Sr. Manager, Product & Digital Innovation

Crayola has inspired children to express their creativity since 1903. Crayolians take pride in fulfilling our mission of helping parents and educators raise creatively alive children around the world. Join our team and be part of an iconic brand that develops quality art products and experiences that are loved by families and preferred by teachers. Our company culture is mission focused, and encourages fun, collaboration, transparency, and helping others.

Crayola believes our workforce benefits from a broad spectrum of diverse ideas and perspectives which enables us to understand our consumers better.

Sr. Manager, Product & Digital Innovation, Easton, PA

GENERAL

SUMMARY:

An innovation leader who bridges physical and digital experiences-owning the full lifecycle from insight to in-market execution. This role combines traditional toy/product marketing rigor with emerging technology fluency to build scalable, retail-ready, and future-forward play experiences. This role exists to uncover unmet consumer needs, create digital solutions, and generate new revenue streams through innovative digital applications that extend Crayola's physical products into digital and hybrid play experiences.

The role serves as a cross-functional connector across digital, product marketing, sales, and technology teams to ensure concepts are commercially viable, brand-right, and scalable.

PRINCIPAL

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

* Serves as an internal thought leader and catalyst for digital innovation, AI applications, and hybrid play experiences across the organization.

* Owns end-to-end product innovation from concept to commercialization across both physical and digital experiences-leading discovery, development, and launch of hybrid products that integrate seamlessly within Crayola's portfolio.

* Identify, validate, and scale new revenue streams-including physical products, connected experiences, applications, tools, subscriptions, or hybrid offerings-ensuring strong consumer willingness to pay and retail viability.

* Lead consumer-first product strategy by uncovering unmet needs across physical play, digital engagement, and AI-enabled creativity-translating insights into differentiated, commercially viable product platforms.

* Develop integrated physical + digital play systems (O2O / D2P) that extend Crayola's core "color, create, and customize" behaviors-ensuring innovations enhance core play patterns rather than fragment them.

* Drive physical product development in partnership with PD & Engineering-ensuring digital features, AI layers, and connected experiences are purpose-built to enhance the core product, manufacturable at scale, and cost-aligned with margin targets.

* Own the commercialization process for new products including:

* Product briefs and positioning

* Pricing strategy and margin architecture

* Packaging and merchandising strategy

* Retail sell-in storytelling and channel strategy

* Demand creation inputs (digital, social, platform marketing)

* Collaborate cross-functionally (Product Development, Engineering, Digital, Platform Marketing, Sales, and Creative) to ensure feasibility, scalability, and cohesive execution across both physical and digital ecosystems,

* Assess emerging technologies, AI capabilities, and digital trends through a product lens-identifying where they can create meaningful, manufacturable, and retail-ready consumer value.

* Build robust business cases, prototypes, and pilot programs to validate:

* Consumer desirability (qual + quant)

* Price elasticity and purchase intent

* Retailer acceptance and shelf fit

* Long-term platform and franchise potential

* Ensure seamless integration into Crayola's retail and DTC channels, balancing innovation with operational realities (cost of goods, supply chain, packaging constraints, and merchandising requirements).

* Act as a self-driven business owner / GM of new concepts-independently advancing initiatives while aligning with cross-functional partners to bring products from idea to shelf.

* Serve as a thought leader for hybrid play and innovation-championing the intersection of physical products, digital engagement, and AI to unlock future growth platforms for the…