Senior Technical Product Manager, Applied AI

Mattel•El Segundo, CA

21h

About The Position

Mattel Digital Studios (MDS) is a division focused on digital innovation to enhance Mattel's brands through digital gaming, interactive experiences, and emerging technologies. The MDS Tech organization provides the technical backbone, developing scalable systems, tools, and platforms for product teams to create high-quality digital experiences efficiently. The Applied AI function within MDS bridges product innovation and technical execution, enabling new capabilities in creative workflows, internal tooling, and development pipelines. This role is crucial for unlocking AI's potential in personalization, content creation, and next-generation play experiences.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Product Design, or related field (or equivalent experience).
5–8+ years of experience in product management, engineering, or technical roles, with a demonstrated track record of personally shipping internal tools, automations, and cross-functional operational improvements.
Hands-on experience building AI workflows and automations using LLM APIs, multimodal models, agent frameworks, and orchestration tools (e.g., OpenAI, Claude, LangChain, Python-based pipelines, Retool, low-code automation, etc.).
Demonstrated ability to take an AI solution from prototype through productization and rollout, including stakeholder alignment, enablement, and measuring business impact post-deployment.
Strong product and operator mindset, with the ability to diagnose workflow pain points and connect user needs and business goals to technical solutions.
Experience working cross-functionally with production, engineering, design, creative, and business stakeholders.
Strong problem-solving skills, with a bias toward action and rapid iteration.
Ability to operate in ambiguity and navigate emerging technology landscapes.
Strong communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to influence across technical and non-technical audiences.
Demonstrated curiosity and growth mindset, staying current with rapidly evolving AI capabilities, including awareness of responsible-use considerations.

Nice To Haves

Masters in Computer Science or related field preferred.

Responsibilities

Define, build, and scale AI-powered tools, workflows, and decision-support systems across Mattel Digital Studios.
Identify and address friction in cross-functional workflows (process misalignment, communication overhead, unreliable data, team bandwidth) and translate these into a prioritized portfolio of AI solutions.
Manage a portfolio of AI solutions categorized as Quick Wins, Efficiency Gains, and Strategic Bets, progressing promising opportunities from proof-of-concept to pilot and broader rollout.
Develop AI solutions for workflow automation, internal tooling, creative and content-generation tools, and decision-support systems tied to operational use cases.
Actively build prototypes, experiment with AI models and APIs, and develop working solutions.
Oversee the productization, rollout, stakeholder alignment, team enablement, and repeatability of AI solutions.
Partner with MDS leadership, Product, Engineering, Operations, and Creative teams, and engage external vendors when buying is more advantageous than building.
Ensure AI efforts are grounded in real business and user value, avoiding strategy without execution and technology without clear application.
Identify and manage adoption risks, including data quality, model accuracy and reliability, brand and creative integrity, and appropriate guardrails, in collaboration with the Office of AI and other governance stakeholders.
Own the applied AI roadmap from pitch to production, balancing speed, experimentation, and long-term value creation.
Identify and surface use cases and friction, assessing feasibility and scalability to translate them into high-impact AI opportunities.
Manage the opportunity portfolio, graduating proofs-of-concept into strategic pilots and broader MDS rollout.
Translate business needs into AI-powered tools, workflow automations, and decision-support solutions, defining clear requirements, success metrics, adoption targets, and iteration plans.
Continuously explore emerging AI capabilities and evaluate their application for internal tools, workflows, and content pipelines, applying them where operational impact justifies the work.
Build prototypes, lightweight applications, automations, and decision-support tools.
Work hands-on using modern AI platforms like LLM APIs, multimodal models, agent frameworks, and orchestration tools.
Rapidly test and iterate on new ideas with a focus on measurable operational impact.
Partner with engineering, platform, and external vendors to productize, harden, and scale successful prototypes, owning build-vs-buy decisions.
Act as a bridge between MDS leadership, Product, Engineering, Operations, and Creative teams to identify and unlock AI opportunities.
Secure leadership buy-in, drive stakeholder alignment on priorities, and translate ambition into crisp execution plans.
Enable teams through reusable tools, workflow patterns, playbooks, and training for repeatable adoption across disciplines.
Collaborate with external partners (e.g., OpenAI) to accelerate internal capability building and spearhead vendor evaluation and integration.
Manage adoption risks such as data quality, compliance, hallucinations, over-reliance, and brand/creative integrity, setting guardrails with the Office of AI and consulting with legal and privacy teams.
Define success metrics per opportunity (productivity, quality, cost, effectiveness) and report portfolio impact regularly.