Apparel Design Manager Jobs in Michigan (NOW HIRING)

The Breakdown

The Product Operations team is the connective function of Burton's Product Development organization. We are responsible for the intake, resourcing, transparency, and execution tracking of the work that brings physical products to life across outerwear, apparel, accessories, boots, boards, bindings, and more.

Reporting into the Director of Product Operations, the Product Operations Manager – Softgoods is responsible for managing Softgoods Product workstreams from R&D projects through Inline Product Commercialization. The role requires someone who will own work intake through execution via excellent meeting facilitation, creation and management of timelines, and the ability to surface risks before they become major issues. The ideal candidate is organized, proactive, and collaborative with an innate ability to bring order to complexity, and takes pride in helping a team do their best work.

What You Get to Do

• Own the management of multiple simultaneous Softgoods product creation initiatives, from planning through execution and closing.
• Lead regular project team meetings: build agendas, facilitate decision-making, capture action items, and follow up to ensure accountability.
• Build and maintain operational calendars, project timelines, milestone plans, and KPI tracking in coordination with the broader Product Operations team.
• Proactively identify risks to deliverables, communicate them to the right stakeholders, and develop recommendations for mitigation or resolution.
• Support project reporting and status communication by developing clear, concise summaries that result in actionable decision making.
• Maintain visibility and accountability tools (e.g., Smartsheet trackers, status dashboards, risk reports, next steps action summaries) for all workstreams you are managing.
• Act as a key coordination point between Softgoods product teams (Design, Development, Tech Design, Commercialization, Materials) and cross-functional partners in Merchandising, Sourcing, Supply Planning, Marketing, and Sustainability.
• Attend and contribute to key cross-functional forums in order to build relationships across the organization that help with anticipating issues before they escalate.
• Identify opportunities to make Softgoods product creation processes more efficient, consistent, or scalable, and work cross-functionally to implement improvements.
• Contribute to the development and maintenance of process documentation, templates, and accountability frameworks for the Softgoods team.

What You'll Bring to the Team

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 3–5 years of experience in product development, product operations, project management, or a related operational role; ideally in consumer goods, outdoor, or apparel.
• Strong organizational skills and a natural bias toward clarity
• Comfort managing multiple workstreams simultaneously without losing track of the details.
• A proactive, forward-looking mindset that can think ahead, flag issues early, and propose solutions.
• Clear communicator, written and verbal, with the ability to synthesize complex information into accessible updates for different audiences.
• Collaborative and low-ego with an understanding that in a cross-functional role, influence and relationships matter.
• Comfort learning new tools and systems quickly; experience with Smartsheet, Excel, Microsoft Teams, and/or PLM systems is a plus but not required.
• Genuine curiosity about how physical products get made, and interest in developing deep fluency in Burton's product creation process over time.
• Passion for the outdoors and/or knowledge of snowboarding or action sports culture is always welcome.

Is This Role Right for You?

It might be, if you find yourself nodding along to any of these:

• You get energy from facilitating a group toward a clear decision.
• You are the person who writes down what was agreed before anyone else has even left the room.
• You see a messy process and immediately start thinking about how to make it cleaner, clearer, and easier to understand.
• You want a role where you get to learn a lot, and you're energized rather than intimidated by that.
• You are interested in helping a brand make products at scale, from the design, the supply chain, the data, through go-to-market.
• You care about making the people around you more effective, and you find that deeply satisfying work.

Burton’s benefits package includes health insurance (medical, dental, and vision), life insurance (company paid), flex spending, short- and long-term disability insurance (company paid), great parental benefits, 401k plan with company match, and paid time-off. Other perks include a discounted season pass, free lessons, product discounts, free demo equipment, ride days, casual work environment, and many more… 

The hiring range for this role is $65,000-$80,000 depending on relevant experience and/or education, specific skills, function, and available budget. Please note that the range details above reflect the base pay only and does not include any potential bonus and other benefits that we offer. This is an on-site role, based in Burlington, VT and will be required to be on site at Burlington HQ at least 4 days per week. We will offer relocation assistance to move to Vermont to any candidate who is hired.