Head of Product Development & Engineering (m/w/d)

Role Summary

We make a few models in large quantities - every millimeter on the last, in the footbed and in the construction is multiplied a hundred thousand times. For this reason, the shoe must fit perfectly. You build products according to the Pammys Bible. So far we have been developing closely with partners. We are now setting up technical product development in-house: our own last and fit standards, our own comfort technologies, our own development team.

Responsibilities

• You are responsible for the entire development process: Brief → Tech Pack → Proto-Rounds → Sales Samples → Sealed Sample → Series start-up (tooling trials, PPS, TOP). Every technical gate on this path is up to you - including the approval with which a model goes into series production.
• You build and lead your team: Footwear Development, Last & Fit, Tooling, Commercialization and Materials — in the order that growth requires.
• You establish lasts and fit as a core competency: your own last library, fit standards, grading - when it comes to comfort shoes, the last is the product.
• You develop our own comfort technologies for the footbed and sole — together with strong material and compound partners.
• You anchor wear tests as well as testing and compliance standards (SATRA/ISO, REACH, product safety for the EU market) in the development process.
• You work in a permanent team of three with product management and design: you make designs buildable without making them small.
• You coordinate closely with our sourcing – on feasibility, tools and series start-up.

Requirements

• Many years of experience in footwear product development (typically 10+ years), including several years on the factory floor in Asia - in the sample room, not just in the video call.
• Ideal: Experience with comfort products or EVA (injection molding, molded parts) — alternatively athletic footwear with real tooling depth.
• Leadership experience: You have led development teams and maintained a T&A calendar across multiple models in parallel.
• Solid craftsmanship in FOB calculation, tooling economics and materials science.
• Fluent English and willingness to travel.

Your advantages with Pammys

• You build technical product development from the ground up: Instead of just managing existing structures, you define our standards for lasts, fit, comfort, tooling and commercialization yourself.
• Real influence on the product: Your decisions directly determine how our shoes fit, function and feel in everyday life.
• Large quantities, big impact: We deliberately develop a few high-volume models. Technical improvements you develop directly impact hundreds of thousands of products.
• You develop your own technologies: Together with strong partners, you develop your own comfort solutions for footbeds, materials and sole constructions, instead of just purchasing existing solutions.
• You put together your own team: You decide which competencies we build internally and when and use them to develop a high-performance footwear development organization.
• Direct collaboration with product, design and sourcing: short paths, quick decisions and no long corporate loops between development, design and production.
• Proximity to the founders: You work closely with the decision-makers and can directly influence technical product decisions at the highest level.
• International production environment: You work closely with our production, material and tooling partners in Asia and are where the products are actually created.
• High quality standards instead of quick compromises: With Pammys, fit is not a detail. You will have the space to set up standards that will improve our products technically and qualitatively in the long term.
• Growth with responsibility: With new models, categories and higher volumes, your area of responsibility also grows and with it the opportunity to shape a central product function at Pammys in the long term.