Product Development & Engineering Manager

About Us
Triptych Ventures is a growing, US-based consumer products business. Our brands, Dunwell and Cranbury, sell leading stationery, filing, notebook, planner, calendar, and presentation products on Amazon and Walmart.
We develop practical, thoughtfully designed products that customers use every day. We're investing in better product design, stronger manufacturing execution, and an expanding portfolio.
We're looking for an experienced, hands-on product development professional who can help us make our existing products exceptional and bring ambitious new products to market.
The Role
You'll own the technical development and continuous improvement of our physical product portfolio.
This role has two equally important priorities:
Make our existing products better: Become the company's technical expert on our products. Understand their construction, materials, dimensions, manufacturing processes, and quality requirements. Use customer feedback, product returns, competitor products, and your own technical judgment to identify meaningful improvements.Work directly with our manufacturing partners to develop, test, and implement those improvements accurately and efficiently. We want someone who sees a recurring product problem and takes ownership of fixing it, not someone who simply reports the issue.
Help us develop outstanding new products: Work with our leadership and design teams to develop new products and expand our existing categories. Contribute ideas, evaluate competitive products, recommend innovative materials and construction methods, and translate approved concepts into precise manufacturing specifications. Own the technical development process from initial concept through prototyping, sampling, testing, refinement, and production approval. We want products that are better designed, more functional, more durable, and more thoughtfully engineered than the alternatives.
Compensation: USD $2,500–$3,000 per month, depending on experience and qualifications.
What You'll Do
Product Improvement
Develop deep technical knowledge of our existing product portfolio.
Analyze customer complaints, reviews, and returns to identify opportunities for improvement.
Physically evaluate our products and competing products to identify differences in materials, construction, functionality, and quality. Prioritize improvements based on customer impact, feasibility, and cost. Work directly with factories to develop and implement product modifications.
Verify that approved changes are correctly incorporated into production.
New Product Development
Partner with leadership and design to develop new product concepts and improve existing product lines.
Evaluate competitive products, materials, manufacturing techniques, and construction methods.
Create detailed technical specifications, including dimensions, tolerances, materials, components, and construction requirements.
Coordinate prototypes, factory samples, testing, and design revisions.
Identify engineering and manufacturing challenges and develop practical solutions.
Maintain technical documentation and approved reference samples.
Lead technical production-readiness reviews and approve final samples against agreed specifications.
Support the successful transition of new products into mass production.
Manufacturing & Quality
Work directly with suppliers and factory engineers to solve technical problems.
Establish measurable product quality and acceptance criteria.
Identify potential manufacturing defects before they reach customers.
Ensure consistency between approved samples and actual production.
Partner with our supply chain team to resolve supplier-related technical issues.
What We're Looking For
**Required**
At least 5 years of hands-on physical consumer product development experience.
Demonstrated experience taking products from concept or engineering development through mass production.
Strong knowledge of materials, manufacturing processes, dimensional specifications, and production tolerances.
Experience working directly with factories on sampling, product modifications, and manufacturing problems.
Ability to create and interpret technical drawings, product specifications, and manufacturing documentation.
Strong problem-solving skills and exceptional attention to detail.
*Very strong* Professional working English, written and spoken.
Based in China or Vietnam and able to travel regularly to manufacturing facilities.
Strongly Preferred
Experience developing stationery, office supplies, paper products, printing products, plastic consumer products, or related goods.
Knowledge of polypropylene materials, plastic fabrication, paper converting, printing, binding, or packaging.
Experience developing products for international consumer brands or retailers.
Familiarity with design-for-manufacturing principles and product cost optimization.
Experience with CAD or other technical design software.
Mandarin or Vietnamese language capabilities appropriate for working directly with factories.
What Success Looks Like
During your first year, we expect you to:
Develop a thorough technical understanding of our existing product portfolio.
Establish a prioritized pipeline of meaningful product improvements.
Successfully implement improvements that reduce customer complaints, improve product functionality, or strengthen product quality.
Become the technical owner of new product development, from specifications through production readiness.
Help bring 2–3 strong new product lines into production.
You'll work closely with our US leadership, design, and supply chain teams, with meaningful ownership of the products we create.
Why Join Us?
This isn't a role where you spend your time writing reports about products developed by someone else.
You'll have real influence over what we make, how we make it, and how we improve it.
You'll work with established consumer brands, a substantial existing product portfolio, and an ambitious pipeline of new product opportunities.
We're looking for someone who takes pride in the details, enjoys solving manufacturing problems, and wants to create products customers genuinely appreciate.
How to Apply
Please submit your résumé and examples of physical consumer products you've helped develop or improve.
We are especially interested in understanding:
Which products you personally helped bring into production.
Your specific technical responsibilities.
Examples of product improvements or manufacturing problems you've solved.
Product photographs, technical drawings, or portfolio links are welcome.

Work arrangement
Yes