Sr Manager, Creative - Mattel Masterbrand

Mattel•El Segundo, CA

5h•$148,000 - $183,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Mattel Brand Creative team is seeking a Senior Manager, Creative to help shape how Mattel shows up in the world. As Mattel continues to evolve as a global entertainment company, this role will help build, express, and scale the Mattel Masterbrand across a growing range of consumer, corporate, cultural, and experiential touchpoints. This is a highly conceptual and hands-on creative leadership role for someone who can think at the brand level and bring ideas to life with exceptional craft. The ideal candidate is equally comfortable developing a big creative idea, building a visual system, directing an agency, designing alongside a team, and presenting work to senior stakeholders. Working across Mattel’s portfolio of iconic brands, this person will help create a cohesive and recognizable Mattel brand presence while finding fresh, culturally relevant ways for the Masterbrand and our brands to come together.

Requirements

Conceptual creative thinker: Able to translate strategy and consumer insight into simple, powerful creative ideas with the ability to scale across channels.
Exceptional design sensibility: Strong command of typography, composition, visual systems, storytelling, art direction, and craft.
Brand builder: Understands how to build a distinctive global brand while creating enough flexibility for it to remain fresh, surprising, and culturally relevant.
Hands-on creative leader: Comfortable moving between creative direction and making, with the ability to develop ideas visually and guide them through execution.
Integrated thinker: Sees the brand experience holistically and understands how an idea can move across campaigns, content, social, digital, environments, experiences, retail, packaging, and emerging touchpoints.
Culture-forward: Curious about entertainment, design, fashion, gaming, art, technology, social behavior, and broader culture, with an instinct for how brands can participate authentically.
Multi-brand storyteller: Able to work across a portfolio of iconic brands while understanding how each brand’s individual equity can connect back to the larger Mattel story.
Collaborative leader: Thrives in a highly matrixed organization and builds strong relationships across creative, marketing, design, communications, and business teams.
Agency-savvy: Experienced in briefing, directing, challenging, and partnering with agencies and external creative talent to deliver exceptional work.
Compelling communicator: Able to articulate the thinking behind creative work, build alignment, and confidently present to senior leadership.
Creative problem solver: Comfortable with ambiguity and energized by assignments where the creative opportunity or solution has not yet been defined.
Masterbrand and corporate brand development
Brand identity and visual systems
Creative concepting and art direction
Integrated campaign development
Brand storytelling and narrative development
Digital and social creative
Experiential, events, and environmental design
Content, video, motion, and animation
Retail and packaging creative
Multi-brand and portfolio storytelling
Cultural and partnership activations
Agency and production partner management
Creative team leadership and mentorship
Executive-level presentation and storytelling

Responsibilities

Help define, evolve, and champion the creative expression of the Mattel Masterbrand across global touchpoints.
Lead the development of breakthrough, idea-led creative that builds awareness, affinity, and recognition for Mattel and strengthens the connection between Mattel and its portfolio of iconic brands.
Translate Mattel’s brand strategy and positioning into compelling creative ideas, visual storytelling, and brand experiences.
Develop and scale Mattel’s visual identity system, establishing clear creative principles while continually finding new and unexpected ways for the brand to come to life.
Lead creative across a wide range of work including integrated campaigns, social and digital, content, experiential, events, environments, corporate initiatives, partnerships, retail, packaging, and internal brand moments.
Create work that can flex across audiences, from kids and families to adult fans, employees, partners, and the broader cultural community.
Partner with Mattel’s individual brand teams to create moments where the Masterbrand and our portfolio of brands work together in a cohesive and meaningful way.
Collaborate closely with Marketing, Communications, Consumer Products, Digital, Design, Content, Events, Workplace, and other cross-functional teams to build a consistent Mattel brand experience.
Provide clear, inspiring creative direction to internal creative teams, agencies, freelancers, production partners, and vendors.
Be hands on for both design, creative direction and on photoshoots. This role requires on-set production experience.
Remain hands-on throughout the creative process, from concept development and design exploration through production and final execution.
Identify opportunities to push the Mattel brand into new spaces, formats, partnerships, and cultural moments.
Present and advocate for creative work with clarity and confidence to cross-functional partners and senior leadership.
Manage multiple high-profile initiatives simultaneously, balancing creative ambition, business objectives, timelines, and budgets.
Mentor and develop creative talent while helping foster a culture of curiosity, experimentation, collaboration, and high creative standards.