Head of Product (Contract, Part-Time) · Everyday-Carry and Wearable Hardware · Founder-Owned

Head of Product (Contract, Part-Time) · Everyday-Carry and Wearable Hardware · Founder-Owned. Remote, Australia or New Zealand · 2 to 3 days per week

We make jewellery with a job.

Pixie Wing started in New Zealand with one product: a pendant that secures a ring against the chest in seconds, without unclasping the chain. We're founder-owned. Surgeons wear it. Nurses, athletes, chefs, tradespeople, anyone whose hands need to be free. It now sells in over 20 countries.

The product is a mechanism first and a piece of jewellery second. Most brands make one or the other. We sit where utility meets premium jewellery, and our future products will live there too. Supported by the founders and CEO, you'll own product from idea to launch, on two fronts.

First, the hero range. Spot where it should grow next: a gap in the range, a shift in what people want to wear, a size or style we don't cover yet. Turn that into the next Ring Keeper.

Second, what sits beside it. New products that solve a real problem for the same people, utility first, with a mechanism that works every day, and that look as good as anything else they own.

On both, you'll write the briefs, direct the designers and engineers who execute, run the agent/factory relationship through sampling and tooling, and hand a finished product to marketing. We'll give you the customer data, the supplier relationships and the room to be ambitious. You bring the ideas, the eye for how a small metal object should work and feel, and the follow-through.

What you'll do

• Find the opportunities: gaps in the hero range, shifts in what customers want to wear, and adjacent problems worth solving. Bring us ideas we haven't had, grounded in what customers tell us through returns, reviews and surveys
• Watch the worlds we borrow from: everyday-carry, watches, outdoor and bag hardware on one side, premium jewellery on the other. Find the pieces that belong to both
• Write every design brief: the problem, the mechanism, the aesthetic, the references, the constraints, and what good looks like, before anything is drawn
• Direct our freelance designers and engineers through the iterations, so the founders see sharp options at decision points rather than every round
• Run sampling and tooling with our overseas sourcing agent and the factory: sample reviews, tooling decisions, spec sheets, cost targets, timelines. Work the problems until the product is right
• Own materials testing, performance testing, specifications and launch readiness
• Hand each new product to the Head of Marketing as a finished pack: specs, materials, positioning line, samples and pricing

What stays with the founders The brand rules, design sign-off and the go/no-go on every product. You have a real voice in direction and real authority. Want to try something new? Make the case and the founders decide. Minimal red tape.

Who you are

• You've designed or developed products with a moving part: a clasp, a latch, a hinge, a gate, a closure, a case. In metal, through overseas tooling. Watches, everyday-carry, eyewear, bags and wallets, outdoor hardware and small medical devices all count. Apparel and fashion jewellery on their own don't, however senior
• You have a point of view on how a small object should work and feel in the hand, and you can explain why a mechanism is good or bad. We'll test this in the interview
• You've run sampling and tooling. You know what a rejected sample looks like, how to read a spec sheet, and how to push a factory without burning the relationship
• You own messy multi-party processes and close loops without being chased
• You write short, clear briefs. Our founders read fast and decide fast
• You have opinions about product and you share them
• Not required: being the one at the CAD screen. We need the person who directs the designers and engineers and helps decide what they should be drawing

How we work

• Contract role, 2 to 3 days per week to start. Reviewed every six months; if the products land, the days grow, with a path to full-time
• Remote, Australia or New Zealand preferred for time-zone overlap with the CEO and our sourcing agent
• Reports to the CEO. One product decision meeting a week, with options framed and a recommendation
• Briefs and feedback via Slack, files in shared drive, product data in Shopify
• AUD 800 to 1,000 per day depending on experience, invoiced monthly
• Start: early 2027, or sooner for the right person
• To apply Along with your CV, give details of two or three products with a mechanism that you've taken to market, with a line on your part in each and one on what you'd have done differently. No cover letter needed.