Job Description

Launched in 2014 by former philosophy professor David Barnett, PopSockets is a global digital-lifestyle company that sells empowering, fun, and expressive products that improve people’s digital lives. PopSockets has sold close to 300 million of its iconic phone grips in 75 countries and now has an expanding ecosystem of related products, including phone cases, wallets, mounts, batteries, and chargers.
Our mission is to empower enhanced mobile functionality, self-expression, and authentic human connection. We imagine an Eternal Positivity Machine that sparks joy, creativity, and meaningful relationships. We bring this vision to life by upholding the highest standards in materials, packaging, logistics, and design—while ensuring our supply chain and labor practices remain ethical, responsible, and transparent.
In 2021, PopSockets was honored as one of Fast Company’s World's Most Innovative Companies.

We’re looking for a Contract Visual Designer to lead and execute packaging design for new and existing products—owning how our brand shows up on-shelf and in-hand while ensuring creative excellence, operational feasibility, and regional relevance across the US and China.

Secondarily, this role will support visual merchandising across our Wholesale and Owned Retail channels in both the US and China—bringing our in-store experience to life through fixtures, displays, and retail toolkits—with agency support for execution on select VM initiatives.

This contract role is based at our global headquarters in Colorado and works with partners across time zones.

What You’ll Own

Packaging Design

• Lead new product and line-extension packaging design projects from concept through final, print-ready artwork
• Ensure packaging aligns with brand standards, retail requirements, and regional regulations (US + China)
• Partner with Creative, Product Marketing, Product, and Engineering to manage feedback, revisions, dielines, and production specs efficiently
• Collaborate with Supply Chain and Operations to ensure packaging is manufacturable, cost-conscious, and delivered on timeline

Visual Merchandising Design & Execution

• Lead the design development of visual merchandising programs across wholesale, owned retail, and shop-in-shop environments in the US and China—setting creative direction, creating core assets/toolkits, and partnering with external agencies for execution as needed
• Design in-store fixtures, displays, signage, planograms, and retail toolkits that elevate the brand and drive conversion
• Translate global brand vision into regionally relevant retail executions, adapting for market needs while maintaining brand consistency
• Own creative from brief through final production: concepting, design, iterative feedback, and production-ready files

Cross-Functional & Regional Collaboration

• Partner closely with Wholesale, Owned Retail, Sales, Marketing Ops and Regional teams to align on retail strategy, timelines, and execution needs
• Serve as the design bridge between US HQ and China, working with the Head of Creative in China to ensure seamless collaboration and high-quality output
• Collaborate with Product, Supply Chain, and Operations to ensure designs are manufacturable, cost-conscious, and on schedule

Process & Program Leadership

• Establish and maintain clear workflows, timelines, and approval processes for visual merchandising and packaging design
• Manage external vendors and partners as needed (packaging print vendors, fixture fabricators, and VM agencies)
• Ensure all outputs meet quality, brand, and execution standards across regions

What We’re Looking For

• 5–7+ years of experience in packaging design for consumer products, including concept-to-print execution (dielines, print-ready files, color, and production specs); visual merchandising/retail design experience is a strong plus
• Strong understanding of packaging as a retail touchpoint (on-shelf readability, hierarchy, and compliance) and of retail environments, US wholesale accounts, and in-store execution
• Hands-on experience with packaging production workflows—managing dielines, prepress, proofs, and print vendors; strong attention to color accuracy and quality control
• Proven experience working across global teams or multiple regions (US + China experience strongly preferred)
• High proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite (especially Illustrator and InDesign for packaging systems); strong file hygiene and versioning; experience with 3D, CAD, or render tools is a plus
• Strong project management instincts—able to manage multiple workstreams without losing attention to detail
• Clear, confident communicator who can collaborate across creative, commercial, and operational teams

PopSockets is dedicated to the practice of equal opportunity employment. We prohibit unlawful discrimination against applicants and employees on the basis of age, race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, military status, genetic information, color, creed, ancestry, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state or local law. This prohibition includes unlawful harassment based on any of these protected classes. Unlawful harassment includes verbal or physical conduct which has the purpose or effect of interfering with an individual’s work performance, or creating an intimidating, hostile, offensive, unsafe or otherwise non-welcoming work environment. This policy applies to all employees, including managers, supervisors, co-workers; and non-employees such as customers, clients, vendors, consultants, etc.