Senior Production Manager

About Rifle Paper Co:

Rifle Paper Co. is a lifestyle brand rooted in illustration, color, and thoughtful design. What began as a stationery company has grown into a beloved brand spanning home décor, gifts, accessories, wallpaper, and more. As our business continues to grow, we’re looking for a Senior Production Manager to help drive product development and production execution across our diverse portfolio of consumer products, categories, and supplier partners.

About the Role:

We are looking for a Senior Production Manager to oversee product development and production from initial concept through final delivery. Working closely with the Director of Production & Sourcing, this role will manage key domestic and international supplier relationships, oversee complex seasonal production calendars, and ensure products meet quality, cost, margin, and delivery expectations.

In addition to hands-on production management, this role will directly manage a small team of Production professionals, providing day-to-day leadership, coaching, workload management, and performance oversight. The Senior Production Manager will establish clear priorities, strengthen team capabilities, and drive accountability and consistency across production activities.

The ideal candidate is a highly organized, solutions-oriented leader with extensive experience in overseas manufacturing, multi-category product development, and seasonal production planning. This individual combines strong commercial judgment and people management skills with the ability to navigate complex production challenges, collaborate across functions, and improve processes in a fast-paced, design-led consumer products environment.

This is an onsite, hybrid role based out of our Winter Park, Florida office as the ideal candidate will be expected to be onsite at least three days a week. Additional in-office days may be required from time to time to support project needs, team collaboration, and key business priorities.

What You Will Do:

Production & Production Development

• Lead product development and production across an assigned portfolio of product categories and supplier partners, from initial development and costing through sampling, approvals, testing, mass production, quality inspection, shipment, and final delivery.
• Manage seasonal production calendars, critical paths, and purchase order execution to ensure key milestones and delivery commitments are met.
• Monitor production progress, identify risks, and develop solutions to address delays, quality concerns, cost changes, and other issues that could impact product launches or business objectives.
• Oversee product specifications, artwork approvals, packaging requirements, testing, and other production inputs in partnership with cross-functional teams.
• Partner with Quality Control and Logistics to ensure products successfully transition from production through inspection and shipment.
• Lead complex or high-priority production programs and serve as an escalation point for production challenges across the team.

Supplier Management

• Build and maintain strong relationships with domestic and international suppliers, including overseas manufacturing partners.
• Hold suppliers accountable for product quality, cost, service, production timelines, and delivery performance.
• Negotiate product costs, landed costs, minimum order quantities (MOQs), tooling, lead times, payment terms, production capacity, and other commercial considerations.
• Evaluate supplier capabilities, capacity, and performance to support seasonal demand, new product development, and long-term business needs.
• Partner with Sourcing to assess new supplier opportunities and transition new products into production.
• Identify opportunities to improve supplier performance, reduce costs, protect margins, shorten lead times, and increase production efficiency.

Cross-Functional Partnership & Process Improvement

• Collaborate closely with Design, Merchandising, Planning, Sourcing, Quality Control, and Logistics throughout the product lifecycle.
• Communicate production status, timeline changes, cost implications, risks, and recommended solutions clearly and proactively to stakeholders.
• Support seasonal planning by evaluating production feasibility, supplier capacity, manufacturing lead times, and potential risks.
• Develop and improve production processes, critical path tracking, supplier scorecards, performance reporting, and cross-functional workflows.
• Establish consistent production practices and recommend scalable solutions that strengthen team execution and support the continued growth of the Production & Sourcing organization.

Team Development

• Directly manage, mentor, and develop a small team of Production professionals, providing day-to-day guidance and support across product development and production execution.
• Establish clear goals, priorities, responsibilities, and performance expectations to ensure accountability for milestones and deliverables.
• Manage team workloads and resource allocation across seasonal calendars, supplier portfolios, and competing business priorities.
• Provide ongoing coaching and feedback, conduct performance reviews, and support individual development and training.
• Guide team members through complex production challenges, helping them evaluate risks, develop solutions, and make timely decisions.
• Foster a collaborative, accountable, and solutions-oriented team culture that encourages proactive problem-solving and knowledge sharing.
• Partner with the Director of Production & Sourcing on team capacity planning, resource needs, and departmental priorities.

Qualifications

What We Are Looking For:

• Bachelor’s degree in Supply Chain Management, Operations Management, Business Administration, Product Development, Industrial Engineering, or a related field preferred.
• 7+ years of progressive experience in production, product development, sourcing, manufacturing, or a related consumer products function, including experience in a senior-level or team leadership role.
• Demonstrated experience directly managing and developing team members, including setting priorities, delegating responsibilities, providing coaching and feedback, conducting performance reviews, and supporting professional development.
• Significant hands-on experience managing international manufacturing partners, ideally across China and Southeast Asia.
• Proven experience managing the full product lifecycle, from initial development and costing through sampling, approvals, testing, mass production, quality inspection, shipment, and final delivery.
• Experience overseeing large seasonal assortments, multiple product categories, and concurrent development and production calendars within a retail or consumer products environment.
• Strong understanding of product costing, landed costs, MOQs, tooling, manufacturing lead times, supplier capacity, quality control, product testing, packaging, and international logistics.
• Demonstrated success negotiating with suppliers to improve costs, quality, lead times, payment terms, production capacity, and overall performance.
• Proven ability to resolve complex production challenges, manage escalations, assess business risks, and develop solutions that protect product launches and delivery commitments.
• Experience partnering with Design, Merchandising, Planning, Sourcing, Quality Control, and Logistics to drive product execution and seasonal business objectives.
• Experience improving production processes, critical path management, supplier performance metrics, and operational workflows.
• Strong analytical, organizational, project management, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to prioritize competing deadlines and make sound decisions in a fast-paced environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate risks, trade-offs, recommendations, and business impacts to team members, suppliers, and senior leadership.
• Experience with ERP, PLM, project management, or production tracking systems preferred.
• Experience within a design-led consumer products, lifestyle, home, stationery, gifting, accessories, or multi-category brand is strongly preferred.
• Experience working closely with Design and Merchandising teams on seasonal product development, with exposure to multiple product categories, materials, and manufacturing processes, is a plus.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally as needed.