Director of Mens M&D

Role Summary

The Prominent Surf Brand Director of Merchandising, Design and Product Development is responsible for the overall product vision, merchandising strategy, direction, and seasonal execution of the Men’s product.

This role leads the Men’s Design team and owns the product line from market analysis and consumer insights through line planning, concept development, product creation, and final assortment. The Director establishes the seasonal product strategy, determines category priorities and product opportunities, and ensures the line delivers a cohesive balance of brand relevance, innovation, commerciality, and financial performance.

Working closely with Sales, Planning, Production, Marketing, and senior leadership, this role serves as the central owner of the Men’s product calendar and ensures the organization is aligned around what product is being developed, why it matters, when it needs to happen, and how it will perform.

The ideal candidate combines strong creative and design leadership with sophisticated merchandising, analytical, and business skills and has a deep understanding of men’s surf, action sports, lifestyle, and performance markets.

Key Responsibilities & Job Duties

1. Men’s Merchandising Strategy

• Own the overall merchandising strategy and product vision for the Men’s business.
• Develop seasonal category strategies based on consumer insights, market trends, competitive analysis, historical performance, and business objectives.
• Identify category opportunities, product gaps, emerging trends, and whitespace within the marketplace.
• Define key product initiatives, franchises, newness, carryover, and category priorities.
• Balance brand building product with commercially productive core and seasonal offerings.

2. Business & Market Analysis

• Analyze historical sales, sell-through/Sell-in, margin, pricing, inventory, category performance, and product productivity to inform future assortments.
• Translate business and consumer data into actionable product strategies.
• Conduct regular market shopping and competitive analysis across surf, action sports, streetwear, fashion, and performance.
• Monitor competitor product, pricing, assortment, positioning, and innovation.
• Use market intelligence to identify opportunities before they become mainstream.
• Create seasonal hindsight reviews and apply learnings to future line strategies.

3. Line Planning & Assortment Architecture

• Own the Men’s seasonal line plan from initial strategy through final assortment.
• Establish category breadth, depth, SKU targets, price architecture, and product mix in partnership with Planning and Sales.
• Determine the appropriate balance of core, seasonal, fashion, innovation, and commercial product.
• Establish key items and product stories within each season.
• Ensure the line has a clear hierarchy and cohesive point of view.
• Partner with Planning to align the line with financial targets, inventory strategy, and sales expectations.
• Make informed recommendations regarding continuation, modification, expansion, or discontinuation of product.

4. Design Direction & Team Leadership

• Lead, mentor, and develop the Men’s Design team.
• Translate the merchandising strategy into clear design direction.
• Set expectations for silhouette, proportion, fabrication, color, graphics, print, and overall product expression.
• Review and approve key concepts, silhouettes, materials, color palettes, graphics/prints, and product direction.
• Ensure the Design team is creating product that is both creatively compelling and commercially relevant.
• Establish clear priorities and accountability across the design organization.
• Develop team capabilities, processes, and succession plans.

5. Apparel & Boardshort Product Direction

• Maintain direct creative oversight across the Men’s apparel and boardshort assortment.
• Ensure boardshorts remain connected to the larger Men’s product strategy while maintaining appropriate technical and surf-specific expertise.
• Identify opportunities for new silhouettes, fabrication, construction, performance, and product innovation.
• Ensure product reflects current surf culture while remaining relevant to the broader lifestyle consumer.
• Partner with Product Development and Technical Design to ensure design intent is successfully translated into finished product.

6. Product Development & Commercialization

• Lead Product Development to move the line from concept through final production.
• Ensure design direction, costing, quality, fit, and construction remain aligned throughout development.
• Resolve product issues and make timely decisions that protect the seasonal strategy and calendar.
• Balance design ambition with cost, margin, manufacturability, and target retail.
• Maintain visibility into development status and identify risks early.

7. Cross-Functional Leadership

• Serve as the primary Men’s product leader across Design, Merchandising, Product Development, Planning, Sales, Marketing, and Production.
• Partner with Sales to understand account needs, customer feedback, market opportunities, and commercial priorities.
• Partner with Planning to align assortment architecture, financial targets, inventory strategy, and product productivity.
• Partner with Marketing to translate product strategy into seasonal stories, campaigns, launches, and consumer messaging.
• Present seasonal product strategies and assortments to senior leadership and key stakeholders.
• Drive alignment and decisive action when cross-functional priorities conflict.

8. Sales & Go-to-Market Partnership

• Partner with Sales to ensure the line is relevant across key accounts and channels.
• Incorporate wholesale feedback without compromising the broader brand and product strategy.
• Support sales meetings, line reviews, market appointments, and key customer presentations.
• Build product Sell-In Catalogs; including attending photo shoots
• Identify product opportunities based on account feedback and market performance.
• Ensure product stories and assortments are clearly communicated to the commercial organization.
• Identify and react to SMU opportunities between the various sales channels

9. Product Calendar Ownership

• Own the Men’s product calendar from strategic kickoff through final delivery.
• Establish seasonal milestones, deadlines, decision points, and cross-functional deliverables.
• Hold Design, Merchandising, Product Development, Planning, and other partners accountable to the calendar.
• Lead seasonal milestone meetings and ensure decisions are made at the appropriate time.
• Identify calendar risks and establish corrective actions.
• Ensure the organization maintains speed without compromising product quality or creative direction.

10. Financial & Commercial Accountability

• Partner with Planning and Finance to establish and manage category financial objectives.
• Own the department budget along with monthly reflows and updating finance.
• Understand sales, margin, pricing, inventory, and productivity implications of merchandising decisions.
• Ensure assortment decisions support overall business objectives.
• Evaluate product performance and make recommendations to improve future productivity.
• Balance innovation and brand investment with commercial discipline.

Skills & Qualifications

Leadership & Experience

• 8–12+ years of experience in apparel design, merchandising, product, or a combination of disciplines. This is a Merchant lead Business
• Proven leadership experience managing and developing creative and/or merchandising teams.
• Experience leading seasonal product strategies and complete apparel assortments.
• Experience in surf, action sports, streetwear, lifestyle, performance, or adjacent apparel markets strongly preferred.

Merchandising & Business Acumen

• Strong understanding of assortment architecture, line planning, pricing, margin, sales, inventory, and product productivity.
• Highly analytical with the ability to translate business data into product decisions.
• Strong understanding of consumer behavior and marketplace dynamics.
• Ability to balance long-term brand strategy with near-term commercial requirements.

Design & Product Expertise

• Strong understanding of men’s apparel, fit, silhouette, fabrication, construction, color, graphics, and product development.
• Boardshort and surf-product expertise strongly preferred.
• Strong creative eye with the ability to establish and communicate a clear product point of view.
• Ability to challenge and elevate design while maintaining commercial relevance.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Exceptional communication and presentation skills.
• Proven ability to influence Design, Sales, Planning, Product Development, Marketing, and senior leadership.
• Comfortable making decisions and establishing accountability across multiple functions.
• Strong ability to move between high-level strategy and detailed product decisions.

Market & Industry Knowledge

• Deep understanding of men’s surf, action sports, streetwear, fashion, lifestyle, and performance markets.
• Strong market-shopping and competitive-analysis skills.
• Current understanding of cultural, consumer, and product trends.
• Strong connection to surf and action-sports culture.

Organization & Execution

• Highly organized and comfortable managing multiple seasons and categories simultaneously.
• Strong project and calendar-management skills.
• Able to operate effectively in a fast-paced, deadline driven environment.
• Willingness to travel for market research, sales meetings, development, fittings, and industry events as needed.