Junior Product Designer

Morgan Street Holdings•Chicago, IL

51d•Hybrid

About The Position

With strong ambition, a young-at-heart personality, and an entrepreneurial spirit, your playfulness, creativity, and can-do attitude shine through your work. You’re fuelled by foundational knowledge of toy/product design and end-to-end process principles, and you’re comfortable ideating concepts and solving development challenges. You thrive on diving into new projects and generating innovative ideas that challenge the status quo. Your passion for toys, games, and play inspires others, and you love pushing boundaries to create experiences that engage McDonald’s fans and redefine how they create memories with the brand. Your main responsibility is to support the design team throughout the end-to-end process to deliver award-winning toys and consumer products to millions of children and adults around the world. You’re driven by insights and opportunities to connect with consumers in more relevant and meaningful ways. You’re motivated by great strategy, big ideas, inclusive design thinking, and creating products that make a difference. You have a powerful desire to learn, evolve, and bring a fresh strategic perspective that goes beyond your day-to-day work. Working with your design peers, you’ll help support organizational change—evolving local design hubs into one Global Product Design team. Together, we’ll co-create, co-develop, and collaborate across functions, using The Power of And to create next-generation Gen-A and Gen-Z consumer products and deliver on McDonald’s One Team Vision.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Toy, Product, or Industrial Design (or equivalent).
1–3 years of agency or in-house product/industrial design experience within toys, games, and/or entertainment.
Knowledge of global retail brands, licenses, and studios in the consumer product, toy, games, and entertainment categories.
Strong presenter and storyteller, with the ability to deliver concise and engaging presentations using various media.
Proficient in Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat).
Familiar with Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Teams, PowerPoint, Word, Excel)
Foundational knowledge of 3D modelling, printing, and rendering software (e.g., Fusion 360, Blender, ZBrush, SolidWorks, Freeform, Keyshot, or similar).

Nice To Haves

Understanding of play patterns, child development, and safety standards (EN71/ASTM).
Knowledge of Gen-A / Gen-Z audiences and the toys, collectibles, and consumer products that appeal to them.
Familiarity with sustainable materials such as plastics, plush, metals, and paperboard.

Responsibilities

Support the Global Product Design team throughout all stages of the end-to-end process—from concept ideation to development and production finalization. You’ll bring cultural trends, inspiration, and creative ideas to brainstorms; create fresh, thought-provoking, and visually engaging presentations; and help solve complex design and engineering development challenges.
Help identify global and local market trends and opportunities.
Immerse yourself in the world of retail brands and licensing to support internal teams and client understanding.
Contribute to concept ideation and brainstorming of new play experiences and toy ideas.
Communicate ideas effectively through digital sketches, proof-of-concept renders, and physical prototype models.
Write compelling and engaging copy that supports design thinking and rationale, aligned with program strategy and the big idea.
Communicate openly, honestly, and respectfully with everyone.
Collaborate with engineers to solve manufacturing, safety, and development challenges—producing redline draw-overs, 3D prints, and prototypes to communicate solutions effectively.
Work closely with peers across Account, Strategy, Creative, Digital, Engineering, Supply Chain, and Partnerships teams to develop current and future programs.