Junior Product Technologist, Retail

Job Title: Junior Product Technologist
Reports To: Manager, Product Innovation & Development
Working Hours: Office hours are 09:30 to 17:30, Monday – Thursday, 09:30 to 17:00 Friday
Place of Work: UK HQ, Mill Court, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire MK12 5EU
Other: Full Time

ABOUT RWS GLOBAL
As the world’s largest producer of groundbreaking live entertainment, RWS Global creates meaningful connections and customized experiences spanning from theatrical productions to events, multimedia and more. In 2024, the entertainment leaders expanded capabilities into live sporting events with the introduction of RWS Global Sports.

Headquartered in New York, London, Cincinnati and Sydney with dedicated RWS Studios in NYC and the UK to serve its vast talent pipeline and client base, RWS Global serves major brands and corporations, theatres, cruise lines, sports properties, live venues, parks, resorts and more. Offering end-to-end services from ideation to operations, RWS Global’s team of world-class designers, creators, producers and visionary talent provide unrivaled scale, producing over one million live moments every day and employing over 8,000 individuals worldwide.

The RWS Global roster of clients includes Apple, Azamara, The Coca-Cola Company, Commonwealth Games, Crayola, Europa-Park Resort, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, The FRIENDS™ Experience by Original X Productions, Hard Rock Resorts, Hershey Entertainment & Resorts, Holland America Line, Iberostar Hotels & Resorts, International Cricket Council, Invictus Games, Lionsgate, Marella Cruises, MSC Cruises, Roompot, Rugby World Cup, Six Flags, Space Center Houston, TUI Group, Vera Wang, Warner Bros., Disney’s The Lion King on Broadway, Chicago the Musical, Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes and more. For more information, visit rwsglobal.com.

JOB SUMMARY
RWS is looking for an experienced and talented Product Technologist to work in partnership with the Product Development and operations team. As a Product Technologist, you will join an experienced cross-discipline team where your skills, enthusiasm, and communication skills will help build an exciting product range for our clients.

We supply UK, USA, European and other global clients with customised merchandise within both children’s and adult categories. These include but are not limited to apparel, plush toys, LED products, souvenirs such as keyrings and magnets, drinking vessels, stationery, and collectibles.

Operating in the heart of the development environment, the successful candidate will play a key part in working directly with our factory partners in Asia, Europe and the USA, ensuring testing, inspections, QC reports, risk assessments and manufacturing processes are completed to the standard required. Travel to our factories is essential, as well as carrying out spot QC checks within our UK and EU warehouse locations on a regular basis. Working closely with compliance partners, you will be an integral part of achieving a seamless manufacturing process.

Role & Responsibilities:

• Work with the Product Development team through the full project lifecycle
• Work with our factory partners in building sound QC processes and ensure these are adhered to and checked against
• Assess new factories to ensure they meet required standards
• Work alongside our third-party partners overseas to schedule outsourced testing
• Visit factory partners throughout the manufacturing process to ensure products are meeting the correct standard
• Create risk assessments and full specifications for each product
• Ensure critical path deadlines are adhered to
• Identify high return items and produce improvement plans for repeat orders
• Escalate findings to Product Development team where manufacturing isn’t to standard, and oversee any rework due to standard not being met
• Work alongside our third-party inspection company to schedule inspection before shipment, implement and execute corrective action for items that fail inspection
• Keep up to date with product legislation and compliance standards, reporting back to team where changes to product or process are necessary
• Conduct goods-in inspections on all deliveries especially imported lines
• Work with Design team to ensure packaging artwork meet the legal requirement
• Ensure key stakeholders are informed accordingly
• Work with finance team to process invoices from factories where required

Experience:

• Experience working on a range of product categories, with a high level understanding of children’s product essential
• Proven experience in building Quality Control processes and risk assessments essential
• Proven track record of delivering quality products which meet required standards essential
• Experience managing deadlines across multiple projects essential
• Experience working with global manufacturing partners including in the Far East essential
• Experience working on ranges for UK, EU and USA market desirable

Qualifications & Skills:

• Methodical, organised and accurate with excellent attention to detail
• Excellent oral and written English
• Good understanding of Microsoft Office; other product management system experience advantageous.

Company Benefits:

• Competitive Salary
• Company Pension
• 25 days paid holiday excluding Bank Holidays
• Paid parental leave & childcare support policy
• Computer (Mac/Windows)
• Company Phone Programme
• Flexible working (office/remote)
• Employee Assistance and Wellbeing Program
• Childcare Support Policy
• Employer Sponsored Vision Program

Please Note: While this is intended to be an accurate description of the job, this is not necessarily an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, skills, efforts, requirements or working conditions associated with the position, and may require that other or different tasks be performed as necessary and assigned.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION STATEMENT:
DIVERSE IS WHO WE ARE
Way more than a box to check, diversity is core to RWS Global culture. We value it, promote it, protect it and hire it. All differences are welcome here. We know for a fact that each employee’s individual background, life experiences, knowledge, self-expression, and capabilities are a contribution