The Opportunity: 
The Barbie Design team is seeking a highly skilled, experienced, and self-motivated Design Manager to lead and inspire its product design team. In this role, you will provide creative leadership across multiple product categories, guiding the development of innovative toy concepts that resonate with today's kids by translating consumer insights, emerging trends, and new technologies into compelling product experiences.As a Design Manager, you will oversee and mentor designers throughout the product development process, fostering creativity, collaboration, and design excellence while ensuring projects align with brand strategy, quality standards, and business objectives. You will partner closely with cross-functional teams—including Marketing, Engineering, Packaging, and Product Development—to drive alignment, solve complex design challenges, and deliver successful products from concept through execution.The ideal candidate is a strategic and collaborative creative leader with a strong product design background, a passion for developing talent, and a proven ability to balance hands-on design direction with team leadership in a fast-paced, highly collaborative environment.
 What Your Impact Will Be: The BusinessYou have a thorough understanding of the toy product design-development processesFrom ideation sketches, illustrations, rough models, to final modeling and productionHave your finger on the pulse for the latest in fashion, graphics and toy trendsHave a clear understanding of the Toy industry, with familiarity of toys both past and present in the small dolls and fashion dolls categories.You are a strategic design thinker:Able to contribute and execute on product design visionBrings fresh POV with innovative design conceptsUnderstands systems of play in small dollsUnderstand the story, essence and lifestyle of Disney Princess as it comes to life in toysBuild strategy around a toy line across a variety of price points and play stylesSolid understanding of how to design for the target consumer, influenced by kid usability and parent expectations and needsCan take in feedback and commentary on projects and revise where necessaryYou are a visual designerAble to create visual design language in a product that is suitable for that princess audienceSet the visual stage in color, sparkle and story every season by presenting and applying trend“Sweating the details” – Princess is all about the small details, from color to graphics to material finishes.  You need to care about the tiniest details.Understanding of how play and design work together in product to tell a storyAn excellent communicator:Able to present to an audience of varying sizes both clearly and confidentlyCan take concepts and distill them into a clear, understandable narrative to garner buy-in throughout the organization through a variety of mediumCollaborator:Work with outside licensors to build the best product.  To be able to be a problem solver, partner and toy advocate.  To share communication in both directions to ensure alignment across all parties.Working with Mattel’s Consumer Insights team to identify opportunities, consumer needs, parent, and kid purchase behaviorsPartner with Mattel’s cross-function team of experts in Marketing, Packaging, Engineering and Product Management.  You are nimble:Able to pivot and revise on projects and strategy where business necessitatesOccasionally participate in design efforts outside of your area of expertise, and as your own skillset dictatesMulti-tasker:On projects with varying complexity through maximization of your design team and internal / external resources of Mattel (Internal cross function team, International Mattel partners, outside vendors)Can jump in on any given situation as a hands-on manager to assist your design teamThe TeamYou are a design leaderYou manage a team of designers and empower them to grow and foster forward thinkingAble to form a strong business relationship with your team gaining trust through collaboration, guidance, teamwork and empathyYou will maximize each designers’ skill within the team and nurture their areas of opportunityYou will guide your team to best fulfill strategic product needsYou can lead but also be ledYou are a role-modelLead by example and maintain professionalism, representing the core values of MattelYou are passionate and inspire your design team to make toys that matter and make an impact
