Materials Developer

Peak Design makes radical, meticulously-engineered gear for detail-obsessed people. Our backpacks, travel bags, camera gear, and phone accessories are used dang-near everywhere. If you've visited Machu Picchu, Tokyo, or an REI store in the last 10 years, you've been within ogling distance of a Peak Design product.

Alongside our award-winning gear is a brand that truly reflects who we are as people-passionate about design, deeply caring about our environmental and social impact, unafraid to speak up, radically transparent, and generally down to clown. Whether we're explaining a product, running a sale, launching a nonprofit, sponsoring a film, or razzing the biggest company on Earth, we do it with our trademark honesty, warmth, and wit. Through our products and our brand, we aim to create delight, and leave this world better than how we found it.

As a Materials Developer at Peak Design, you'll have the opportunity to work with our design and development team to create top of the line products. Beyond working with our internal team, you'll work with our mill and vendor partners to develop innovative materials, recommend construction techniques, and be a problem solver for any issues in between.

In order to be successful in this role, you'll need to be highly organized, detail-oriented, and possess a passion for product. We're a young company looking for a candidate that is hungry to create game changing gear, help build a foundation of processes and systems, and add to our great culture.

What You'll Do

• Build relationships with your design and development partners to fully understand projects and then work with our vendor base to develop the material needs into reality.
• Create partnerships with our vendor base as well as factory partners and be able to troubleshoot issues and negotiate prices.
• Have a firm understanding of testing methods, be able to execute testing protocols, and be able to translate findings into building products.
• Understand how to build and maintain a materials library from scratch.
• Conduct market research in order to understand industry trends, functional  performance, and sustainability goals.
• Be able to travel domestically and internationally to meet with vendors, support products teams at factory, and attend trade shows.
• Identify and bring in new materials suppliers that can add to our already strong base in order to add abilities, solve sourcing problems, and achieve company goals.
• Experience in lab dipping fabrics and trims and working under a light box to get colors right.
• Knowledge of quality assurance standards incoming to the factory and how to create documents to assist all teams of how to handle and receive materials.
• Ability to thrive in the unknown and demonstrate a drive to want to improve processes and systems.

About You

• You have 2-3 years experience in materials development in a medium or large size company, preferably in the outdoor industry.
• Posses a working knowledge of Microsoft office suite, PLM system, CLO (training to be provided if you don't have experience).
• Experience in working with international materials vendors and factory partners.
• Have a strong technical background in fiber applications, weaving/knitting methods, dyeing, and finishing techniques.
• A sense of business acumen to negotiate pricing, coordinate delivery of materials, and building relationships with partners.
• Ability to travel internationally and domestically 4-6 weeks out of the year.
• You are able and willing to work 2-3 days per week in our San Francisco office (Dogpatch neighborhood).
• You use and care a lot about gear (photography, outdoor, or other passion areas). You also have strong opinions about the products that you use in your life and enjoy debating what makes these products great.

$100,000 - $140,000 a year

COMPENSATION

The base salary for this role is targeted between $100,000 - $140,000 (for candidates based in the San Francisco Bay Area). Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors and may vary from the amounts listed above.

Peak Design complies with all laws set force by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which enforces Federal laws that protect you from discrimination in employment: https://www.eeoc.gov/poster

Peak Design also complies with all laws set forth by the California Civil Rights Department (CRD), which is responsible for enforcing state laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or employee because of protected characteristics: https://calcivilrights.ca.gov/Posters/