Merlin Brands - Senior Manager - Innovation & New Product Development

: Merlin Brands is looking for a technically strong Senior Manager - Innovation & New Product Development to drive the company's future product roadmap and innovation agenda. The role goes beyond launching products- it is about identifying future consumer needs, scouting new technologies and materials, developing strategic supplier capabilities, and building scalable product platforms that enable faster innovation across categories. The ideal candidate should have a strong engineering background with hands-on experience in consumer product development, vendor development, manufacturing, and product commercialization. Key Responsibilities: Innovation & Product Roadmap: - Build and own the innovation pipeline, identifying the next generation of products beyond the current roadmap. - Conduct market, consumer, and technology research to identify emerging product opportunities. - Develop long-term product roadmaps aligned with Merlin Brands' growth strategy. Product Development: - Lead the complete product development lifecycle from concept, engineering, prototyping, testing, validation, and commercialization. - Translate business and consumer requirements into technically feasible and commercially viable products. - Drive faster product launches while maintaining quality and performance standards. Technology & Material Scouting: - Identify and evaluate new materials, manufacturing technologies, insulation solutions, coatings, plastics, metals, and sustainable alternatives. - Benchmark global innovations and recommend technologies that improve product performance, quality, and cost competitiveness. - Introduce new manufacturing capabilities that create a competitive advantage for Merlin Brands. Platform Engineering: - Develop modular product platforms and reusable components across product categories to reduce development time, optimize tooling investments, and improve manufacturing efficiency. - Standardize engineering solutions that can be leveraged across multiple SKUs. Product Optimization: - Continuously improve existing products through value engineering, cost optimization, manufacturability improvements, quality enhancement, and user experience refinement. - Drive BOM optimization and simplify product architecture without compromising performance. Vendor Development: - Build and develop strategic supplier partnerships capable of supporting future product innovation. - Identify and onboard new domestic and international manufacturing partners.