Senior Surface Print Designer
HydroJug | Ogden, UT | Full-Time | Hybrid (4 days in office / 1 day remote) | New Variant Development
About HydroJug
HydroJug is a fast-growing hydration and lifestyle brand on a mission to make healthy habits easier and more accessible. Our business is built on a steady cadence of fresh, on-trend product variants that keep our community engaged season after season.
About the Role
HydroJug is seeking a Senior Surface Print Designer to lead forward product planning within our New Variant Development (NVD) team. This is a senior, high-visibility role that blends design craft, trend forecasting, and cross-functional leadership.
The Senior Surface Print Designer owns our forward product development calendar, facilitates recurring leadership reviews that move new products through defined creative and production stages, and personally concepts and designs the surface prints, colors, and variants that go to market. This role is ideal for an experienced designer who is equally effective leading a senior-level product conversation and producing original, production-ready surface artwork.
The successful candidate will inherit a functioning product planning system and will be expected to strengthen and scale it over time.
Key Responsibilities
Product Calendar Ownership
- Own, maintain, and present HydroJug’s forward product development calendar
- Coordinate regularly with sales, marketing, and operations to align on upcoming product activity across the business
- Produce and maintain the visual calendar presentation used by stakeholders throughout the organization
- Partner closely with cross-functional product leaders to maintain alignment across go-to-market channels
Product Review Facilitation
- Prepare, lead, and drive a recurring senior leadership review of the forward product pipeline
- Advance each product through defined creative and production stages — from early concept development through design, sampling, and final approval — on an agreed-upon cadence
- Present work with clear rationale supported by trend analysis, market signals, and commercial insight
- Facilitate stakeholder decisions and document outcomes and next steps
Surface Design and Trend Forecasting
- Concept and design original surface prints, color palettes, and product variants
- Conduct ongoing trend research across fashion, home, consumer goods, and adjacent lifestyle categories, drawing from sources including WGSN, trade shows, retail analysis, social listening, and primary consumer research
- Deliver production-ready artwork and collaborate with the operations team through sampling and final approval
- Mentor junior designers as the team grows
Required Qualifications
- 5+ years of senior-level experience in surface, print, pattern, or textile design
- Portfolio demonstrating range across multiple consumer categories, aesthetics, and color stories
- Prior experience managing or mentoring junior designers
- Proven ability to present to executive audiences and drive decisions in formal meeting settings
- Strong trend forecasting foundation with the ability to articulate clear, defensible rationale behind design choices
- Fluency in Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop) and project management tools such as Asana
- Experience introducing process improvements within established design or product planning systems
- Willingness and ability to work from our Ogden, Utah office four days per week, with one day remote
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience at a direct-to-consumer or lifestyle brand known for seasonal drops, strong print strategy, or distinctive color programs
- Background in pattern-driven consumer categories outside drinkware — wallpaper, stationery, home textiles, apparel, accessories, baby and kids, nail, or similar
- Working familiarity with AI-enabled design tools such as Midjourney, Adobe Firefly, or Runway
- Experience with 3D rendering software such as KeyShot
Success in the First 12 Months
- Months 1–2: Learn the existing product planning system, build relationships with cross-functional stakeholders, and develop an independent point of view on current priorities
- Month 3: Independently lead the recurring product leadership review with a first concept cycle in motion
- Month 6: First prints approved and moving to sampling; calendar reflects the designer’s refined market point of view
- Month 12: First full wave of new variants launched to customers; product planning system measurably improved
Location and Reporting
- Hybrid schedule based out of our Ogden, Utah office: four days in office, one day remote
- Reports to the Chief Executive Officer
- Collaborates cross-functionally with product, marketing, operations, and sales leaders
How to Apply
Please submit your resume, portfolio, and a brief written summary of a recent surface print or variant design decision you championed, including the rationale behind the decision and the commercial or creative outcome.
