Hulken - Product Development Manager
New York, NY preferred | Remote considered | Full-Time | Team operates on EST
Reports to: Head of Operations | Compensation: $100,000 – $120,000
Hulken is the original rolling tote, built to make schlepping easier, now used everywhere from film sets to city streets. What started as a utility product has become a visible part of how people move through their day: behind the scenes at photoshoots, backstage at events, in grocery aisles, and in cities around the world, adopted by people who need to carry a lot and want to do it well.
We're a fast-growing, family-run brand with retail presence including Target, The Container Store, and MoMA Design Store, and an expanding pipeline of brand partnerships and collaborations. We're a small, tight-knit team of under ten people that moves fast, cares deeply about product and brand, and is building something with real cultural momentum.
We're at a pivotal moment. Our products are getting more ambitious, our retail footprint is expanding, and our production is scaling across overseas partners — we're growing fast enough that our team leaders can no longer own every product decision themselves. That's where you come in.
You'll own how our products actually get made, from first idea to the units that land on a shelf, and take that weight off the team so it stops living in everyone's inboxes at the eleventh hour.
Right now, product development is where our small team feels the most strain. Timelines are tight, design and production run close to the wire, and one missed detail can derail a whole launch. We need someone who runs toward that, with enough product instinct to know when something's off, and enough operational rigor to make sure it never ships that way.
This isn't a role where you wait for direction. You'll own things end to end, keep the whole team informed without being asked, and build the process that makes product development calm, predictable, and repeatable, instead of a scramble.
If you need a fully built playbook before you can move, this isn't the role for you. If you get energy from building the playbook — and the product — from scratch, and then holding everyone to it, keep reading.
This is a builder's seat, not a caretaker's. We want someone who owns the outcome, not someone who administers a checklist.
• End-to-end product development. Own the full lifecycle: concept, design, prototype, sampling, production, and improvement. Take new ideas from zero to shelf-ready, and keep the roadmap aligned with where the business is headed.
• Vendors and manufacturing. Work directly with our overseas factories and suppliers. Own sampling, revisions, and production readiness, and hit quality, cost, and timeline targets consistently — not heroically at the last minute.
• Process (build it, make it better). Create simple, repeatable development processes that people actually use, with clear timelines, checkpoints, and quality gates, so design, samples, artwork, and approvals stop colliding at the finish line. Move faster without cutting corners, and use AI to make the work sharper and quicker.
• Product quality and performance. Sweat the details: durability, usability, real-world performance. Build and refine testing standards, spot issues early, and fix them fast — before they reach a customer or a retailer.
• Retail and launch readiness. Partner with brand, marketing, and ops so every product has what it needs to launch, from samples and specs to packaging and pack-shot-ready assets, on time and to spec across Target, The Container Store, MoMA, and a growing wholesale pipeline.
• Cross-team connective tissue. Be the go-to owner for product development. Proactively communicate status, surface blockers early, and close the loop, so no one has to chase you, and nothing falls through the cracks.
• 5+ years bringing physical products to market, consumer goods preferred, ideally soft goods (bags, luggage, apparel) or another materials-driven category.
• A proven track record of owning products end to end, working directly with overseas manufacturers, and shipping on time and to spec.
• Process-driven, but adaptable and scrappy. You bring structure as a natural strength, not as your entire identity, and you're comfortable building it from scratch in a place that doesn't have it yet.
• Strong instincts for materials, construction, and quality. You see the details others miss, and you follow through every single time.
• Genuinely obsessed with how things are made. You care about product because you love it, not just because it's your job.
• Independently driven and proactively communicative. You don't wait to be asked for an update — you keep people informed, flag risks before they become problems, and make your work visible.
• Strong-willed and calm under pressure. You can hold a line on quality and timelines with factories, agencies, and internal teammates alike, and do it with zero ego and a genuinely good attitude.
• Comfortable picking up the tools this runs on. We work day to day in Slack and Google Workspace; the rest of the stack is flexible, and picking up new tools fast is what matters most. Experience with a PLM system, Adobe Illustrator (or a similar design or tech-pack tool), and Notion is a plus. We're an AI-forward team and expect you to actively use tools that make your work faster and smarter.
• New York City preferred, and we're open to remote for the right person. Either way, the team operates on EST and communicates primarily over Slack, so staying looped in and responsive during working hours matters. Comfortable working across time zones with overseas partners, and open to occasional travel for factory or team needs.
• Experience with soft goods (bags, luggage, apparel).
• A background in sourcing and factory production.
• Experience improving or scaling an existing product line — bringing order to something that grew faster than its process.
• Products launch on time, and hold up in the real world.
• Development runs on clear, repeatable processes, not last-minute scrambles.
• Factory partners are strong, reliable, and dialed in.
• Direct impact on the product and the brand. What you make ends up in people's hands and on real shelves.
• High ownership, minimal bureaucracy. You build the engine, you don't just run it.
• A small, tight-knit team, fast decisions, and real autonomy.
• A brand with genuine cultural momentum, at the exact moment it's scaling from DTC into retail.
$100,000 – $120,000, commensurate with experience.
We're building something meaningful and want to compensate people who are serious about contributing to it. Salary is based on experience and scope, with room to grow as the role and company do.
• Health insurance: medical
• PTO: unlimited
This is an individual contributor role with no direct reports.
We are an equal opportunity employer and consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic.
Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States. We are not able to sponsor work visas at this time.
Tell us a bit more about yourself
Are you authorized to work in the United States? (We're unable to sponsor work visas at this time.)
From concept to shelf (most important) — Walk us through one physical product you personally took from an early concept to a finished item that shipped to customers or retail. What was the hardest tradeoff you had to make along the way — on materials, cost, a factory relationship, or a timeline — and how did you decide?
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Choosing a small team — Hulken isn't a startup gamble. We're an established, profitable brand you'll find in Target, The Container Store, and MoMA. But we run like a small, tight-knit team of under ten people: fast, scrappy, and still building a lot of our process as we go. Some people love that; others realize a year in that they'd rather have the structure and safety of a bigger company. Be honest: why do you want this, specifically? What are you moving away from, and what makes you confident the trade-offs (small team, less structure, more ownership, fewer corporate comforts) are ones you'll still be happy with 12 months from now?
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Building structure — On a small team, product development gets messy: timelines slip, details get missed, sometimes artwork comes due before the design is even finalized. Walk us through a specific time you brought order to a chaotic or disorganized situation that wasn't originally yours to fix. What did you inherit, what structure did you actually put in place, and how did you get people who didn't report to you (teammates, factories, agencies) to follow it?
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Holding the line — This role means holding a line on quality and deadlines — sometimes with someone more senior than you, sometimes with a teammate who's been here longer, sometimes with a factory on the other side of the world telling you it can't be done. Tell us about a time you had to push back and hold firm on something you believed was right, when it would've been easier to let it go. What was at stake, how did you handle it, and how did you stay firm without burning the relationship?
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Working independently — This role runs with a lot of independence on a small team, which often means no one is checking whether the work got done — the ownership is entirely yours. Tell us about a time you delivered something significant while working independently, with little oversight or structure. How did you keep yourself on track, keep others informed of where things stood, and make sure nothing slipped through?
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AI in practice (optional) — Show us one specific way you use AI in your work today: a workflow in product development, sourcing, or operations you have made meaningfully faster or better with it.
Please upload your resume
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