Director, Product Design & Development

The posting, as Four Hands wrote it

Join one of the fastest growing, most dynamic companies in the furniture industry. For over 25 years, Four Hands has been a leading designer and wholesaler of furniture and décor, helping people create spaces that feel like home.

Recognized on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies and named one of Austin’s Top Workplaces year after year. We invest in exceptional people — with a team of over 800 and growing — fostering our employees’ careers and celebrating them at every step of the way. Four Hands is where passion meets purpose and where your next chapter begins.

Four Hands is seeking a Director, Product Design & Development to translate our long-term brand vision into seasonal product collections that are cohesive, commercially relevant, and unmistakably Four Hands.

This highly visible role sits at the intersection of design strategy, product development, materials innovation, and team leadership. The Director will partner closely with Merchandising, Planning, Sourcing, Marketing, Sales, and other teams to create design-forward products that lead the market while meeting expectations for margin, manufacturability, quality, and launch timing.

In This Role

Creative Leadership

• Partner with Senior VP of Design to lead trend research and creative brief development bringing a clear, informed point of view on where design is going and what Four Hands should do about it
• Build and evolve the seasonal material and finish library into a competitive advantage
• Develop the seasonal color story with Category Leaders, creating alignment on direction by launch
• Build out established design houses season over season, layering core and design-forward updates that keep the line fresh without losing coherence
• Partner with Marketing and Merchant Team on brand storytelling, editorial content, and design-led campaigns that build Four Hands' profile in the trade and consumer market
• Partner with Sales leadership to build training content and collection context that gives the sales team the language and confidence to sell design-forward products

Design Strategy & Product Development

• Execute the translation of the annual creative brief into a complete seasonal design story: cross-category suites, capsules, item stories, and a material, finish and fabric library that is cohesive across every launch
• Translate design direction at the suite and category level, guiding the team on form language, material, finish, hardware, and sub-category coverage before development begins
• Drive the creative road map with enough specificity that Product Development, Merchandising, and Marketing can all build from the same foundation
• Identify white space in the assortment: new categories, emerging formats and materials or functionalities, and build a plan to address them
• Enforce the standard for what "brand-right" means across every category and hold the Product Development team to it through weekly design review
• Review and approve CAD and

[…]
g seasonal material libraries across indoor case goods, fabric and leather, outdoor performance materials, and lighting across multiple price levels and countries of origin

• Experience owning a seasonal design program end to end: creative brief through market delivery, across multiple categories simultaneously
• Strong commercial instincts with the ability to hold a design point of view and make it work within margin, assortment, and calendar constraints
• Established industry relationships with designers, material suppliers, mills, tanneries, trade press, and manufacturing partners
• Demonstrated external presence in the design industry: trade events, editorial, press, or design community leadership
• Clear, confident communicator across all levels of the organization and across cultures, languages, and time zones
• Expected domestic and international travel

About Four Hands

Headquartered in Austin, Texas, since 1996, Four Hands crafts furniture, art and décor — pieces that are all about creating space. Timeless, thoughtful designs with endless possibilities. Pieces meant to be experienced and form a whole that feels like home.

Our trade customers range from interior designers to large retailers who rely on our expertise to grow and guide their business to success. We treat our partners as part of the Four Hands family, championing them and rooting for their every win.

And, we are constantly pursuing better — from sourcing the finest materials and finishes to seeking fresh inspiration to elevate our designs — we are never settled, never done.

Four Hands is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Four Hands recruits qualified applicants and advances in employment its employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, disability, genetic information, ethnic or national origin, marital status, veteran status, or any other status protected by law.

Visit www.FourHands.com for more information.