Product Design Manager - Barbie Design

Mattel•El Segundo, CA

About The Position

The Barbie Design team is seeking a highly skilled, experienced, and self-motivated Design Manager to lead and inspire its product design team. In this role, you will provide creative leadership across multiple product categories, guiding the development of innovative toy concepts that resonate with today's kids by translating consumer insights, emerging trends, and new technologies into compelling product experiences. As a Design Manager, you will oversee and mentor designers throughout the product development process, fostering creativity, collaboration, and design excellence while ensuring projects align with brand strategy, quality standards, and business objectives. You will partner closely with cross-functional teams—including Marketing, Engineering, Packaging, and Product Development—to drive alignment, solve complex design challenges, and deliver successful products from concept through execution. The ideal candidate is a strategic and collaborative creative leader with a strong product design background, a passion for developing talent, and a proven ability to balance hands-on design direction with team leadership in a fast-paced, highly collaborative environment.

Requirements

7 years+ of cross-functional experience in a product development.
Able to embrace, interpret and re-tell long loved stories through toy.
Able to be an ambassador of a brand that represents both Mattel and Disney.
Collaborative and communicative team player who enjoys driving and overseeing projects and processes cross-functionally with a wide range of personalities.
Self-directed problem-solver - proactive in tackling new challenges and working through uncertainty.
Structured thinker who's able to develop frameworks to support strategic decisions.
On top of trends in the toy space and adjacent industries.
Strong negotiation & relationship building skills.
Must be self-motivated and able to manage multiple parallel-path projects.
Have a passion for making great product.

Nice To Haves

Thorough understanding of the toy product design-development processes from ideation sketches, illustrations, rough models, to final modeling and production.
Finger on the pulse for the latest in fashion, graphics and toy trends.
Clear understanding of the Toy industry, with familiarity of toys both past and present in the overall dolls and fashion dolls categories.
Ability to lead but also be led.

Responsibilities

Provide creative leadership across multiple product categories, guiding the development of innovative toy concepts.
Translate consumer insights, emerging trends, and new technologies into compelling product experiences.
Oversee and mentor designers throughout the product development process.
Foster creativity, collaboration, and design excellence.
Ensure projects align with brand strategy, quality standards, and business objectives.
Partner closely with cross-functional teams (Marketing, Engineering, Packaging, Product Development) to drive alignment, solve complex design challenges, and deliver successful products from concept through execution.
Contribute and execute on product design vision.
Bring fresh POV with innovative design concepts.
Understand systems of play in small dolls.
Build strategy around a toy line across a variety of price points and play styles.
Design for the target consumer, influenced by kid usability and parent expectations and needs.
Take in feedback and commentary on projects and revise where necessary.
Create visual design language in a product suitable for the Barbie audience.
Set the visual stage in color every season by presenting and applying trends.
Understand how play and design work together in product to tell a story.
Present to an audience of varying sizes both clearly and confidently.
Take concepts and distill them into a clear, understandable narrative to garner buy-in throughout the organization through a variety of medium.
Work with outside licensors to build the best product.
Be a problem solver, partner and toy advocate.
Share communication in both directions to ensure alignment across all parties.
Work 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.
Pivot and revise on projects and strategy where business necessitates.
Occasionally participate in design efforts outside of your area of expertise.
Manage multiple parallel-path projects through maximization of your design team and internal / external resources.
Jump in on any given situation as a hands-on manager to assist your design team.
Manage a team of designers and empower them to grow and foster forward thinking.
Form a strong business relationship with your team gaining trust through collaboration, guidance, teamwork and empathy.
Maximize each designer’s skill within the team and nurture their areas of opportunity.
Guide your team to best fulfill strategic product needs.
Lead by example and maintain professionalism, representing the core values of Mattel.
Inspire your design team to make toys that matter and make an impact.