We are looking for a Head of Product Tech & Compliance to join Team OB in our Support Office.

As a Head of Product Tech & Compliance at OB you will work alongside the other Head of Departments to contribute to the delivery of the overall company strategy with your key day to day working relationship being with the Heads of Home & Gift and Fashion Buying.

Reporting into the Product Director, you will define and deliver your own department strategy for the tech teams across both Fashion and Home & Gift to ensure the company achieves success. You will be responsible for over seeing and safeguarding all product safety.

You will have an in-depth knowledge of product compliance across soft and hardline product areas and have a solid working knowledge of UK and overseas production processes and be prepared to be hands on where necessary.

Our Support Office is based in Tolworth, near Chessington, only a 30-minute journey from London Waterloo. We offer hybrid working with a split of 3 days in the office and 2 days home working per week and are open to having conversations about working flexibly.

A bit about us …

At Oliver Bonas (OB), our values of Work Hard, Play Hard & Be Kind are integral to everything we do. Collaboration, imagination, curiosity, and teamwork are key to our success, and everyone has their part to play in making OB a special place to work.

Having fun is key, and a playful and positive approach creates an optimistic environment. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we are serious about what we do.

Our team knows their stuff. They’re confident and creative and unafraid to challenge convention to find solutions, taking accountability for their actions, but always with kindness and humility.

More about the role …

An OB Head of Product Tech & Compliance will:

Work with the Head of Ethical Sourcing and Sustainability and Heads of Buying, Merchandising and Design to develop, implement and deliver the product compliance strategy to safeguard the business
Provide commercial direction to the product technology teams
Work with technologist teams to identify and document best practices with the latest compliance requirements
Keep up to date with legislation relating to product and ESG (UK/Europe, USA)
Take a risk based approach to product and substrate – intended and foreseeable use and advise the business and buying decisions
Support the development of new systems and processes on product traceability and digital product passports
Supporting decision making and implementation of product labelling and messaging
Overseeing material certification management
Lead, manage and develop the product technologist teams
Coach and develop through feedback, progress chats, and appraisals to ensure all team members have clear and stretching development goals and are delivering their best work, ensuring a focus on succession planning
Maintain strong relationships with existing suppliers – regularly visit existing suppliers and support them to produce our products
Support the ethical team by checking that suppliers can produce chosen products
Build and maintain strong working relationships with buying design and merch HODs. Encourage collaboration throughout the product teams.
Build external networks to stay up to date with new legislation and best practice in the industry
Work with the product HODs to deliver the divisional product and profit strategy
Lead tech review meetings

Bonas Benefits:

Generous employee discount up to 50% off all OB products
Free access to our 24 hour employee assistance programme with Care First – offering financial, emotional and vocational support
Flexible holiday – 33 days (including bank holidays) – increasing to 35 days with length of service
Annual discretionary profit related bonus scheme
Free membership for our Westfield Health Cash Plan or Private Medical
Auto-enrolment into our pension plan
Free access to our onsite gym
Cycle to work scheme
Refer a Friend incentive
Quarterly free lunch
Enhanced maternity, paternity, adoption and shared parental leave
Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity Voice network and EDI team
Mental Health First Aider support
Education and support throughout Looop eLearning platform

What we look for:

In-depth experience working in product tech/QA role - covering both soft and hardlines
Experience working with and travelling to overseas production sites
Good working knowledge of production processes
Experience of working on environmentally preferred materials
Team management
Knowledge of product packaging
Comprehensive communication skills and collaborative working internally and externally
Commercial and pragmatic, working in a dynamic and fast based environment
Proactive, horizon scanning and taking the lead
Risk assessment – product and business
Problem solving product quality challenges during overseas shipping

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion at OB

At Oliver Bonas, our promise is to do our bit to make living a joyful experience and give cause for optimism. This promise is central to our work in equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). To bring joy to others, we must first ensure everyone at OB feels valued, included and most importantly, can be themselves at work.

It is important to us that our brand reflects wider society and the communities in which we operate. As a result, we welcome all eligible applicants for this role however we are particularly interested in speaking to eligible candidates from the Black, Asian & Mixed Heritage communities.

Oliver Bonas is a Disability Confident Committed employer under the Disability Confident employer scheme.

To read more about our ED&I commitments, head over to the EDI page on our website: https://www.oliverbonas.com/meet-the-team/diversity