Senior/ Product Development & Sourcing Manager

The Senior/Product Development & Sourcing Manager leads the development of WBSTS-exclusive products for the Chinese guest, owning the end-to-end journey from market insight to shelf – concept, design, licensor approval, sourcing, compliance testing and launch – and delivering against sales and margin targets. Speed is central to the role, which captures market and guest insight in real time in order to shorten the time from development to launch and act on fast-moving opportunities in the Chinese market. The postholder works with the Global Team, vendors and licensees, and partners closely with the Merchandising & Planning Manager, who leads the global range, to ensure one coherent assortment that is exclusive, relevant and unmistakably Harry Potter.

• Lead the development of the dedicated WBSTS product range for the Chinese market, identifying opportunities from guest preferences, cultural trends and commercial potential.
• Co-develop the range with the Global Team, ensuring alignment with global brand direction and style guides, and build a product pipeline that combines core exclusives with fast-response products linked to local trends, festivals and campaigns.
• Present and manage ranges through the sign-off process with senior leadership and licensor approval teams, and work with licensees to propose assortments for sign-off.
• Capture market and guest insight in real time – from store feedback, trading data, social trends and forward-looking guest data such as ticketing and CRM – and convert it quickly into product concepts
• Shortening the development-to-launch lead time and managing the critical path from concept to shipping so that launch dates are met and risks are managed early.
• Build and manage a local supply base, sourcing, evaluating and onboarding new suppliers together with the QC & Compliance Manager.
• Lead cost negotiation and target costing to deliver landed cost and margin targets, ensuring all sourcing follows WBSTS procurement policies and integrity standards, including segregation of duties at key steps.
• Secure licensor design approval at each required stage of development and work with the QC & Compliance Manager to complete China standards testing and certification at sampling stage, before bulk production.
• Be fully accountable for sales and margin of the locally developed range, partnering with the Merchandising & Planning Manager on depth of buy, pricing and allocation, reviewing sell-through and feeding learnings into future development
• And partnering with the Marketing Team on product storytelling and launch campaigns.
• Lead, coach and develop the Product Development & Sourcing team, managing the team's objectives, performance and end-of-year review process and fostering a culture of speed, accountability and continuous improvement.
• Deliver against key performance measures covering sales and gross margin of the locally developed range, development-to-launch lead time, on-time launch rate, sell-through of new launches, landed cost versus target cost and first-pass compliance testing rate.

• 5+ years of product development, buying or sourcing experience in retail or consumer products, with at least 2 years managing a category or team.
• Proven track record of taking products from concept to launch and delivering sales and margin targets.
• Experience in licensed or IP-based product development (entertainment, character or cultural IP), including licensor approval processes.
• Strong local supplier network.
• Strong product eye – able to identify commercial winners and edit ranges with discipline.
• Excellent negotiation, target costing and supplier relationship management skills.
• Commercial numeracy – pricing, margin, landed cost and sell-through.
• Experience in critical path management.
• Ability to present and defend ranges to senior leadership with clarity and conviction.
• Fluent in English (working language) and Mandarin Chinese.
• Customer-obsessed and trend-sensitive, with a deep understanding of the Chinese guest.
• Bias for speed; decisive and proactive in managing risk.
• High integrity in supplier dealings.
• Collaborative partner to Merchandising, Marketing and the Global Team.
• Calm under pressure; able to manage multiple launches and deadlines simultaneously.

• Knowledge of China product compliance standards (e.g. GB standards, CCC).
• Deep familiarity with Chinese consumers and trends.
• Experience in fast-to-market or trend-led categories.
• Experience with PLM tools.

• Is employed through Warner Bros.'s joint venture with Jinjiang International (Holdings) Co., Ltd; the joint venture entity is Shanghai WB Jinjiang Studio Tour Co., Ltd, and successful candidates will be hired by the joint venture company and assigned to work with Warner Bros. Discovery as required for this project.