clothing development manager
Clothing development managers define product concepts that are consistent with target consumers and overall marketing strategy. They receive scientific findings and specifications in order to lead the briefing and implementation of all relevant seasonal and strategic concepts, including distribution by channel, product, colour introductions, and merchandised assortments. They ensure realisation and execution within budget. They manage and execute the product line and category life cycle from concept determination through sales and distribution, contribution in market research and industry trends to influence category concepts and products.
clothing development manager clothing development managers define product concepts that are consistent with target consumers and overall marketing strategy. The role shows moderate AI exposure (0.50 on a 0-1 scale) — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. The most in-demand skills for the role include consumer goods industry, manufacturing of wearing apparel, properties of textile materials, manufacturing of made-up textile articles, apparel manufacturing technology.
Pay in the UK
UK: median £55,519 a year for Research and development (R&D) managers (ONS ASHE 2025, full-time)
Middle half of full-time jobs: £44,101 to £75,207 a year
UK jobs are grouped differently; this is the closest UK occupation group (ONS SOC 2020 2161). ONS rates this estimate precise. 2025 provisional figures; ONS revises them a year later. Source: ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (Open Government Licence)
Pay in India (occupation group)
Average monthly earnings of salaried employees in the occupation group “Managers” in India, from the Government of India's Periodic Labour Force Survey (January–December 2025). It covers everyone in this group, not only clothing development manager, and it is not US pay converted to rupees.
Source: MoSPI (Government of India), Periodic Labour Force Survey Annual Report 2025, Table 51 — average wage/salary earnings of regular wage/salaried employees, NCO-2015 division 1. Official India data gives one average per occupation group: there are no official India figures for single careers, experience levels or cities. Read the report
Top skills
Frequently asked questions
What does clothing development manager do?
Clothing development managers define product concepts that are consistent with target consumers and overall marketing strategy. They receive scientific findings and specifications in order to lead the briefing and implementation of all relevant seasonal and strategic concepts, including distribution by channel, product, colour introductions, and merchandised assortments. They ensure realisation and execution within budget.
What skills does clothing development manager need?
The most in-demand skills for this role include consumer goods industry, manufacturing of wearing apparel, properties of textile materials, manufacturing of made-up textile articles, apparel manufacturing technology, history of fashion. These are the skills O*NET identifies as most important for competent performance.
Will AI replace clothing development manager?
Our AI-durability model gives clothing development manager a score of 0.50 on a 0-1 scale (higher = more exposure). That places it at moderate AI exposure — some tasks are being automated but the role adapts. Learning to work with AI tools rather than against them is the path forward.