Designer Jobs

About The Position

Requirements

• At least 4 years of professional graphic design experience; consumer products and licensing industry experience preferred.
• Mastery of industry-standard tools, including Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign), and 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.
• Understanding of packaging structures, brand design elements, toy functionality, and product instructions.
• Ability to apply relevant market trends to opportunities for Universal intellectual property.
• Professional portfolio demonstrating product ideation, sketching, creative problem-solving, design development, and the full product development lifecycle from concept to shelf.
• Portfolio should include examples of sketches, trend research, pattern and print development, overlays/redlines, technical design packages (tech packs), sampling iterations, and final produced products.
• All portfolio work must be the candidate’s original work and clearly identify their individual design contributions.
• Bachelor’s degree in graphic design, illustration, or a related field required.

Nice To Haves

• Consumer products and licensing industry experience.
• Deep understanding of entertainment and consumer products licensing across toys, hardlines, and related categories.

Responsibilities

• Lead and oversee product development across puzzles, activities, party goods, and packaging, ensuring brand integrity, quality, and commercial relevance.
• Provide clear creative direction to internal and external partners, including decisions and next steps.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive, high-performing creative culture that supports innovation, professional growth, and thoughtful risk-taking.
• Drive creative excellence while optimizing processes, timelines, and resources in line with business objectives and milestones.
• Conceptualize and develop compelling, differentiated product ranges across categories.
• Collaborate cross-functionally to advance business initiatives and strategies.
• Apply licensing expertise and ensure licensed products uphold franchise integrity, storytelling, and visual consistency.
• Guide partners through licensing and approvals, setting expectations for quality, timing, and execution.
• Translate creative concepts into commercially viable products and identify new business opportunities.
• Serve as a subject-matter expert in materials, technical design, and execution; ensure designs meet Universal’s creative and quality standards.
• Provide partners with clear, actionable creative and product design guidance, and prioritize 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 opportunities and support differentiation.
• Build relationships with internal teams, senior leaders, and external partners to support 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 as assigned and travel as required to support business and operational needs.
• Review prototypes, samples, and pre-production builds to maintain design integrity.
• Create production-ready specifications, artwork files, and presentation materials.

Benefits

• Medical insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• 401(k)
• Paid leave
• Tuition reimbursement
• Other discounts and perks