Associate Manager, Wheels Tracks & Playsets

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 Hot Wheels Tracks and Playsets design team is a group of passionate and inspired designers with the goal of creating the best toys on earth. We are looking for motivated, challenge-seeking, innovative thinkers to create the next Hot Wheels Licensed Entertainment toys for kids. Our products range from dynamic vehicle playsets, over-the-top track sets and unique accessories as well as Hot Wheels Licensed Entertainment die‑cast designs.

We work with an equally passionate cross‑function team that spans the globe with our international partners, making our design‑led toy company of Mattel one of the best in the industry. Are you up for the challenge?

The Product Design Associate Manager will lead and inspire a group of designers on one or more key segments of Hot Wheels Licensed Entertainment tracks and playsets, creating innovative products. This design manager must stay on top of the latest kids trends, pop culture, entertainment, kid insights and fun play. The Product Design Associate Manager will execute and help create product design visions, strengthen the voice of our designers and will be ready for any hands‑on managing that is required to keep the business moving.

You will guide, nurture and grow your design team to empower the future leaders within the organization.

• You have a thorough understanding of the toy product design‑development processes
  • Strong ability to ideate, sketch, illustrate, generate rough models
  • Thorough understanding of final modeling and production
  • Clear understanding of the toy industry and entertainment industry, with familiarity of vehicles category
• You are a strategic design thinker
  • Contribute and execute on product design vision
  • Bring fresh POV with innovative design concepts
  • Solid understanding of how to design for the target consumer, influenced by kid usability and parent expectations and needs
  • Willingness to lead and be led, taking feedback and commentary on projects and applying where necessary
• You are a visual designer
  • Create visual design language in a product that is suitable for the core audience and maintains the Hot Wheels edge
  • Understanding of how play and design work together in product to tell a concise story
• An excellent communicator
  • Present to an audience of varying sizes clearly and confidently
  • Can distill concepts into a clear, understandable narrative to garner buy‑in throughout the organization through a variety of media
• Collaborator
  • Work with Mattel’s Consumer Insights team to identify opportunities, consumer needs, parent and kid purchase behaviors
  • Partner with cross‑function teams in Marketing, Packaging, Engineering and Product Management
• You are nimble
  • Adapt fast to new design challenges
  • Capable of pivoting and revising projects and strategy where business necessitates
  • Occasionally participate in design efforts outside of your area of expertise as your skillset dictates
• Multi‑tasker
  • Handle projects with varying complexity through maximization of design team and internal/external resources of Mattel
  • Jump in as a hands‑on manager to assist your design team and take on design projects as well

• You are a design leader
  • Manage a team of designers and empower them to grow and foster forward thinking
  • Form a strong business relationship with your team, gaining trust through collaboration, guidance, teamwork and empathy
  • Maximize each designer’s skill within the team and nurture areas of opportunity
  • Guide your team to best fulfill strategic product needs
  • Can lead but also be led
• You are a role-model
  • Lead by example and maintain professionalism, representing Mattel’s…