Product Development Manager, Hard Goods

The Lumistella Company•Atlanta, GA

20h

About The Position

The Lumistella Company is seeking a Product Development Manager, Hard Goods to own the development of toy SKUs across their core and inbound licensed hard good lines. This role serves as the technical expert, ensuring plastic components and products are fully engineered and manufacturable, while maintaining functional, visual, and safety integrity. The position aligns with cost, feasibility, and storytelling goals, working closely with Design and Sourcing to deliver vendor-ready documentation and preserve storytelling and play-value through sampling and spec refinement. This role bridges creative intent and technical execution to deliver safe, engaging, and fully manufacturable toys, ensuring factories successfully build tooling and execute projects on time by providing accurate production-ready CAD and collaborating with factories and toolmakers on tool design and development. The role manages the development of numerous unique toys, characters, and props each season, as well as updates to existing global products.

Requirements

6+ years in product engineering within consumer goods, toys, plastics/injection molding, or similar industries
Expert knowledge in play feature development, injection molding, and mechanical function validation
Proficiency in CAD software (SolidWorks, Rhino, ArtiosCAD, or equivalent)
Deep understanding of product assembly, tolerance management, and DFM (Design for Manufacturing)
Experience reviewing samples and resolving spec issues in partnership with vendors and sourcing
Experience working with global suppliers and factories, particularly in Asia.
Proficiency in BOM creation, vendor coordination, and mold cost optimization
Experience managing development cycles across seasonal and licensed product lines
Experience working with licensed IP partners on product submissions and approvals
Bachelor’s degree Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Engineering Technology, or related field.

Nice To Haves

Digital tool experience preferred (PLM, Adobe Illustrator)
Familiarity with global toy safety and compliance standards

Responsibilities

Manage development of plastic, molded, and hardline toy products from design hand-off through pre-production approval.
Own development for items that are a hybrid of plastic molded components and soft goods elements, with support from Soft Goods Product Development Manager on plush/fabric construction, if needed.
Lead early breadboard sample evaluations and cross-functional reviews during Concept & Design Phases.
Provide CAD files and other material data, plus tool designs to Costing team to assist with product cost estimates.
Finalize engineering and material specs, including component tolerances, mold constraints, and safety compliance.
Partner with Production teams to ensure that CAD assemblies, tolerances, and materials are aligned with real-world manufacturing conditions.
Own the creation and finalization of specifications with engineering drawings and bills of materials, especially for complex assemblies, interactive features, and dimensional accuracy.
Deliver and maintain: Dimensional overlays, Exploded views, CAD visualizations, Component fit guidance, Assembly diagrams (as needed), Tool Design (as needed), BOM’s.
Maintain accurate version control of specifications throughout sampling cycles.
Write instruction sheets for products requiring consumer assembly; include creating line drawings, validating assembly steps, order of operations, etc.
Provide samples to the Packaging Structural Designer to validate product/packaging fit; packaging spec ownership is the responsibility of the Packaging Designer.
Provide samples to the Packaging Graphics team as needed for photography; ensure final art files are provided to the factory on time during Pre-Production phase.
Oversee sample reviews, functional feature validation, and DFM readiness in partnership with Sourcing, Costing, and other cross-functional teams.
Provide clear, actionable feedback to factories on sample revisions, materials, and construction adjustments, and integrate feedback into final engineering documentation.
Work with Compliance & QC to validate all toys meet ASTM, EN71, and CPSIA safety and labeling standards.
Validate all toys meet performance and functional requirements as defined in conjunction with the Director of Product Development and cross-functional team members.
Manage manufacturing specifications, including revisions to update product for new countries of sale and any other engineering changes requested for ongoing items being produced year over year.
Work closely with Program Management to maintain schedule adherence and escalate risks for projects that are in danger, offering solutions to mitigate the risks and minimize impact to ship dates.