Product Designer

About Nickel & Suede

Nickel & Suede is a fast-growing fashion accessories brand known for pioneering lightweight leather earrings and redefining comfort-meets-style. Based in Kansas City, we design and manufacture our products in-house and have recently expanded into licensed collegiate and sports jewelry, custom gifting, and small-batch leather handbags. We’re on a mission to make women feel strong, confident, and uniquely themselves—and we’re just getting started.

The Opportunity

We’re looking for a Product Designer who is equal parts inventor, problem solver, and creative executor. In this role, you’ll be hands-on in bringing new ideas to life—from initial sketches and prototypes to materials testing, tooling exploration, and production prep. You’ll work at the intersection of design and manufacturing, helping to shape each season’s collection while supporting product development across earrings, jewelry, leather goods, and beyond.

If you love learning new tools, get excited about figuring out how to actually make something, and can juggle lots of creative ideas at once—this is the role for you.

What You’ll Do

• Design jewelry and accessories across categories including earrings, charm jewelry, bracelets, and handbags—balancing trend-forward creativity with brand DNA and customer needs
• Build and refine physical prototypes in-house using new materials, machinery, and tooling techniques
• Collaborate with our manufacturing team to test feasibility, optimize production steps, and develop innovative ways to bring products to life
• Research trends, materials, and customer feedback to identify collection gaps and product opportunities
• Stay aligned to the go-to-market calendar by managing timelines, samples, revisions, and design handoffs to cross-functional teams
• Help prepare spec sheets, material requirements, and samples for both internal manufacturing and overseas production partners
• Support vendor communication and sampling processes for products made with international factory partners
• Balance creative exploration with clear execution, managing multiple projects at once in a fast-moving, evolving environment
• Keep product files, samples, and processes organized and well-documented to support scale and collaboration

You’ll Thrive in This Role If You Are…

• A creative thinker and maker who loves solving design challenges with both beauty and function in mind
• A doer who takes ownership and moves ideas across the finish line
• Comfortable with hand-making prototypes, using cutting tools and materials, and learning new production methods as needed
• Confident working with CAD tools (Illustrator, Rhino, etc.) and open to learning new design software
• Organized, resourceful, and deadline-driven, with experience juggling multiple design projects
• Interested in accessory or fashion product design with at least 2–4 years of experience (jewelry or handbag design a plus)
• Familiar with communicating with overseas manufacturers and navigating sample iterations
• Able to look at product data and customer behavior to inform design decisions
• Bonus: Experience working in a manufacturing environment or with artisan/small-batch production processes

Why You’ll Love Working Here

• A supportive, women-led team that values empowerment, creativity, and tenacity
• The chance to bring your designs to life and see them in the hands of real customers
• Involvement in all parts of the process—from idea to prototype to production
• Exciting growth opportunities with a company expanding into collegiate, sports, and custom markets
• Competitive pay, employee discount, and early access to new products
• A culture that values individuality, hustle, optimism, and style

Compensation & Perks

• Starts at $58,000 annual salary, based on experience.
• Health insurance and benefits
• 50% product discount