Sr. Industrial Designer - Hybrid

JOB SUMMARY

At Outward Hound, we create thoughtful, innovative products that strengthen the bond between pets and their people. We love creating products that are not only cute and full of personality, but also innovative, functional, and genuinely fun to use - bringing playful ideas to life in ways that surprise and delight customers every day. We are looking for a Senior Industrial Designer to help lead product design and innovation initiatives across our portfolio and help shape the future direction of our brands.

We are looking for someone who is deeply passionate about pets, consumer products, and innovation - someone energized by building meaningful products and contributing beyond the minimum expectations of the role. This role is intended for a highly experienced industrial designer who can operate independently, influence cross-functional decision-making, and drive products from opportunity definition through commercialization.

We are specifically looking for a designer with deep experience across both hard goods and soft goods product design, as well as a strong ability to create emotionally engaging products through character-driven design, storytelling, and brand expression. For this role, you will come with experience combining exceptional design judgment with strong business awareness, manufacturing expertise, and the ability to lead at a systems level.

• Exceptional storytelling skills - clearly communicating vision, impact, and rationale to leaders and partners
• Strong ability to create emotionally engaging, character-driven products with broad consumer appeal, particularly for female-driven purchasing audiences
• Design across multiple pet categories, including both dog and cat products, spanning a portfolio of distinct brands
• Ability to design cohesive products across plush, textiles, molded toys, and hybrid construction products while maintaining strong emotional appeal, functionality, and manufacturable execution
• Strong understanding of form, proportion, usability, and emotional product experience
• Strong eye for color, print/pattern and material finish, with the ability to create cohesive palettes and make thoughtful color choices that enhance brand identity and visual appeal
• Ability to distinguish between meaningful innovation and unnecessary complexity
• Create initial tech pack drawings for handoff to soft goods development team and suppliers
• Maintain and develop brand identity via the established visual design language
• Hold consistent high standards of design refinement and detail resolution
• Experience with safety-focused product design for toys and accessories. Able to integrate consumer safety standards and risk mitigation throughout the design process, while partnering closely with Product Integrity (PI) teams to evaluate materials, testing protocols, and product performance to ensure safe, compliant, and durable products
• Demonstrated adaptability and flexibility by quickly shifting between projects, evolving business priorities, and cross-functional needs while maintaining high-quality design execution and collaboration across teams
• Comfortable handling detailed, repetitive production tasks at times

• Independently drive momentum and product design initiatives with minimal day to day direction or oversight in fast-moving environments
• Proactively identify risks, gaps, and development challenges before they escalates
• Bring forward solutions, recommendations, and clear decision-making rationale
• Consistently deliver high-quality work on schedule through strong prioritization, proactive communication, and disciplined time management
• Identify opportunities for innovation before they are formally defined
• Partner with VP to lead ideation efforts that push beyond incremental improvements toward meaningful product innovation. Bring a strong, consistent point of view on trends, play patterns, consumer behavior, and future product opportunities
• Actively identify whitespace opportunities, emerging consumer needs, and unmet market opportunities across categories
• Contribute original thinking that helps shape category direction and long‑term…