Product Development Consultant

What you'll do

The Product Development (Indoor Cooking) team's mandate is to help build the equity of CTR's Retail Brands by improving the design and experience associated with our private label products. The Product Development Consultant role is to support the Product Development Manager in building processes and capabilities that help deliver a consistent, authentic, and customer-driven product experience through our retail brands.

• Under the guidance of the Product Development Manager, creates design and technical specification for sourcing packages including any relevant product sketches and dimension details, colour, material and pattern detail, and packaging, etc. to ensure a consistent look and quality that follow our visual brand language.
• Through ongoing analysis of the business categories and consumer foresight, partner with the category business and brand management team to align on business priorities and product assortment architecture.
• Perform research on key trends and innovation considering elements such as form, functionality, fabrication, materials, and colour palettes, including user experience and identifying customer pain points.
• Support the development, of multi-pronged product user centric design research exercises to learn about all aspects of the product experience (consideration to usage to disposal). Analyze and synthesize findings into insights that identify feature sets, functionalities, and innovation approaches.
• Engage with Merchandising and Brand stakeholders and present findings through presentations. Be a champion for the human centered design approach and provide guidance on new technology, product design, and manufacturing considerations.
• Work closely with Brand and direct art direction for packaging, marketing, etc. as needed ensure consistent presentation of the brand in all customer-facing vehicles.
• Lead review of competitive products to establish benchmarks and quality standards.
• Provides input and analysis where needed when working through the prototype/counter-sample and approval process; communicates to vendors any relevant changes.
• Work closely with the Global Sourcing, Quality, Brand, and Pacific Rim Office and vendors teams to source new products and integrate the specifications into their work streams.
• Contributes to product recommendations by completing comp shops and presents findings to the PD Manager and relevant business partners.
• Travel (Domestic and International) to various vendor partners to participate in onsite engineering and manufacturing builds, tooling, and design reviews
• Work closely with the cross-functional teams at key touch points to execute the design work and get alignment and detail level consensus to drive results.
• Develops project plans that can deliver business requirements on the established timelines.

What you bring

• Undergraduate degree in Engineering and 3+ years of experience in product design and development.
• Strong familiarity with manufacturing processes that is typically found in products within this category (Injection Molding, Machining, 3D Printing, Metal Forming, Welding, Stamping etc.)
• Minimum 2 years of experience developing products in any of the following product industries -Home appliances, electronics, cookware, hand tools, kitchen tools, bakeware, gas cooking and heating, power tools or toys.
• A passion for cooking, baking and/or BBQing.
• Understanding of the retail industry and product planning in retail communicated via experience working for a retailer or developing products keeping in mind the retail channel.
• Skilled in 3D modeling tools such as Solidworks and design tools such as Adobe CS, etc.
• Hands-on ability to create product and packaging mock-ups, physically build and dissemble product samples to analyze and problem solve.
• Creative, driven by the possibilities ahead and are passionate about design, style, and lifestyle & home trends
• Ability to work well cross-functionally; demonstrated ability to collaborate, influence and negotiate with colleagues.
• Outstanding communicator able to clearly translate strategy into design specs or direction.
• Ability to formulate and sell recommendations based upon robust research and assessment of risk/rewards.
• Strong presentation skills with demonstrated ability to adjust style and format as required to suit the audience.
• Experience in understanding consumer/market needs in the development of technical product requirements
• Experience with usability testing, ethnographic research, and product development tools
• Customer focused and action oriented
• Highly organized and detail oriented, able to tackle multiple projects with varying scope and project teams.

Hybrid

We value flexibility. We have adopted a hybrid work model whereby employees use a combination of working in office and virtually in service of outcomes. Each leader is empowered to decide what work is best achieved in person based on the unique needs of their team.

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About Us

Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited ("CTC") is one of Canada's most admired and trusted companies. With more than 90 Owned Brands, 1,700 retail locations, financial services, exemplary e-commerce capabilities, and exciting market-leading merchandising strategies. We dream big and work as one to innovate with purpose for our customers at every level of our business, investing in new technologies and products, and doubling down on top talent to drive the company forward. We offer competitive salaries and wages to CTC employees, as well as store discounts, supported learning through our Triangle Learning Academy, Canadian Tire Profit Sharing, and retirement and savings programs for eligible employees. As part of our enhanced flex benefits program, we offer mental health benefits in the amount of $5,000 per year for benefits-eligible employees and their families, including total well-being, and mental health tools and resources for all employees. Join us in helping to make life in Canada better through living and working our Core Values: we are innovators and entrepreneurs at our core, outcomes drive us, inclusion is a must, we are stronger together and we take personal responsibility. It is an especially exciting time to join CTC and its family of companies where career opportunities are wide-ranging Join us, where there's a place for you here.

Our Commitment to Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging

We are committed to fostering an environment where belonging thrives, and diversity, inclusion and equity are infused into everything we do. We believe in building an organizational culture where people are consistently treated with dignity while respecting individual religion, nationality, gender, race, age, perceived ability, spoken language, sexual orientation, and identification. We are united in our purpose of being here to help make life in Canada better.

Accommodations

We stand firm in our Core Value that inclusion is a must. We welcome and encourage candidates from equity-seeking groups such as people who identify as racialized, Indigenous, 2SLGBTQIA+, women, people with disabilities, and beyond. Should you require any accommodation in applying for this role, or throughout the interview process, please make them known when contacted and we will work with you to help meet your needs.