Product Development Specialist

Company Description

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, entertain 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

The Global Franchise Product Development team delivers knowledgeable, efficient and timely review of licensed product to protect our brands and facilitate our growth. We work in partnership with Greater Franchise Creative and Commercial teams to execute regional creative direction and regional business needs during the product development process.

Job Description

The Opportunity

The Product Development Specialist (Product Approvals and Agency Oversight), assists in overseeing direct reports to elevate product development for global consumer product and marketing submissions for Mattel brands, as well as being the main Brand Assurance for Agent Partners. The opportunity spans products being developed across all our fantastic brands, a breadth of categories and multiple regions across the world. This includes providing creative onboarding, feedback in the required amount of time, working with our Creative teams to reflect their creative direction in their products and working with licensees and agencies to find solutions to issues while supporting them on how to use the product approval system.

What Your Impact Will Be:

• Being brand guardian for licensed products from concept through to the final manufactured product.
• Daily management of product approvals and development in our Product Approvals system.
• Provide support and solutions to licensees on their development and on how to use our Product Approvals system
• Conduct weekly meetings with direct reports, Franchise Creative and CP Commercial teams to facilitate business development
• Gain understanding from Franchise Creative and category managers to reflect regional strategy in product development
• Working to ensure creative direction is executed.
• Making sure Agencies have a point of contact on Brand Assurance, Best practices and guidelines to ensure their brand stewardship
• Contributing knowledge, ideas and solutions to the Global Franchise Creative team to improve the way they work.

Qualifications

What We’re Looking For:

 Requirements:

• 3+ years relevant experience in licensed consumer products
• Experience supervising direct reports
• Fluent written & verbal English language skills; additional languages an asset
• Must be extremely organized and adept at multi-tasking, managing multiple projects simultaneously
• Strong relationship builder and able to navigate internal and external relationships and stakeholders with ease
• Excellent communication skills, verbal and written
• Motivated, enthusiastic, and eager to learn
• Proficiency in MS365 Teams, Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint

Preferred:

• Background in Creative design or product development
• Operations experience
• Process Improvement
• Solutions oriented with ability to ‘think outside the box’

Additional Information

Who We Are:

Mattel is a leading global toy company and owner of one of the strongest catalogs of children’s and family entertainment franchises in the world. We create innovative products and experiences that inspire, entertain and develop children through play. We engage consumers through our portfolio of iconic brands, including Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price, American Girl, Thomas & Friends, UNO and MEGA, as well as other popular intellectual properties that we own or license in partnership with global entertainment companies. Our offerings include film and television content, gaming, music and live events. We operate in 35 locations and our products are available in more than 150 countries in collaboration with the world’s leading retail and ecommerce companies. Since its founding in 1945, Mattel is proud to be a trusted partner in empowering children to explore the wonder of childhood and reach their full potential.