Product Manager, LiveOps - Mattel Digital Studio

Mattel•El Segundo, CA

11h•$168,000 - $185,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Mattel Game Studios is seeking a Product Manager, LiveOps for its casual portfolio. The initial focus will be on an upcoming title built around Barbie, with potential to expand to additional casual titles as the portfolio grows. This role is responsible for the end-to-end LiveOps strategy and meta-layer, including progression systems, collection and customization mechanics, event architecture, offer strategy, and reward structures, from pre-launch through live operations. The Product Manager will define the product strategy for these systems, leveraging the IP to create a cohesive player experience that drives engagement, retention, and long-term revenue. Mattel Game Studios operates as a publisher with external development studios, and this role serves as the LiveOps lead on the publisher side. The position requires daily collaboration with the external studio's Game Design, Engineering, and Production teams, as well as alignment with internal stakeholders across Product, Marketing, and Data. The ideal candidate is passionate about casual mobile games and IP-driven player experiences, possesses strong instincts for how fashion, lifestyle, or collection-based meta systems drive engagement, is proactive and adaptable in a build-from-scratch environment, embraces experimentation and rapid iteration, is comfortable with ambiguity, and stays current with trends in LiveOps, monetization, and the free-to-play market.

Requirements

4+ years of experience in free-to-play mobile games in a Product Management or LiveOps role.
Direct experience working on a casual mobile game with strong meta-layer or collection/customization systems such as fashion, lifestyle, or dress-up games strongly preferred (e.g. Covet Fashion, Design Home, or similar IP-driven titles).
Match-3 or puzzle experience is a plus.
Deep understanding of F2P LiveOps mechanics, meta-progression systems, and game economy fundamentals — you've built or tuned event frameworks, collection or customization loops, and offer strategies, with a track record of measurable impact on engagement and revenue KPIs.
Strong experimentation instinct — you default to testing hypotheses and move fast to learn and iterate.
Experience using data tools (BigQuery, Excel/Sheets, Tableau or similar) to drive decisions, including working with economy models and sink/source analyses.
Excellent written and oral communication skills, with the ability to present key learnings to the broader team.
Comfortable with ambiguity — you can contribute to or adapt to game design decisions that are still in flux.

Nice To Haves

Experience working in a publisher model or collaborating closely with an external development studio.
Experience with soft launch, geo-testing, or bringing an F2P mobile game from development through global launch.
Experience working with licensed or well-known consumer IP.

Responsibilities

Co-own the game's feature roadmap with Product, Game Design, Production, and the external development studio, driving prioritization of features that strengthen the meta experience and IP expression, support the LiveOps strategy, and maintain a healthy game economy.
Develop the LiveOps event framework and cadence strategy from scratch, defining event types, reward structures, and seasonal beats, then execute and iterate a content calendar that maximizes engagement, retention, and monetization.
Own the meta-progression and offer strategy: define the player-facing shape of collection and customization progression, offer architecture, and the promotional calendar. Specify economic intent and success criteria, ensuring the meta-layer gives players meaningful reasons to engage with the IP across every session.
Own LiveOps and economy outcomes: set and hold targets for engagement, retention, revenue per user, payer conversion, and economy health, and hold the go/no-go on economy changes shipping to live. Partner with the Lead Designer, Systems and Economy, who owns the underlying economic model and math. Partner with Data to analyze performance, design and run experiments continuously, and report against targets with clear action plans. Share learnings and a data-driven playbook across the team and the external studio.
Champion the IP in product decisions: ensure that events, offers, collections, and progression milestones express the brand in ways that resonate with the target audience. Partner with Game Design and the external studio to translate IP strength into product requirements and content strategies that drive engagement and monetization.
Define LiveOps requirements for the external development studio, review builds, provide feedback on design decisions that impact economy and progression, and ensure the publisher–studio feedback loop is tight and productive.
Keep a pulse on player sentiment via app reviews, community channels, and surveys. Translate feedback into testable hypotheses in coordination with Game Design to inform event design and economy tuning.
Work cross-functionally across Production, Game Design, Engineering, and Marketing to align on objectives and execute key beats.