Global Senior Manager, Eyewear Design and Introduction

Location: Between UTC-05:00 (U.S. Eastern Time Zone) and UTC+08:00 (China)

VisionSpring, an international social enterprise, seeks a talented global senior manager of eyewear design and introduction to accelerate the uptake of eyeglasses in low-income communities. Why eyeglasses? Eyeglasses are a low-cost, high-impact, scalable product that enable people to maintain their livelihoods, achieve in school, stay safe on roads, and participate fully in society, yet more than one billion people do not have the eyeglasses they need to see well and do well. The global senior manager uses eyewear product development experience, creativity, design skills, and knowledge of manufacturing to help close the global clear vision gap for people living on less than $4 per day.

The global senior manager of eyewear design and introduction serves as the creative leader for eyewear design, and establishes and leads VisionSpring’s product development and introduction function. Using insights from VisionSpring’s customers, and working closely with the procurement team and manufacturing partners, the person in this role designs and brings collections of eyeglasses to market. These collections are radically affordable and offer quality, style, durability, and the dignity of choice to low-income consumers in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The global senior manager collaborates with marketing and sales teams to plan new product introductions, including guidance on price points, merchandising, and sales training. Sales performance and customer feedback data continually inform the decisions to maintain high-performing collections that optimize for volume, margin, and social impact. The global senior manager is a student of VisionSpring’s customers and an innovator who adapts and improves to meet future market needs.

This position reports to the global vice president of marketing and communications, and works closely with customer-facing and supply chain team members in VisionSpring’s nine countries of operation—Bangladesh, India, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and Vietnam. Eligible candidates are located between UTC-05:00 and UTC+08:00, with VisionSpring’s countries of operation or the U.S. Eastern Time Zone preferred, and must be legally eligible to work in their country of residence.

ABOUT YOU

• Eyewear Evangelist: You love eyewear! You have a talent for design and a passion for helping customers, regardless of income level, see the world clearly.
• Practical Creativity: Your creative juices flow when working within established cost criteria to develop new models of eyewear that meet the preferences of diverse customer segments across multiple markets.
• Insight Driven: You draw on customer insights and stay informed about the latest materials, technologies, and manufacturing processes. As a result, you understand the technical feasibility, practicality, appeal, and cost-effectiveness of design choices.
• Collaborative: Working toward a shared goal with diverse colleagues energizes you. You build lasting relationships with clients; suppliers; and sales, marketing, and supply chain team members.
• Focused: You create product roadmaps. From concept to market launch, your process, follow-through, and attention to detail make you a leader who reliably brings collections to market.

ABOUT US

• VisionSpring increases lifelong earning, learning, safety, and well-being through eyeglasses for people vulnerable to poverty. We believe in the wonder of clear vision for everybody.
• We sell and deliver radically affordable optical products and services, and develop markets for eyeglasses—a 700-year-old technology that has failed to reach 1 billion people in need of vision correction, most of whom live on less than $4 a day.
• We serve low-income consumers, not as beneficiaries but as customers. Our customers expect quality, affordable products and eyecare services, and will spend limited discretionary income for the immediate and tangible benefits of vision correction.
• As a social enterprise, we are purpose first. We blend philanthropic and earned revenue, draw on non-profit and business practices, and use sales and efficiency metrics and social impact measures to bring vision correction to ever more people.
• We catalyze collaborative action in an expansive, multisector partner network and use our evidence and experience to influence systems change and close the global clear vision gap.
• We believe in scaling our impact, not our organization. We are a lean team of doers.
• Our big goal: Everyone who needs eyeglasses will have them by 2050.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Eyeglasses Strategy, Planning & Innovation

• Develop and manage VisionSpring’s eyeglasses and associated product strategy, considering market trends and customer preferences across diverse low- and middle-income markets from Bangladesh and India to East/West Africa and Central America.
• Create product roadmaps, and lead the process for launching and updating eyeglasses collections, that outline the timing, range, and positioning of each collection while maintaining detailed documentation of design specification, revisions, and approvals throughout the development process.
• Use customer feedback and market insights to refine and adapt collections for different markets, end-consumer demographics (B2C), and institutional wholesale client segments (B2B).
• Stay current with eyewear industry trends, materials, technologies, and customer preferences to innovate and differentiate the product ranges.
• Explore and incorporate sustainable materials and practices into the design process and packaging as feasible.

Collection Design and Lifecycle Management

• Optimize design and materials selection to offer maximum features and benefits at the most affordable prices with a focus on cost-conscious, first-time eyeglasses wearers.
• Develop collections across four eyeglasses ranges—Standard, Classic, Premium, and Exclusive—ensuring that collections are accessible to people living on $2 to $10 a day.
• Develop merchandising, in collaboration with the supply chain and marketing teams, including accessories (cases and cloths), display stands, and signage.
• Work with the supply chain team to identify opportunities for costs savings in design and production processes without sacrificing product integrity.
• Serve as the subject matter expert on the quality and unique selling proposition of VisionSpring’s product offering.
• Manage the lifecycle of collections, including introductions, updates, and retirements of products.

Collection Introduction and Marketing

• Develop and recommend clear and compelling product positioning aligned to VisionSpring’s customer segments.
• Determine pricing strategies that take into consideration competitors, customer purchasing power, and macroeconomic conditions (foreign exchange and inflation).
• Collaborate with the marketing team to develop go-to-market plans for product launches. Contribute to messaging that aligns with regional and cultural contexts while maintaining a consistent global brand.
• Coordinate across teams—marketing, supply chain, institutional sales, and programs—to ensure successful and timely product launches.
• Work with the marketing, supply chain, and human resources teams to develop training and guidance for internal sales teams and B2B wholesale clients, including product features, design rationale, and Q&A sections.

WHAT’S REQUIRED

• 10 years of professional work experience, with a minimum of 5 years in product design and development for eyewear.
• Knowledge of optical standards, compliance requirements, and ergonomic design principles for comfort and fit.
• Familiarity with eyewear materials, including their properties and cost implications, and manufacturing techniques to ensure feasibility for quality mass production.
• Experience creating and evaluating physical and digital prototypes, samples, and mock-ups to evaluate design concepts, material choices, and functionality.
• Proven ability to work across diverse contexts and cultures.
• Flexibility to collaborate with teams/vendors across multiple global time zones.
• Must meet the highest standards of ethics and personal integrity.
• Willingness to travel up to 10% of time to low-income settings with limited infrastructure.
• Legally authorized to work in your chosen country of residence for at least five years.
• Extra Credit—Preference will be given to candidates with the following experience: (1) Bachelor’s or master’s degree in industrial design, product design, fashion design, or a related field; (2) Skills in design software such as Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop), computer-aided design tools (AutoCAD, Autodesk Fusion 360, Zemax OpticStudio, etc.), and 3D modeling software (Rhino, SolidWorks, etc.) to create detailed eyeglass designs, renderings, and prototypes, and/or; (3) Living and working in a low-income setting in a low- or middle-income country.

COMPENSATION

• VisionSpring offers competitive benefits, including a performance-based bonus, health insurance, and five weeks of paid time off.
• Salary range will be disclosed to candidates invited to interview.