Vice President, Product and Design

About the role

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About the role

Vice President, Product & Design

Role Summary

The Vice President of Product & Design is a newly created executive role responsible for establishing and leading an end-to-end product and engineering organization across product management, program/project management, design engineering, advanced R&D, and new product development.

This leader will architect and institutionalize a Product Management Lifecycle (PMLC) framework and drive the transformation from an ad hoc product development approach to a disciplined, market-driven, and metrics-oriented system. The role owns the full lifecycle-from concept through commercialization and in-market performance-ensuring alignment with corporate strategy, revenue growth, margin expansion, and sustained product leadership.

A critical mandate of this role is to build a market-backed innovation engine -ensuring the company consistently identifies emerging customer needs and remains at the forefront of product innovation across firearms, accessories, and law enforcement product segments-while simultaneously elevating engineering rigor, technical excellence, and execution predictability.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and Lead the Product & Engineering Organization
• Stand up and integrate a unified organization across:
• Product Management
• Program/Project Management (PMO)
• Product Design Engineering
• Advanced Product R&D / Innovation Engineering
• Define operating model, governance, and decision rights across product and engineering
• Build and develop high-performing teams across commercial and technical disciplines
• Establish strong cross-functional alignment with Operations, Quality, Sales, and Strategy
• Market Insight & Innovation Leadership
• Establish best-in-class processes for identifying and prioritizing market needs, including:
• Voice of customer (VOC) systems
• End-user research (consumer, enthusiast, and law enforcement segments)
• Competitive intelligence and benchmarking
• Analysis of regulatory, technology, and channel trends
• Translate insights into differentiated product strategies and innovation pipelines
• Ensure a market-backed approach, where all product investments are grounded in validated demand and clear value propositions
• Maintain product and technology leadership within firearms, accessories, and adjacent categories
• Product & Technology Strategy
• Own and evolve the product portfolio strategy and multi-year roadmap aligned to corporate objectives
• Define product positioning, segmentation, and lifecycle strategies
• Establish product architecture and platform strategies to:
• Enable modularity and component reuse
• Reduce complexity and cost
• Accelerate development cycles
• Balance breakthrough innovation with core product optimization and refresh cycles
• Design Engineering Leadership & Technical Excellence
• Serve as the executive leader of design engineering functions, accountable for technical performance and output
• Establish and enforce engineering standards, design principles, and development best practices
• Drive excellence in:
• Product performance, reliability, and safety
• Design-for-manufacturability (DFM) and cost engineering
• Verification, validation, and testing rigor
• Implement robust design review processes and technical governance
• Ensure engineering is tightly aligned with product strategy, customer requirements, financial targets, manufacturing operations and supply chain.
• Product Management Lifecycle (PMLC) & Product Development Execution Discipline across the Enterprise.
• Design and implement a stage-gate or hybrid PMLC framework covering:
• Opportunity identification
• Concept validation
• Business case development
• Development and testing
• Industrialization and launch
• Post-launch performance management
• Standardize tools, templates, and governance forums
• Drive adoption and compliance across all functions
• End-to-End Product Lifecycle Ownership
• Own product performance from ideation through commercialization and in-market results
• Ensure disciplined prioritization of initiatives based on ROI, strategic fit, and resource capacity
• Lead cross-functional execution with clear accountability for:
• Timelines
• Cost targets
• Quality outcomes
• Market success
• New Product Development (NPD) Excellence
• Build a repeatable, predictable NPD engine
• Improve speed-to-market, development efficiency, and launch quality
• Integrate engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain early in the development process
• Embed design-for-quality and cost discipline from concept through production
• Engineering Execution & Manufacturing Integration
• Ensure effective allocation and utilization of engineering resources across the portfolio
• Partner with Operations and Quality to:
• Ensure seamless transition from design to production
• Minimize late-stage changes and production disruption
• Improve first-pass yield and product quality
• Proactively identify and mitigate technical and program risks
• Commercial Performance & Financial Ownership
• Own product line revenue, gross margin, and lifecycle profitability
• Partner with Finance and Strategy to:
• Translate corporate strategy into product roadmaps
• Set pricing and margin targets
• Evaluate business cases and capital allocation
• Drive portfolio optimization across innovation, refresh, and rationalization
• KPI & Performance Management System
• Define and institutionalize KPIs such as:
• % revenue from new products
• Time-to-market / cycle time
• On-time / on-budget delivery
• Product gross margin vs. target
• Launch success rate (forecast vs. actual)
• R&D productivity (ROI on innovation spend)
• Build dashboards and establish a rigorous operating cadence
• Advanced Product R&D and Technology Development
• Lead long-term R&D strategy and technology roadmaps
• Identify and invest in next-generation technologies, materials, and design approaches
• Maintain a balanced innovation pipeline across short-, mid-, and long-term horizons
• Leverage external partnerships where appropriate
• Transformation Leadership
• Act as a change agent to embed discipline, accountability, and cross-functional alignment
• Transition the organization to a market-driven, insight-led product development model
• Introduce scalable processes, tools, and cultural norms required for sustained performance

Required Experience & Qualifications

Core Experience

• 15+ years of progressive leadership across product management, engineering, and product development
• Proven success leading end-to-end product lifecycle in a manufacturing environment
• Demonstrated experience building or transforming product and engineering organizations
• Track record of implementing PMLC / stage-gate systems at scale
• Experience owning or influencing P&L, revenue, and margin performance
• Must be able to successfully pass a background check and drug screen
• Must be willing and legally able to handle firearms

Industry Experience (Required)

• Direct experience in firearms, firearm accessories, or law enforcement / tactical product development,

OR

• Significant experience in adjacent, highly engineered and regulated industries (e.g., defense, aerospace, military equipment, industrial products) with strong transferability

OR

• Significant experience in adjacent commercial environments (e.g., outdoor products, etc.)

Engineering Leadership Depth

• Significant experience leading multi-disciplinary engineering organizations
• Demonstrated ability to elevate engineering rigor, standards, and technical processes
• Proven track record of delivering complex, high-performance physical products to market
• Ability to operate as both a strategic leader and hands-on technical reviewer

Functional Expertise

• Deep expertise across:
• Product management and portfolio strategy
• New product development (NPD)
• Engineering leadership
• Program/project management disciplines
• Strong financial acumen (business cases, pricing, margin management)
• Demonstrated ability to translate market insights into commercially successful products

Leadership & Transformation Capabilities

• Proven ability to lead through ambiguity and build structure where none exists
• Strong cross-functional leadership across engineering, operations, finance, sales, and strategy
• Experience driving change in a mid-sized or scaling public company
• Ability to balance innovation, speed, and operational discipline

Key Success Outcomes (First 24-36 Months)

• Fully implemented and adopted PMLC framework across the organization
• Established market insight engine driving product strategy and prioritization
• Measurable improvements in:
• Time-to-market
• New product revenue contribution
• Forecast accuracy and launch success rates
• Elevated engineering performance, including improved product quality, reliability, and manufacturability
• Clear, strategy-aligned product and technology roadmap
• Stronger competitive positioning through differentiated, innovation-led product offerings

Profile of the Ideal Candidate

• A product + engineering hybrid leader with equal strength in commercial and technical domains
• A market-back innovator with deep customer and end-user orientation
• A builder and systems thinker capable of creating scalable processes and organizations
• A change agent who can lead transformation in an established business
• Credible with executive leadership, engineering teams, customers, and manufacturing operations

Reporting Structure

• Reports to: CEO
• Key stakeholders:
• CFO
• Head of Sales
• Head of Marketing
• Head of Operations
• Head of Corporate Strategy