Rabbit Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Location: Santa Barbara, CA (on-site, with regular evening availability for Asia-hours vendor calls)

Reports to: Director of Product Development

Type: Full-time, Exempt

About the Company

Female-founded, California-based performance running brand. rabbit has earned a passionate following thanks to our commitment to creating beautiful high-quality products that reflect the values of our consumers. We celebrate our community and take care to lift them up and serve them every step of the way. Just as the pacesetter does in a race, the rabbit leads and encourages our runners to dig a little deeper and reach a little farther.

About the Role

The Product Developer — Fit & Costing owns assigned styles from design handoff through production readiness, with deep focus on how they fit and what they cost. This role leads fit sessions and holds fit approval authority for those styles, evaluating fit against rabbit's fit blocks and design intent, directing revisions, and signing off fit before production. On the costing side, it owns margin outcomes for assigned styles: building and validating cost breakdowns line by line and conducting factory cost negotiations within targets set with the Director of Product Development.

This is the first level at rabbit authorized to communicate decisions — fit direction, construction changes, cost positions, and approvals — directly to factories, and factory partners will treat you as rabbit's decision-maker for your styles. Success is measured in outcomes: styles that fit right, hit margin, and ship on time.

What You'll Do

Fit Leadership & Approval

•     Lead fit sessions for assigned styles: prepare fit direction, evaluate samples on the fit model against rabbit's fit blocks and design intent, and direct revisions round by round

•     Own fit sign-off for assigned styles before production, including reviewing and approving graded measurement specs across the size range

•     Communicate fit direction and revisions directly to factories, and hold them to execution; escalate only fits that would require changes to rabbit's established fit standards

•     Own the fit timeline for assigned styles: hold factories to fit sample delivery dates, track every style against its fit approval deadline, and drive each round to keep styles on schedule

Costing & Margin

•     Build, validate, and challenge factory cost breakdowns line by line: fabric consumption, trims, CM/labor, overhead, testing, freight, and tariff/duty impact on landed cost

•     Conduct factory cost negotiations for assigned styles within targets set with the Director, using teardown data to challenge submissions and push back on unjustified increases

•     Obtain competitive quotes across factories when needed to validate costs or create leverage; escalate only when a style cannot reach target without a strategic trade-off

•     Own margin outcomes for assigned styles: track against target FOB through every development round, drive cost-reduction changes with Design and factories, and be accountable when styles miss

Style, Vendor & Quality Management

•     Own assigned styles end to end: feasibility at handoff, tech packs, sampling rounds, construction decisions within design intent, and final approvals through production readiness

•     Own PPS (pre-production sample) approval for assigned styles: evaluate against approved fit, spec, and construction, confirm materials and trims match approved standards, and sign off to release bulk production — escalating any sample that can't be approved without a change to cost, timeline, or standards

•     Own SMS garment sample orders: track SMS requests from sales, confirm sizes, colorways, and quantities against the seasonal sample plan, place orders with factories once the Product Developer - Materials confirms SMS fabric is committed, and hold factories to delivery so sales samples arrive in full and on time

•     Manage the working relationship with assigned factories, including all decision communication for owned styles; lead vendor calls during Asia business hours (evenings PT) as a core, ongoing part of the role

•     Handle development performance and issue resolution with vendors; recommend vendor allocation for new styles

•     Partner with the Product Developer - Materials to align material choices with fit intent, cost targets, and timelines, and factor material decisions into cost breakdowns and negotiations

•     Own testing outcomes for assigned styles: set the test plan, disposition results within rabbit's standards (accept, retest, corrective action, or reject), and resolve quality issues with factories

Data & Team

•     Accountable for the accuracy and completeness of all product data for owned styles — tech packs, BOMs, specs, and costing — in rabbit's current systems of record

•     Support the implementation of rabbit's PLM system by contributing development requirements and adopting it as the single source of truth as it comes online

•     Direct the work of Coordinators on owned styles, and represent PD in cross-functional decisions with Design, production, and logistics for those styles

Qualifications

•     4+ years of apparel product development experience, ideally in performance/activewear, with styles you've owned end to end

•     Proven fit judgment — you've led fit sessions, made fit calls, and can articulate why a garment fits the way it does (pattern, grade, fabric behavior)

•     Strong command of garment costing: fabric consumption/yield, CM rates, overhead, freight, and tariff/duty impact on landed cost

•     Experience negotiating costs directly with overseas factories — data-backed, professional, and persistent

•     Deep garment construction knowledge across knits and wovens, especially synthetic performance fibers

•     Decisive within scope — you make the call on your styles and know when a decision belongs above you

•     Willing and able to lead vendor calls during Asia business hours (typically evenings PT) as a regular part of the role

•     Exceptionally detail-oriented — you keep product data accurate, complete, and current across every style you own, and pick up new systems and tools quickly

•     A genuine interest in running and performance apparel

Compensation & Benefits

Salary range: $85,000 – $95,000

Competitive salary, commensurate with experience; benefits package including medical, dental, vision, retirement, and PTO.

Equal Opportunity Employer

We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.