VP Product Development

Consumer Goods | Design-Led | High-Growth

Glass Ratner's Private Equity Practice have partnered with a rapidly growing, design-forward Canadian owned consumer goods company to hire a
Vice President of Product Development
. This leader will shape the next era of innovation as the company expands across both e-commerce and major retail channels.

The business is known for bringing premium, modern, design-led products to market at scale. With a strong engineering foundation and increasing retailer demand, the organization is ready to elevate its upstream strategy, ideation discipline, and commercialization capability.

This role works closely with the CEO and functional leaders across Marketing, Engineering, Operations, and Finance to drive brand product and category expansion.

What You Will Do

Upstream Strategy & Market Fit – Essential

• Partner with the CEO and leadership team to determine the product strategy and priority initiatives ("What shots are we going to take?").
• Lead ideation for new product categories, product extensions, and improvements to existing items (sizes, textures, colours, materials).
• Build business cases including BOE assessments, size-of-prize analysis, and share targets.
• Conduct market, trend, and consumer insight work to determine brand fit and channel fit across e-commerce and retail.
• Bring strong design intuition and trend awareness.

Product Development Oversight – Essential

• Build and manage the full product development pipeline.
• Oversee design direction including form, function, and aesthetics.
• Work closely with Engineering to define specifications, validate feasibility, and ensure manufacturability.
• Collaborate with external partners to expand manufacturing capabilities.
• Lead costing, value engineering, sourcing assessments, and tariff considerations.
• Oversee QA, QC, and compliance.

Go-to-Market (GTM) Execution – would be of added value but not essential

• Collaborate with all functional areas (Operations, Marketing/Creative, Finance, E-commerce) to execute product launches.
• Lead forecasting and initial order planning.
• Manage production planning and vendor alignment.

What You Bring

Experience

• 10–15+ years in product development, industrial design, consumer goods, home décor, or adjacent categories.
• Experience developing products from concept through commercialization across multiple channels.
• Exposure to plastics, molded materials, or manufacturing processes (injection molding, blow molding, roto molding) is an asset.
• Strong project management capabilities.

Leadership & Personal Attributes

• Strong design sensibility, taste, and trend awareness
• Enjoy working with people and solving complex problems
• Excellent communication and presentation skills.
• Ability to influence internal teams and external buyers.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with comfort in a fast-paced, founder-led environment.
• Ability to balance creativity with technical feasibility and commercial discipline.
• Strength in introducing structure while maintaining speed and flexibility.

Who You Are

• A creative and strategic product thinker.
• A connector who thrives at the intersection of design, engineering, and market needs.
• A leader who can elevate the product function and coach cross-functional partners.
• A hands-on collaborator who drives clarity, prioritization, and execution.

Why This Role

• Lead the full product innovation engine at a high-growth consumer brand.
• Work directly with the CEO to define long-term product strategy.
• Shape products for both fast-paced e-commerce and large-scale retail channels.
• Join a company with significant momentum and strong investor support.
• Competitive compensation, performance bonus, and long-term incentive program.

If this sounds interesting to you, or anyone in your network, please apply or reach out to Benish Khan ) or Marty O'Doherty ).