Design Development — Product, Line & Detail (Contract)

About SULLIVAN
SULLIVAN is a new take on luxury "basics" for women who are anything but. We make refined feminine pieces for the elevated modern day – special enough to add intrigue, practical enough to withstand frequent wear. We champion high standards and promote moving through the world with self-aware optimism. We are a small, founder-led team building toward a distinct product point of view that can scale.

About the role
We're looking for someone with a sharp aesthetic eye who can take an approved silhouette and help bring it to life — reading our design language and drawing it out across the line. You'll work closely with our Creative Director, bringing directional proposals for design details, trims & finishes. Over time, you become an expert reader of our design POV — enhancing its expression across different styles so the line reads as one coherent voice.

The seat sits between Design and Product Development. You bring a deep love of garments as functional art objects, instinct for how design language carries across pieces, and the discipline to see details through from sketch to sample to factory floor.

Responsibilities
Collection Cohesion & Design Language

• Develop deep fluency in our design POV (set by the Creative Director) — and enhance its expression across the line
• Bring 1–3 directional proposals per piece that draw out and reinforce our design language Flag pieces or details that dilute our design language; recommend refinements that strengthen cohesion across the line
• Track patterns across collections (silhouette, materiality, detail register) so the CD's vision builds a recognizable visual vocabulary season over season - at times putting on a merchandiser's hat to critically evaluate product groupings as a business team

Detail Resolution & Development

• Translate the Creative Director's silhouettes and concepts into fully resolved, factory-ready garments
• Make aesthetic detail decisions within the brand POV: pocket placement, topstitch color and gauge, button selection, hardware finish, lining, hem treatment, label placement, edge finishing, trim addition, etc.
• Understanding the silhouette intent when the fabric selection process is underway — drape, weight, hand, interaction with pattern

Sample Review & Iteration

• Lead sample reviews with the Creative Director; document and communicate corrections clearly
• Manage iteration cycles with sample rooms and factories, ensuring each round resolves more than it introduces
• Own aesthetic detail-and-finish review before each piece is routed to the Creative Director for sign-off for production
• Cross-Functional Partnership Partner with Technical Design on specs and tech packs — translation of aesthetic decisions into factory-ready technical documentation
• Work with CD during material selection process with Fabric Specialist - on an as-needed basis
• Hand sign-off-ready garments to our Director of Production & Operations for costing and factory hand-off Coordinate with Brand and E-commerce on product detail content (PDP imagery, copy inputs)

Documentation

• Own the integrity of detail decisions across the line — every choice documented with rationale
• Partner with Technical Design on detailed specs so the line stays coherent season over season

Profile

• 4–7 years of design or design-development experience at a design-led contemporary or luxury brand
• Strong aesthetic instinct paired with instinct for line cohesion — sees pattern across a collection, comfortable identifying what reinforces a design POV and what dilutes it
• Energized by amplifying a mission and interpreting a customer & her needs.
• Feels strongly that little subtle details can make all the difference.
• Problem-solving mentality.
• Your taste might be described as classic with an edge, subtly iconoclastic, or playing with feminine and futuristic codes.
• Fluent in detail vocabulary & encyclopedic knowledge of options
• Hands-on experience with sample rooms and factories — sample reviews, detail-level corrections
• Comfortable bringing multiple directional options to a review & comfortable getting feedback from a CD with a strong opinion
• Highly organized; comfortable owning the long, unglamorous middle of the development cycle
• Thoughtful, collaborative communicator who works naturally with creative and operational partners

Details
Reports to Creative Director Cross-functional partnership with Technical Design, Fabric, and Production
Contract / freelance role.
Project basis to start, with room to grow into retainer structure and scope alongside the brand.
Rate: $75–150/hour, commensurate with experience.

To Apply Please send your resume, cover letter, and a portfolio that demonstrates your aesthetic eye applied to garment details— refinements, detail studies, line-cohesion thinking, or before/after development sequences welcome — to [email protected].