The posting
Build the trading cards collectors will chase next.
Pulse Trading Cards is a rapidly growing trading-card manufacturer developing sports and licensed collectible products for hobby shops, major retailers, and collectors directly. Our portfolio includes brands such as Big League Chew, Foundry, Drift, and Aura, with an expanding pipeline of sports, entertainment, and consumer-brand collaborations. We’re looking for a Senior Product Development & Brand Manager to own assigned brands and product lines, create distinctive releases, and build the detailed configurations that turn great concepts into finished products. This is a hands-on role combining creative product development, deep hobby knowledge, and strong analytical skills. You should be equally comfortable developing an original insert concept, evaluating an autograph checklist, and building an Excel model that reconciles every card, pack, box, and case. You’ll work directly with our CEO and collaborate with Creative, Athlete Partnerships, Project Management, Operations, Sales, and Marketing.
What you’ll own
Brand strategy and release planning
- Own the product direction and release roadmap for assigned brands, sports, or licensed properties.
- Define each brand’s audience, positioning, signature features, and place within the Pulse portfolio.
- Develop original product concepts, inserts, parallels, autograph programs, and chase cards.
- Plan how products evolve across releases while preserving the features collectors recognize and value.
- Recommend release timing, formats, production quantities, and channel-specific configurations using collector demand, sales input, and business priorities.
Set builds and product configurations
- Personally build and maintain detailed checklists, configuration models, and product-development workbooks.
- Define base sets, inserts, parallels, autograph content, numbering, and pack, box, and case structures.
- Calculate card quantities, autograph requirements, insertion rates, and allocation needs across all product formats.
- Reconcile checklist quantities, serial-numbered content, production totals, and stated product guarantees.
- Work with Athlete Partnerships and Autograph Operations to build products around confirmed rights, available inventory, and realistic signing timelines.
- Identify shortages, conflicting allocations, and configuration issues early, and recommend practical solutions.
- Maintain clear, accurate documentation and version control as products move toward production.
Product economics and commercial performance
- Develop product budgets with Operations and Finance, accounting for autographs, manufacturing, packaging, royalties, freight, and other relevant costs.
- Evaluate how changes to print runs, content, materials, and configurations affect margin and the collector experience.
- Partner with Sales to align product formats and quantities with demand across hobby, retail, and direct-to-consumer channels.
- Review release performance, sell-through, collector feedback, and product issues to improve future launches.
Creative development and execution
- Write complete product briefs covering the concept, checklist structure, insert themes, photography needs, copy, and design requirements.
- Partner with the Creative Director and design team to translate product ideas into compelling cards and packaging.
- Review designs for alignment with the product concept, content accuracy, and configuration requirements.
- Coordinate with Project Management and licensing stakeholders to keep assets, approvals, and decisions moving.
- Partner with Operations to resolve production constraints while protecting the product’s defining features.
- Provide accurate product details, selling points, checklist information, and configuration summaries for launch materials.
Faster, more reliable product development
- Develop reusable templates and standards that reduce repetitive work and improve build accuracy.
- Help connect product data, autograph inventory, creative assets, and production requirements.
- Use advanced Excel capabilities, automation, and appropriate AI tools to improve efficiency while maintaining rigorous validation.
- Manage multiple releases simultaneously, surface risks early, and follow decisions through to completion.
What you bring
- Typically 5+ years of relevant product-development or brand-management experience, including direct responsibility for trading-card or closely related collectible releases.
- Demonstrated ability to take physical products from concept through detailed development and launch.
- Deep understanding of trading cards, collector behavior, checklists, parallels, autographs, scarcity, and hobby versus retail configurations.
- Advanced Excel skills, including lookups, SUMIFS, pivot tables, data validation, and structured models with reliable error checks.
- Strong mathematical reasoning and comfort working with quantities, probabilities, allocation models, budgets, and gross margins.
- The ability to create distinctive product concepts and translate them into precise, executable specifications.
- Excellent attention to detail, organization, and written communication.
- A record of managing competing deadlines, making informed decisions, and owning outcomes.
- The ability to work independently in a remote environment and collaborate consistently with a team operating primarily on Eastern Time.
Experience that stands out
- Direct product-development experience at a trading-card manufacturer.
- Ownership of autograph-driven sports products or licensed entertainment collectibles.
- Experience developing products for both hobby distribution and major retail channels.
- Familiarity with licensor approvals, specialty printing, foil treatments, die cuts, premium packaging, and collation.
- Experience improving product-development systems using Power Query, databases, workflow automation, or similar tools.
- Strong knowledge of baseball, basketball, football, or entertainment properties, with the ability to learn new categories.
What success looks like
- Distinctive products with clear reasons for collectors to buy and collect them.
- Accurate, complete set builds delivered on schedule.
- Configurations that meet approved content requirements and margin targets.
- Clear handoffs that help Creative and Operations execute efficiently.
- Fewer avoidable revisions, inventory conflicts, and late-stage surprises.
- Increasing ownership of releases from initial concept through launch.
Why Pulse You’ll have meaningful influence over the products we create and the brands we build. Working directly with company leadership, you’ll help shape an expanding portfolio and improve how a growing trading-card manufacturer brings new releases to market.
Requirements
Requirements
• Typically 5+ years of relevant product-development or brand-management experience, including direct responsibility for trading-card or closely related collectible releases.
• Demonstrated ability to take physical products from concept through detailed development and launch.
• Deep understanding of trading cards, collector behavior, checklists, parallels, autographs, scarcity, and hobby versus retail configurations.
• Advanced Excel skills, including lookups, SUMIFS, pivot tables, data validation, and structured models with reliable error checks.
• Strong mathematical reasoning and comfort working with quantities, probabilities, allocation models, budgets, and gross margins.
• The ability to create distinctive product concepts and translate them into precise, executable specifications.
• Excellent attention to detail, organization, and written communication.
• A record of managing competing deadlines, making informed decisions, and owning outcomes.
• The ability to work independently in a remote environment and collaborate consistently with a team operating primarily on Eastern Time.
Experience that stands out
• Direct product-development experience at a trading-card manufacturer. • Ownership of autograph-driven sports products or licensed entertainment collectibles. • Experience developing products for both hobby distribution and major retail channels. • Familiarity with licensor approvals, specialty printing, foil treatments, die cuts, premium packaging, and collation. • Experience improving product-development systems using Power Query, databases, workflow automation, or similar tools. • Strong knowledge of baseball, basketball, football, or entertainment properties, with the ability to learn new categories.
Benefits
Benefits
• Remote work with a collaborative team operating primarily on Eastern Time. • Direct collaboration with the CEO and company leadership. • Meaningful creative influence over the products we create and the brands we build. • Hands-on ownership of assigned brands and product lines, from initial concept through launch. • The opportunity to shape an expanding portfolio of sports, entertainment, and licensed collectibles. • The ability to improve the tools, systems, and processes behind a growing trading-card manufacturer.
