Senior Product Designer - Games

Mattel•El Segundo, CA

1d•$95,000 - $119,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Mattel is seeking an imaginative, highly skilled Senior Product Designer to develop the next generation of play experiences across its games portfolio, including UNO, Pictionary, Scrabble, Phase 10, Skip-Bo, Blokus, and KerPlunk!. This hands-on role turns concepts into intuitive, engaging physical products through strong ideas, thoughtful mechanics, rapid prototyping, playtesting, and refinement. The designer works across Design, Marketing, Engineering, Consumer Insights, Packaging, Licensing, and Operations to bring gameplay experiences from early concept through commercialization. The role includes developing gameplay and physical product concepts, prototyping and testing, creating design solutions through sketching, model making, CAD, rendering, and other visualization tools, and balancing creative goals with manufacturing feasibility, quality, cost, and sustainability. The designer collaborates across internal teams and external partners, communicates concepts and rationale, contributes to critiques, supports junior designers, and manages multiple projects through development. This is an in-office role Monday through Thursday and work-from-home on Fridays. The position is based in El Segundo, California. The stated annual pay range is $95,000 to $119,000; actual base pay depends on work location, skills, and experience.

Requirements

At least 4 years of experience in game design, toy design, industrial design, consumer product design, or a closely related field, with demonstrated experience developing physical products.
Experience designing tabletop, card, party, strategy, family, or adjacent play experiences, with a strong understanding of engaging gameplay.
Demonstrated experience with ideation, prototyping, playtesting, iteration, and product development from concept through production.
Strong industrial design fundamentals, including sketching, form development, prototyping, visualization, and 3D design tools.
Understanding of consumer product development, materials, manufacturing processes, tooling, and production constraints.
Ability to translate complex ideas into clear, compelling concepts and presentations.
Strong collaboration, communication, organization, and problem-solving skills.
Curiosity about how and why people play, and a passion for creating products that bring people together.

Nice To Haves

Experience shipping commercially successful tabletop, card, or family games.
Experience facilitating structured playtesting or working with consumer research.
Experience working across licensed entertainment brands or global product development organizations.
Familiarity with modern tabletop gaming trends, mechanics, and player communities.
A genuine love of games and play, such as inventing mechanics, hosting game nights, collecting modern board games, or studying what makes a great game work.

Responsibilities

Design and develop gameplay experiences for family, party, strategy, and card games across Mattel’s portfolio.
Take projects from early concept exploration through prototyping, playtesting, refinement, and final product execution.
Apply game design principles, player psychology, consumer insights, and understanding of player behavior to create accessible and engaging play experiences.
Build and test prototypes, using playtesting and consumer feedback to improve mechanics, pacing, accessibility, and the overall player experience.
Evolve established brands and contribute original concepts for new ways to play.
Translate gameplay into intuitive physical products, components, and interactions.
Develop design solutions using 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 design decisions about materials, component design, ergonomics, visual hierarchy, tactile interaction, and product experience.
Review prototypes and production samples to preserve design intent and gameplay integrity through manufacturing.
Collaborate with Product Design, Graphic Design, Narrative Design, Marketing, Consumer Insights, Engineering, Licensing, and external development partners.
Present concepts and design rationale clearly using visual storytelling.
Participate in design critiques, offer constructive feedback, and incorporate input to strengthen work.
Share knowledge, techniques, and perspective with junior designers.
Manage multiple projects and priorities at different development stages while maintaining creative execution standards.
Identify design challenges early, develop practical solutions, and make informed tradeoffs during development.
Contribute to design tools, workflows, and best practices that support iteration and collaboration across the Games organization.