Head of Product Design

About the role

You will own how every Lalo product looks, works and gets made. You'll take ideas from trend signal to sketch, to prototype, to a factory-ready spec, to the packaging on shelf and the images on the product page. You'll start as our first design leader, working with a bench of trusted freelancers you bring and direct. You'll partner closely with our SVP, Commercial, Engineering, Product Development and Marketing.

Lalo is a modern family brand designing thoughtfully made products that support families through the earliest stages of life. We are a fast-growing, design-driven company where ideas move quickly and ownership matters. Our work balances creativity with operational rigor, and we build through close collaboration, high standards, and a shared commitment to doing our work well.

What you'll do

1. Ideation and concepting. Lead concept work from first sketch to the final model. Present clear options with a point of view at each stage gate (G0–G4).
2. Trends and white space. Run a standing trend and competitor practice across art, design, home and adjacencies. Bring evidence-backed white-space ideas into the line-planning process each season.
3. Merchandising and retailer partnership. Work with Commercial to turn line-plan briefs and retailer asks into concepts. Join key retailer meetings to present trend and design stories.
4. Engineering and DFM. Partner with engineers and factories on function, materials, tooling, tolerances and cost. Collaborate on design-for-manufacturing calls that protect design intent and hit target landed cost. Review and approve samples (T1 through PP).
5. Safety and compliance by design. Design with juvenile safety standards in mind from day one (for example ASTM F963, CPSIA, small parts, food-contact materials). Work with our compliance process so issues are caught at concept, not at testing.
6. Packaging. Own structural and graphic packaging across our ten retail and e-commerce formats. Keep our packaging standards up to date. Deliver print-ready dielines and artwork on time.
7. Product visuals. Own the product side of e-commerce imagery: renders, silhouettes, colorway assets, and art direction for product photography. Work with Marketing on lifestyle shoots so the product is shown as designed.
8. Design system and quality bar. Set and document Lalo's design language: color, material and finish (CMF), form, and print/pattern. Make our products recognizably Lalo across categories.
9. Freelance bench and vendors. Build and run a flexible team of freelance industrial, packaging, soft goods, graphic and industrial designers. Manage scope, briefs, budget and quality. Recommend when to convert freelance capacity into full-time hires.
10. Calendar and process. Hit the development calendar. Keep design files, specs and approvals organized so engineering, sourcing and marketing can work from one source of truth.

Who you are

• 10+ years designing physical consumer products, including 3+ years leading design work for a brand or category
• A portfolio of shipped products in juvenile, toy, housewares, tabletop or similar categories, with molded plastics, silicone, wood or textiles
• Hands-on DFM experience: worked directly with factories or in-house engineers on design impacts on tooling, sampling and cost; comfortable reading engineering drawings and CAD (Rhino, SolidWorks or Fusion) and rendering (KeyShot or similar)
• Packaging delivered end to end, structure and graphics, for mass retail
• An active freelance bench: named industrial, packaging, graphic and 3D/render talent the candidate has used before and can activate within first two weeks
• Has presented design to retail buyers and worked inside a line-planning or merchandising process
• Strong taste with commercial judgment: can explain why a design will sell and what it costs
• Willing to travel to Asia factories and trade shows as needed
• Experience using Uses AI tools for concepting, rendering and visuals

Compensation & benefits

The salary range for this role is $175,000-$250,000, depending on experience and location. We offer the full Lalo benefits package — health, dental, vision, 12 weeks paid parental leave, unlimited PTO, 401(k), and one of every product we make if you have little ones at home.

Lalo is an equal opportunity employer. We're building a team that reflects the families we serve.