Senior Director, Franchise, Media and Retail Development

Position:Senior Director, Franchise, Media and Retail Development

Location: Irvine, CA

Job :165

# of Openings:1

The Senior Director, Marketing & Strategy leads the development and activation of BNTCA's mid- to long-term franchise, consumer, retail, and portfolio strategies. The role translates market, consumer, retail, category, competitive, and product-level insights into clear enterprise priorities that support sustainable growth across mass, specialty, ecommerce, direct-to-consumer, and experiential channels. This leader connects strategy to execution by aligning Brand, Sales, Media, Events, Analytics, Product Development, Operations, Finance, licensors, agencies, and Bandai Namco stakeholders in Japan around integrated plans, measurable KPIs, and disciplined resource allocation.

The Senior Director serves as a senior strategic advisor to department and executive leadership, strengthens strategic planning capabilities across the organization, and develops a high-performing team.

The Senior Director also plays a critical role in helping to bring Bandai Namco Toys & Collectibles of America’s products to life  position will drive consumer discoverability, product awareness, and support the growth of evergreen and content driven franchises through ongoing program development. Communication skills to coordinate input and action needed from multiple departments will be critical to success in this position.

This leader will leverage a deep understanding of the retail landscape, retail buyers, and their relationships with Bandai's sales, each brand’s toy development/licensing strategy and marketing teams to lead the development of campaign strategies. This includes prioritizing and balancing product selection, marketing tactics, and promotions aimed at maximizing ROI for each campaign.

This role will also oversee the development and ongoing operations of BNTCA’s flagship retail business, including company-operated brick-and-mortar stores and other key retail locations featuring the flagship brand.

• Lead the annual and multi-year Marketing & Strategy planning process, including franchise priorities, growth platforms, audience opportunities, channel strategies, investment choices, objectives, and KPIs.
• Create and maintain an integrated strategic matrix connecting IP, audience, retailer/channel, category, product, price point, content moment, and marketing activation.
• Identify whitespace opportunities and recommend where BNTCA should grow, defend, test, partner, or deprioritize based on strategic fit, consumer relevance, capability, risk, and financial potential.
• Prepare portfolio and franchise reviews for executive leadership, converting complex information into clear choices, implications, and recommended actions.
• Establish an operating cadence for strategy reviews, performance updates, decision forums, and course correction.

• Lead the use of primary and secondary research, sell-in and sell-through data, digital and cultural signals, retailer insights, and competitive intelligence to shape franchise and business recommendations.
• Partner with Analytics and Finance to define performance frameworks, dashboards, hypotheses, post-program evaluations, and actionable learning agendas.
• Provide regular company wide updates on IP, consumer, category, retail, media, pop-culture, and toy-industry trends.
• Develop annual research priorities, manage external research partners as needed, and ensure insights are translated into decisions rather than reported in isolation.

• Guide integrated franchise strategies across…