Details

• Location: New York or Los Angeles
• Reports to: Senior Director of Supply Chain
• Direct reports: Production Control & QC Associate; Sourcing & Production Coordinator (2027)
• Travel: up to 25% (supplier and CM visits)
• Target start: as soon as possible
• Compensation: $140K to $160K

About Crown Affair

Crown Affair is a hair care brand built on ritual. We make products and tools people reach for every day and love for years, sold through our own site, Sephora, and a growing set of retail partners. We are scaling fast, and packaging is a core part of how we earn brand love: it is the first thing a customer touches and the last thing they remember.

The Role

The Director of Packaging owns Crown Affair packaging soup to nuts, from the first concept conversation through commercialization and every reorder after. You are the technical authority on primary, secondary, and refill packaging. You are also accountable for production quality control and for tools and accessories sourcing, delivered through the QC and sourcing team that reports to you. You make ambitious ideas real on time, at cost, and to spec.

• Reports to: Senior Director of Supply Chain
• Leads: the QC and sourcing team: Production Control & QC Associate, plus a Sourcing & Production Coordinator in 2027
• Partners with: Innovation and R&D (including our formula chemist), Supply Planning and Purchasing, Project Management, Quality Assurance, Marketing, and Creative

You lead at the scale-up stage and are a key voice from day one of ideation, so feasibility, compatibility, and cost are designed in early instead of discovered late.

What You'll Own

Packaging development & sourcing, concept to shelf

• Join new product concepts at the first brief to flag feasibility, formula compatibility, tooling, and scale-up risk before timelines are set.
• Lead development for new packaging, refills and repacks, travel and deluxe sizes, and recolors.
• Turn briefs into specs: technical drawings, material callouts, decoration, and approved standards that live in one shared system.
• Own artwork placement project management, dielines, and packaging review cycles through final sign-off.

Testing and quality

• Run compatibility, stability, and line trials with our formula and quality partners.
• Own transit and channel readiness: DTC ship testing, inserts and protective packaging, and retailer and marketplace requirements (e.g. ISTA).
• Set incoming component specs and acceptance standards so issues are caught at the supplier, not the warehouse.

Production quality control

• Accountable for production QC across our contract manufacturers and suppliers, executed by the Production Control & QC Associate.
• Set the standards: inspection specs by component, release sign-off criteria, and escalation thresholds.
• Ensure deviations move through escalation and CAPA, partnering with our QA consultant and third-party inspectors on audits.
• Own QC metrics and packaging vendor quality performance, with a target of zero critical failures.

Suppliers and cost

• Own the component supplier strategy and portfolio. Your team runs RFPs, sampling, and onboarding; you lead key negotiations.
• Hold suppliers to clear SLAs and scorecards on quality, lead time, and responsiveness.
• Own packaging cost and tooling strategy, including cost-sharing and ownership models, to protect product margin.

Timelines and stage gates

• Own the packaging timeline for every project and commit to dates at each stage gate.
• Partner with Business Operations on cross-functional milestones and raise risk early.
• Hand off approved packaging to Purchasing with complete specs, so POs go out clean.

Tools, accessories, and merch

• Accountable for development and sourcing of tools, accessories, and merch briefed by Brand Marketing, executed by your QC and sourcing team from vendor selection through launch.
• Set the vendor strategy, approve vendor selection, and step in on key negotiations and escalations.
• Ensure briefs become vendor-ready specs and that design intent, cost, MOQs, and quality hold through production.
• Partner with Brand Marketing on a long-range accessories roadmap so programs are briefed complete and on time.

Building the function

• Build the packaging playbook: spec library, testing protocols, QC standards, supplier standards, and handoff templates.
• Lead and develop the Production Control & QC Associate.
• Hire and develop a Sourcing & Production Coordinator in 2027 to scale sourcing and accessory execution.

Who You Are

• 8+ years in packaging development or packaging engineering, ideally in prestige beauty, hair care, or personal care.
• Hands-on with primary components (glass, droppers, pumps, tubes, closures), secondary cartons, and flexible refill formats.
• You have taken custom tooling from first drawing to production and know where it goes wrong.
• Fluent in compatibility, stability, and transit testing, and you know which test answers which question.
• Grounded in production QC: inspection specs, batch review, deviations, CAPA, and CM and supplier audits.
• Experience leading sourcing for soft goods, tools, or accessories alongside packaging.
• Deep experience with overseas supplier networks, especially Asia, including on-the-ground quality management.
• You have built a packaging or quality function from scratch, not just run one that already existed.
• You have led and developed direct reports.
• Commercially sharp: you think in landed cost, MOQs, and margin, not just aesthetics.
• You hold a position under pressure. When a date or a spec is at risk, you say so early and bring the fix.
• You love beautiful things and the discipline it takes to make them at scale.

What Success Looks Like

First 30 days

• Take ownership of every in-flight packaging project, with a clear status, owner, and next milestone for each.
• Meet core suppliers and partners across Innovation, Supply Chain, Quality, and Creative.

First 90 days

• Stand up the first version of the packaging spec library, testing protocol, and component-level QC inspection specs.
• Deliver a supplier scorecard for top component and accessory vendors.

First year

• Launches hit packaging milestones on the dates committed at each stage gate.
• Packaging cost and tooling spend support our product margin targets.
• Component and production quality issues are caught upstream, at the supplier.
• Accessory and merch programs launch on spec, on time, and at target cost.

About Crown Affair—

Crown Affair is a first of its kind haircare brand that empowers people to redefine their relationship with their hair through accessible luxury products, guidance, and community. We believe that loving your hair starts with understanding how to care for it. Each product we make is developed to work together with any (or all) of our other products, so that together they form more than a routine: it’s a ritual. We’ve partnered with dedicated craftsmen and chemists around the world to create thoughtfully sourced products you’ll love using each and every day.

About The Founder—

Dianna Cohen started her career at digital content platform, Into The Gloss, in 2012. She was part of the founding team of e-commerce mobile app, Spring, where she launched and managed their marketing channels from pre-launch through year two. From there, she worked closely with former Jimmy Choo founder, Tamara Mellon, to relaunch her namesake brand as a direct-to- consumer, luxury company. After launching Tamara Mellon in 2016, Dianna joined travel company, Away, as Head of Partnerships until she left to start Levitate at the end of 2017. Under Levitate, Dianna has worked with a number of direct-to- consumer brands including, Harry’s / Flamingo, Outdoor Voices, Yumi, Buck Mason, The Wing, and more. Dianna is part of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 for the Class of 2019.