Manager, Product Design - Tracks and Playsets

Company Description

CREATIVITY IS OUR SUPERPOWER. It’s our heritage and it’s also our future. Because we don’t just make toys. We create innovative products and experiences that inspire fans, entertain audiences and develop children through play. Mattel is at its best when every member of our team feels respected, included, and heard—when everyone can show up as themselves and do their best work every day. We value and share an infinite range of ideas and voices that evolve and broaden our perspectives with a reach that extends into all our brands, partners, and suppliers.

The Team:
The Hot Wheels Tracks and Playsets design team is a group of passionate and inspired designers with the goal of creating the best toys on earth.  We are looking for motivated, challenge seeking, innovative thinkers to create the next Hot Wheels Licensed Entertainment toys for kids.  Our products range from dynamic vehicle playsets, over-the-top tracks sets and unique accessories for our Hot Wheels and Hot Wheels Licensed Entertainment vehicle world.  We work with an equally passionate cross function team that spans the globe with our international partners, making our design led toy company of Mattel one of the best in the industry.  Are you up for the challenge?     

Job Description

The Opportunity: 
The Product Design Manager will lead and inspire a group of designers on 1 or more of our key segments of business in Hot Wheels Licensed Entertainment Tracks and Playsets, creating innovative products.   This Design manager will be on top of the latest in kids trends, pop culture, entertainment, kid insights and fun play.  The Product Design Manager will execute and help create product design visions, strengthen the voice of our designers and will be ready for any hands-on managing that is required to keep the business moving.  You will guide, nurture and grow your design team to empower the future leaders within the organization.

What Your Impact Will Be: 

The Business

• You have a thorough understanding of the toy product design-development processes
  • with strong ability to ideate, sketch, illustrate, generate rough models
  • Thorough understanding on final modeling and production
  • Have a clear understanding of the Toy industry and entertainment Industry, with familiarity of toys both past and present within vehicles category
• You are a strategic design thinker:
  • Able to contribute and execute on product design vision
  • Brings fresh POV with innovative design concepts
  • Solid understanding of how to design for the target consumer, influenced by kid usability and parent expectations and needs.
  • Willingness to lead and be led, taking in feedback and commentary on projects and apply where necessary
• You are a visual designer
  • Able to create visual design language in a product that is suitable for our core audience and maintains the Hot Wheels edge
  • Understanding of how play and design work together in product to tell a concise story 
• An excellent communicator:
  • Able to present to an audience of varying sizes both clearly and confidently
  • Can take concepts and distill them into a clear, understandable narrative to garner buy-in throughout the organization through a variety of medium
• Collaborator:
  • Working with Mattel’s Consumer Insights team to identify opportunities, consumer needs, parent, and kid purchase behaviors.
  • Partner with Mattel’s cross-function team of experts in Marketing, Packaging, Engineering and Product Management.   
• You are nimble:
  • Able to pivot and revise on projects and strategy where business necessitates.
  • Occasionally participate in design efforts outside of your area of expertise, and as your own skillset dictates.
• Multi-tasker:
  • On projects with varying complexity through maximization of your design team and internal / external resources of Mattel (Internal cross function team, International Mattel partners, outside vendors)
  • Can jump in on any given situation as a hands-on manager to assist your design team

The Team

• You are a design leader
  • You manage a team of designers and empower them to grow and foster forward thinking 
  • Able to form a strong business relationship with your team gaining trust through collaboration, guidance, teamwork and empathy
  • You will maximize each designers’ skill within the team and nurture their areas of opportunity.
  • You will guide your team to best fulfill strategic product needs
  • You can lead but also be led
• You are a role-model
  • Lead by example and maintain professionalism, representing the c