Lead Product Designer - Games

Mattel • El Segundo, CA

12h • Hybrid

About The Position

Mattel is seeking an experienced, imaginative Lead Product Designer to shape play experiences across its games portfolio, including UNO, Pictionary, Scrabble, Phase 10, Skip-Bo, Blokus, and KerPlunk!. This is a senior individual-contributor role spanning gameplay systems, physical product design, prototyping, and creative leadership. The designer will own complex programs, set design direction, and help other designers solve difficult problems while remaining hands-on.

Requirements

• 7+ years of experience designing tabletop, card, party, strategy, or family games, toys, or related physical consumer products, with demonstrated strength in game and product design.
• Experience leading the complete game development process, including ideation, mechanics, prototyping, playtesting, balancing, iteration, and commercialization.
• A strong portfolio demonstrating sophisticated problem solving, compelling physical product design, and the ability to translate ideas into clear, engaging play experiences.
• Deep understanding of player motivation, game systems, probability, progression, accessibility, and player experience design.
• Knowledge of consumer product development, manufacturing processes, materials, tooling, and production constraints.
• Ability to lead through influence, provide meaningful creative direction, and elevate other designers’ work without relying on formal authority.
• Strong communication, storytelling, critique, and presentation skills.
• Ability to manage multiple complex projects, navigate ambiguity, and maintain momentum in a fast-paced development environment.
• Passion for games, curiosity about how people play, and a desire to create products that bring people together.

Nice To Haves

• Experience shipping commercially successful tabletop or card games.
• Experience facilitating structured playtesting, game balancing, and consumer research.
• Experience working across licensed entertainment brands or global product development organizations.
• Familiarity with modern tabletop gaming trends and mechanics across hobby and mass-market categories.
• Experience mentoring designers or serving as a creative lead across multidisciplinary development teams.
• A genuine love of games and play, such as inventing mechanics, hosting game nights, or collecting modern board games.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop new gameplay experiences across family, party, strategy, and card games.
• Own projects from early concept exploration through prototyping, playtesting, refinement, and final product execution.
• Use game design principles, player psychology, consumer insights, and knowledge of player behavior to create intuitive, rewarding games that encourage repeat engagement.
• Build and test prototypes, using playtesting and consumer feedback to improve mechanics, pacing, accessibility, and player experience.
• Identify opportunities to reinvent established brands and develop new ways to play.
• Translate gameplay into intuitive physical products, components, and interactions.
• Develop design solutions through sketching, model making, CAD, rendering, prototyping, and other visualization tools.
• Partner with Engineering and Packaging to balance creativity with manufacturing feasibility, quality, cost, and sustainability.
• Make decisions about materials, component design, ergonomics, visual hierarchy, tactile interaction, and the overall product experience.
• Review prototypes and production samples to preserve design intent and gameplay integrity through manufacturing.
• Set design direction and guide teams through ambiguous or complex design challenges.
• Lead constructive critiques and design reviews to strengthen ideas and improve decision-making and work quality.
• Mentor and support Product Designers and Senior Product Designers through feedback, collaboration, and hands-on problem solving.
• Communicate design strategy and recommendations to cross-functional partners and senior stakeholders, building alignment around consumer experience.
• Drive projects from concept through commercialization, managing parallel workstreams while maintaining creative quality and attention to detail.
• Build partnerships across Marketing, Consumer Insights, Engineering, Packaging, Licensing, and external development partners.
• Anticipate risks, resolve complex design challenges, and make informed development tradeoffs.
• Improve design tools, workflows, critique practices, and development approaches to support collaboration and iteration.

Benefits

• Competitive total pay programs
• Comprehensive benefits
• Resources to help employees reach their full potential
• Flexible work model: in-office Monday through Thursday and work from home on Fridays

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed