Summary
The Project Lead for High Jewelry Product Development manages the full lifecycle of new products for internal manufacturing, from intake and soft prototypes through tooling, hard prototypes and production launch. This role coordinates cross functional stakeholders including design, craft engineering, manufacturing and external suppliers, maintains project timelines and cost estimates, and ensures accurate documentation and component inventories. The Project Lead drives clear communication of milestones, risks and opportunities and supports process improvements and data management across projects.
Responsibilities
- Manage project timelines and resource requirements for new product development and major launches
- Coordinate intake of critical requirements, tooling reviews, prototype development and production launch
- Communicate project milestones, updates, risks and issues to cross functional stakeholders and leadership
- Develop and maintain Bills of Material, manufacturing routes, work instructions and cost models
- Partner with Manufacturing and Craft Engineering on tooling, fixtures and equipment integration
- Oversee sample tracking, inventory control of precious materials, and project work order generation and closure
- Run development process meetings and provide clear meeting summaries and project updates
- Maintain project documentation, component libraries and data entry adhering to SOPs and file management protocols
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Manufacturing, Mechanical, Industrial, Electrical Engineering or related field, or equivalent experience
- 7+ years of experience in manufacturing engineering, process engineering, manufacturing technology or related roles
- Experience in high quality, highly customized precision manufacturing and new product development
- Strong project and program management, process improvement and problem solving skills
- Experience with automation, equipment integration and advanced manufacturing technologies
- Proven ability to create accurate cost estimates, BOMs and manufacturing routes and to manage project documentation
- Exceptional communication and collaboration skills working with cross functional teams and external suppliers
- Preferred knowledge: high jewelry industry experience, Graduate Gemologist certification, JD Edwards, and CAD (Rhino)
