Product Design Manager - Barbie Design

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 Business

• You have a thorough understanding of the toy product design-development processes
• From ideation sketches, illustrations, rough models, to final modeling and production
• Have your finger on the pulse for the latest in fashion, graphics and toy trends
• Have 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 vision
• Brings fresh POV with innovative design concepts
• Understands systems of play in small dolls
• Understand the story, essence and lifestyle of Disney Princess as it comes to life in toys
• Build strategy around a toy line across a variety of price points and play styles
• Solid understanding of how to design for the target consumer, influenced by kid usability and parent expectations and needs
• Can take in feedback and commentary on projects and revise where necessary
• You are a visual designer
• Able to create visual design language in a product that is suitable for that princess audience
• Set 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 story
• An excellent communicator:
• Able to present to an audience of varying sizes both clearly and confidently
• Can take concepts and distill them into a clear, understandable narrative to garner buy-in throughout the organization through a variety of medium
• Collaborator:
• 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 behaviors
• Partner 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 necessitates
• Occasionally participate in design efforts outside of your area of expertise, and as your own skillset dictates
• Multi-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 team The Team
• You are a design leader
• You manage a team of designers and empower them to grow and foster forward thinking
• Able to form a strong business relationship with your team gaining trust through collaboration, guidance, teamwork and empathy
• You will maximize each designers’ skill within the team and nurture their areas of opportunity
• You will guide your team to best fulfill strategic product needs
• You can lead but also be led
• You are a role-model
• Lead by example and maintain professionalism, representing the core values of Mattel
• You are passionate and inspire your design team to make toys that matter and make an impact

What We’re Looking For:

• 7 years+ of cross-functional experience in a product development
• Able to embrace, interpret and re-tell these long loved stories through toy. To be able to be an ambassador of a brand that represents both Mattel and Disney.
• Collaborative and communicative team player who enjoys driving and overseeing projects and processes cross-functionally with a wide range of personalities
• Self-directed problem-solver - you're proactive in tackling new challenges and working through uncertainty
• Structured thinker who's able to develop frameworks to support strategic decisions
• On top of trends in the toy space and adjacent industries
• Strong negotiation & relationship building skills
• Must be self-motivated and able to manage multiple parallel-path projects.
• Have a passion for making great product *The pay range is indicative of projected hiring range, however base pay will be determined based on a candidate’s work location, skills and experience. Mattel offers competitive total pay programs, comprehensive benefits, and resources to help empower a culture where every employee can reach their full potential.

CREATIVITY IS OUR SUPERPOWER. It’s our heritage and it’s also our future. Because we don’t just make toys.

We create innovative products and experiences that inspire fans, entertain audiences and develop children through play. Mattel is at its best when every member of our team feels respected, included, and heard—when everyone can show up as themselves and do their best work every day. We value and share an infinite range of ideas and voices that evolve and broaden our perspectives with a reach that extends into all our brands, partners, and suppliers.

The Team: At Barbie, our Global Product Design team is a creative powerhouse driven by passion and innovation, united by a singular goal: to create the most groundbreaking, inspiring toys in the world. As a Barbie Product Design Manager , you will have the unique opportunity to be part of a team of visionary designers on a journey to shape the future of Barbie, while igniting the imaginations of the next generation of kids.

Through innovative design, trendsetting styles, and a fearless approach to creativity, you’ll ensure that Barbie remains not only relevant, but an enduring force in the hearts and minds of kids everywhere. Help us continue Barbie's legacy as a trailblazer - where cool, cutting-edge fashion meets inspiring, aspirational play.

Come be part of a team known for “TOTY” award winning innovation that has made Barbie the # 1 Doll brand in the world!