Overview
APPAREL PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Jobs in San Francisco, CA at Ornot
Title: APPAREL PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
Company: Ornot
Location: San Francisco, CA
APPAREL PRODUCTION & DEVELOPMENT MANAGER
Dear future team member,
- Are you ready to work with a small team where your work has a direct impact on what people wear on their bikes?
- Do you wish your job wasn't so corporate?
- Are you interested in making real things with real craftspeople right here in the USA?
- Does a spec sheet with a mistake in it keep you up at night?
- Have you ever caught an error before it became a purchase order and felt genuinely great about it?
If you can own a process from start to finish and have the organizational rigor to back it up, this might be a perfect opportunity for you.
WHO IS ORNOT?
We are a small but mighty cycling apparel company based in San Francisco with much of our clothing produced right here in California. Check out what we've been up to lately on our Instagram.
Our mission is to create sustainable apparel and accessories built to last. The company was founded in 2013 by a graphic designer as "minimally branded cycling apparel." You could be a rolling billboard, Ornot.
Since then we've continued evolving our product, while deepening our focus on sustainability and responsible business practices. Check out our Special Projectsprogram, which lets us make small runs of experimental products using surplus and end-of-roll fabrics. It's one of the more creatively open parts of how we work.
OPPORTUNITY
We're growing and we need more production capacity. Join us as a full-time Production Manager and own our production process end to end. You'll work closely with our two person development and production team, from the moment a concept becomes a spec to the moment finished goods land in our warehouse.
At a company this size, your fingerprints are on everything. You won't just be maintaining a process — you'll be shaping it and the products too. There's real opportunity here to affect what we make, how we make it, and how the business grows.
WHAT YOU’LL BRING
- 4–7 years of apparel production and development experience — you've done the job, not just supported it
- Strong production management and organizational skills. Your files are named correctly. Your trackers are current. When you hand something off, it's complete.
- Deep knowledge of fabrics and trims. You can talk to a mill in Italy or a trim supplier in Japan and hold your own in each conversation
- Fluency with YKK codes, ordering processes, and the ability to plan ahead and push when timelines are tight
- Understanding of how material choices affect fit, construction, cost, and margin
- Strong technical foundation in performance apparel: construction, materials, and fit across a range of categories
- Clear communication skills: you can run a fit session and communicate corrections clearly to a factory 10 time zones away
- You thrive in a small, lean environment. You know how to build the infrastructure when it's missing
WHAT YOU’LL DOPRODUCTION
- Own and manage production across all product categories, from performance cycling to casual apparel
- Drive sampling from initial development through fit approval, following our SOPs and improving them where you see the opportunity
- Lead fit sessions: schedule them, run them, document outcomes, and translate feedback into clear spec revisions with minimal supervision
- Own grading and size specs across a multi-category line
- Contribute to tech pack creation and maintenance
- Collaborate with our designer and existing production person on new style development and refinement of existing pieces
- Coordinate with our domestic cut-and-sew partners and full-package European manufacturer
ORGANIZATION & SYSTEMS
- Own the production calendar. Manage sample development timelines across multiple factories simultaneously, flag risks proactively, don't let things surprise us
- Manage fabric and trim inventory- from sourcing to ordering to tracking stock levels
- Build and maintain organized libraries for fabrics and trims: approvals, carry-overs, and discontinuations clearly tracked
- Build and maintain a costing database and track margin through development
- Create and maintain documentation that keeps our small team aligned. Seasonal trackers, sample status logs, whatever we're missing
- Identify gaps in how we work and propose fixes — if something keeps going wrong, figure out why and build the process to prevent it
BONUS POINTS
- Enthusiasm for bikes and bike culture
- Experience with deadstock or end-of-roll fabric sourcing
- Experience with both technical cycling apparel (jersey construction, chamois integration) and casual apparel
- Experience with domestic cut-and-sew and full-package European manufacturers
- Familiarity with Shopify or inventory management systems
- Experience with pattern making
HOW WE WORK
- On-site at our Inner Richmond studio and showroom
- Small, collaborative team where your work is visible
- Regular work rides- we test what we make
- We use deadstock and recycled fabrics to build gear that lasts
- Sustainable materials and responsible sourcing aren't a marketing layer for us. They're built into how we develop product
- We work hard, but we also have fun
HOW TO APPLY
- To apply, fill out the form and be sure to include the phrase "banana bread" somewhere in your submission. You must be able to work onsite in our SF office.
