts, stationery, dated, hydration, beauty and pet categories.
· Demonstrated experience leading multi-brand, multi-category product portfolios from strategy through commercialization.
· Proven success working with major national retailers, specialty retailers, independent channels and digital commerce.
· Strong experience with global sourcing, overseas manufacturing, cost engineering, quality and product commercialization.
· Licensed consumer products experience strongly preferred.
· Demonstrated ability to build and lead high-performing teams and influence effectively across functions.
· Strong financial acumen, including pricing, margin, investment analysis and portfolio prioritization.
· Excellent strategic thinking, problem-solving, project management and decision-making skills.
· Exceptional presentation, communication, negotiation and relationship-building skills.
· Comfort operating in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial and highly collaborative environment.
· Proficiency with Microsoft Office and product development, project management or PLM systems; enthusiasm for using AI and technology to improve work.
Travel Requirements
Ability to travel domestically and internationally as business needs require, including visits to retailers, trade shows, licensors, factories and manufacturing partners.
Benefits
· Competitive salary and performance-based incentive opportunity
· Medical, Dental & Vision Insurance
· Flexible Spending Account
· 401(k)
· Paid Vacation, Sick Time & Holidays
· Employer-paid Long-Term Disability
· Employee Product Discounts
· Professional Development and Career Growth Opportunities
If you're passionate about creating products consumers love, building distinctive brands and developing talented teams while making a meaningful impact, we'd love to hear from you.
Whimsocal Studios is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
How to Apply
Please apply through our Indeed posting, or submit your resume directly to [email protected]. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.
Whimsocal Studios is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.
Whimsocal Studios provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities in the application process and in the performance of essential job functions. To request an accommodation, please contact [email protected].
Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with the California Fair Chance Act.
Pay: $70,300.00 - $90,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person
