Sr. Designer, Design & Development (Toys & Hardlines)

NBCUniversal•Universal City, CA

5d•$90,000 - $105,000•Hybrid

About The Position

NBCUniversal’s UDX Franchise, Products & Partnerships team is seeking a Senior Designer to lead end-to-end creative and product development across puzzles, activities, party goods, and packaging. The role shapes and executes product design programs in line with brand vision, franchise priorities, and retailer business objectives, working closely with retail partners to deliver market-ready products. It ensures brand integrity, quality, and on-time delivery while guiding creative and product development from concept through approval. The Senior Designer provides creative direction to internal and external partners, develops differentiated product ranges, and helps advance business initiatives through cross-functional collaboration. The role combines expertise in entertainment and consumer products licensing with strong design capabilities, including typography, color, layout, composition, materials, technical design, and execution. It also identifies innovation opportunities through trend and competitive research, supports partner collaboration through production, and presents design strategies and line plans to stakeholders. This position currently follows a hybrid schedule requiring work from the office at least four days per week; the company may change in-office requirements. Travel may be required to support business and operational needs. The position is eligible for company-sponsored benefits, including medical, dental and vision insurance, 401(k), paid leave, tuition reimbursement, discounts, and other perks.

Requirements

At least 4 years of professional graphic design experience.
Mastery of industry-standard tools such as Adobe Creative Suite, including Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, as well as Keynote and/or PowerPoint.
Understanding of product development and retail timelines, from concept approval through in-store delivery.
Ability to use brand and category expertise to identify trends and translate strategy into market-ready product lines.
Strong concept-to-execution design capability across toys, hardlines, and consumer products.
Ability to translate brand guidelines, character stylization, and entertainment intellectual property into market-ready designs.
Ability to provide effective creative direction while safeguarding character and property integrity.
Ability to review prototypes, samples, and pre-production builds to maintain design integrity.
Ability to create production-ready specifications, artwork files, and presentation materials.
Visual storytelling and presentation skills to advocate for ideas internally and externally.
Understanding of packaging structures, brand design elements, toy functionality, and product instructions.
Ability to apply relevant market trends to opportunities for Universal intellectual property.
Bachelor’s degree in graphic design, illustration, or a related field.
Submit a professional portfolio showing original work and individual design contributions, including product ideation, sketching, creative problem-solving, design development, and the full product development lifecycle from concept to shelf.

Nice To Haves

Consumer products and licensing industry experience.
Deep understanding of entertainment and consumer products licensing across toys, hardlines, and related categories.
Portfolio examples of sketches, trend research, pattern and print development, overlays/redlines, technical design packages (tech packs), sampling iterations, and final produced products.

Responsibilities

Lead product development across puzzles, activities, party goods, and packaging, ensuring brand integrity, quality, and commercial relevance.
Provide decisive creative direction to internal and external partners, establishing clear decisions and next steps.
Foster a collaborative, inclusive, high-performing creative culture that encourages innovation, professional growth, and thoughtful risk-taking.
Drive creative excellence while optimizing processes, timelines, and resources in alignment with business objectives and key milestones.
Conceptualize and develop compelling, differentiated product ranges across categories.
Collaborate cross-functionally to advance business initiatives and strategies.
Apply entertainment and consumer products licensing expertise to puzzles, activities, party goods, and packaging.
Ensure licensed products uphold franchise integrity, storytelling, and visual consistency, and guide partners through licensing and approvals.
Translate creative concepts into commercially viable products and identify new business opportunities.
Serve as a subject-matter expert in materials, technical design, and execution, and ensure designs meet Universal’s creative and quality standards.
Provide partners with clear, actionable creative and product design guidance; prioritize team workloads and competing demands.
Lead brainstorming for new product concepts, categories, and brand extensions.
Track global design, retail, consumer, and cultural trends, and monitor competitive products and packaging to identify innovation and differentiation opportunities.
Build trusted relationships with internal teams, senior leaders, and external partners to enable alignment and timely decisions.
Use negotiation and influencing skills to manage stakeholders, third parties, rights holders, and filmmakers.
Represent the Product Design Studio as a creative leader in internal and external meetings.
Oversee partner collaboration from concept through production, ensuring accountability and on-brand execution.
Partner with Category, Franchise, and Legal teams to provide assets and guidance for commercially compelling products.
Present creative strategies, product designs, and line plans to engage and influence diverse stakeholders.
Perform additional duties and responsibilities as assigned.
Travel as required to support business and operational needs.