Director of External Manufacturing

Director Of External Manufacturing

Gorilla Commerce is seeking a Director of External Manufacturing to serve as the company's senior U.S.-based leader responsible for production readiness, cost validation, and supplier execution across the product lifecycle. This role sits at the critical intersection of Product Development and Sourcing ensuring that product intent translates into manufacturable, cost-realistic, and scalable outcomes, and that suppliers ultimately deliver against those expectations. The Director is the conduit between design intent and cost realization: validating what can be built at target cost and margin, shaping that cost through upstream manufacturing decisions, and ensuring the sourcing function executes with the precision and accountability the business requires. As Gorilla scales its product portfolio and retail footprint, the need for tighter upstream production discipline has become a clear organizational priority. Too much cost problem-solving and production iteration currently sits downstream with suppliers and in the sourcing process rather than being resolved at the point of design and specification. This role is designed to shift that dynamic: building the internal capability, rigor, and decision quality needed to improve first-pass execution, reduce avoidable iteration cycles, and deliver products to market at the right cost, quality, and speed. This is a senior operating role for a leader who brings both manufacturing depth and commercial judgment someone equally credible on a factory floor, in a product brief, and in an executive conversation.

Production Ownership & Cost Validation

• Own U.S.-side production readiness across new product development, supplier transitions, and retail programs from brief to build-ready.
• Validate product specifications for manufacturability, completeness, and cost feasibility before they enter the sourcing and manufacturing process.
• Translate product concepts and design intent into executable manufacturing plans, defining materials, construction, tolerances, process requirements, and packaging with the precision required for first-pass supplier execution.
• Develop and own should-cost frameworks including BOM breakdowns, labor and process assumptions, and packaging cost structures to ensure cost realism upstream and reduce gaps at the negotiation stage.
• Pressure-test manufacturability early, identifying technical risks, cost implications, and required decisions before supplier engagement begins.

Cost Engineering & Margin Delivery

• Partner with Product Development to validate design-to-cost assumptions, ensuring that design choices are grounded in production and cost reality.
• Drive tradeoffs when design intent conflicts with cost targets, manufacturability, or scalability bringing structured recommendations rather than open questions.
• Shape cost upstream through material selection, design simplification, process optimization, and packaging engineering before positions harden in the sourcing process.
• Provide Sourcing with clear, structured cost targets and detailed cost breakdowns to enable sharper negotiation and more effective supplier dialogue.

External Manufacturing Capability & Supplier Strategy

• Build and manage a North America external manufacturing ecosystem spanning finishing, packaging, display, and value-add operations.
• Evaluate suppliers based on technical capability, process maturity, cost structure, and scalability with a view toward long-term partnership, not transactional fit.
• Lead supplier onboarding with a focus on production readiness, quality execution, and mutual accountability.
• Support supplier selection decisions where manufacturing capability and cost feasibility are the primary determinants of fit.

Sourcing Leadership & Execution

• Provide strategic direction and operational oversight to the China Sourcing team, ensuring alignment between sourcing activity and production and cost objectives.
• Guide RFQ strategy and supplier selection for complex or high-impact programs where production expertise is required to assess fit.
• Maintain tight feedback loops between Product Development, Production, and Sourcing ensuring gaps between target cost and supplier reality are surfaced early and resolved systematically.
• Hold the sourcing function accountable for delivery against agreed cost, quality, and timeline commitments.

Commercialization & Launch Readiness

• Own the production readiness gate prior to mass production, encompassing cost validation, margin delivery confidence, and execution risk assessment.
• Ensure full alignment across product specifications, packaging, suppliers, and timelines before production begins reducing avoidable delays and cost overruns at launch.
• Drive go/no-go discipline by surfacing risks early, forcing clear decisions, and ensuring that nothing enters production without the definition required to execute well.
• Partner with Product Development, Creative, Compliance, and Logistics as the cross-functional execution integrator for launches.

Gatekeeping Work to Asia

• Act as the quality and completeness filter for what enters the China sourcing and production system ensuring inputs are clearly defined, cost-aligned, and production-ready.
• Reduce iteration cycles and rework by improving the upstream decision quality of briefs, specifications, and manufacturing plans before supplier engagement.
• Maintain deep familiarity with Asia-based manufacturing capabilities, supplier networks, and factory dynamics, with regular travel to China and the broader region to sustain relationships and ground truth.

Cross-Functional Leadership & Executive Partnership

• Operate as a senior cross-functional leader across Product Development, Sourcing, Compliance, Creative, Logistics, and Finance with the communication skills and credibility to align teams and drive decisions.
• Frame tradeoffs clearly for leadership cost implications, execution risks, and recommendations rather than presenting open problems.
• Provide the COO and executive team with regular, structured visibility on production readiness, cost delivery confidence, and supplier capability gaps.
• Act as the U.S. operational continuity layer across time zones, functions, and supplier relationships.

Systems, Process & Capability Building

• Build scalable, repeatable processes for cost validation, production readiness reviews, supplier evaluation, and launch gate discipline.
• Improve integration of cost and manufacturing inputs across PLM and ERP systems to ensure information is complete, current, and actionable.
• Elevate internal manufacturing and cost-engineering capability over time building a function that improves with every product cycle.

What You'll Bring Required

• 10+ years in external manufacturing, sourcing, production, or cost engineering leadership with a track record of improving execution quality, cost outcomes, and speed.
• Deep understanding of cost structures: BOM construction, should-cost modeling, labor and process economics, and supplier cost drivers.
• Demonstrated ability to translate product concepts and design intent into manufacturable, cost-realistic outcomes.
• Experience working directly with Asia-based (China) manufacturers, with the cultural fluency and supplier relationship depth to be effective.
• Strong commercial and operational judgment understands how manufacturing and cost decisions affect launch timelines, margin, and retail performance.
• Proven cross-functional leadership in complex, fast-moving environments with competing priorities.
• Excellent communication skills: able to brief a supplier, align a product team, and present confidently to executive leadership.

Preferred

• Experience leading both production/manufacturing functions and sourcing or supplier management teams.
• Engineering, industrial design, or technical product development background.
• Experience in packaging, retail execution, display, or conversion operations.
• Exposure to PLM systems and structured product development processes.

Competencies

• Strong cost and manufacturing intuition thinks in BOM lines, process constraints, and margin implications
• Design-to-supplier conduit closes the gap between intent and execution
• Commercial judgment balances upstream design thinking with downstream cost and production reality
• High ownership and accountability finds the gap, owns the fix, builds the system
• Drives decisions frames tradeoffs clearly and moves things forward
• Builds scalable processes, not one-off solutions

What We Offer

At Gorilla Commerce, we believe great work deserves great rewards. Here's what you can expect when you join our team:

Competitive Benefits Package

• Health Coverage: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans, including a free medical option.
• 401(k) with Company Match: Supporting your long-term financial wellness.
• Paid Time Off: Generous PTO, holidays, and "Birthday Your Way" take a day off during your birthday month.
• Parental Leave: Paid time off for new parents.
• Wellness Support: Mental health resources, free gym in our Norwalk office, and Employee Assistance Programs.

Flexible Work Arrangement

• Hybrid schedule with three in-office days (