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 Hot Wheels Monster Trucks 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 Monster Trucks toys for kids. Our products include the best-in-class Hot Wheels 1:64th Die-Cast Monster Trucks in varying scales and also a range of dynamic truck playsets, over-the-top tracks sets and unique truck accessories. 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?
Job Description
The Opportunity:
You will take the driver’s seat as Lead Designer for our Hot Wheels Monster Trucks vehicles working directly with our trucks’ graphics team and our cross-function partners both on campus and internationally creating the next dynamic kid-relevant truck designs. We cover a wide variety of themes ranging from Hot Wheels original designs, creature themes, humorous, licenses entertainment trucks, and many more. You will also help lead and inspire a group of designers creating innovative products for our Monster Trucks vehicles that are rooted in trends, kid insights and fun play.
What Your Impact Will Be:
The Business
- You have a solid understanding of toy product design-development processes
- Have a clear understanding of the Toy industry, with familiarity of toys both past and present within vehicles and trucks category
- Expert with vehicle ideation sketches, illustrations, rough models, to final modeling and production
- You have solid experience of the design process with critical production development milestones and key manufacturing process
- Variety of materials applications
- Tooling limitations, molding capabilities,
- Costing
- Assembly Process
- You are a strategic design thinker:
- Is an expert in vehicle and automotive design with a creative and forward edge
- Brings fresh POV with innovative designs
- Has a 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
- Understand and execute on a visual design language in a product that is suitable for our core audience and maintains the Hot Wheels edge
- Understanding of how play and visual design work together in product to tell a concise story
- Experienced 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:
- 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.
- You are a multi-tasker:
- As primary designer on Monster Trucks you can take on multiple design projects at the same time with seasoned product/time management skills
- Able to utilize Mattel’s internal and external resources (outside vendors) where applicable to execute multiple projects
Qualifications
What We’re Looking For:
- 5 years+ of cross-functional experience in product development
- Able to thrive in the world of Vehicle design with innovating forward thinking
- Consumer focused designer
- Collaborative and communicative team player
- Self-directed problem-solver – you’re proactive in tackling new challenges and working through uncertainty
- Structured thinker who’s able to help develop and execute frameworks to support strategic decisions
- On top of trends in the vehicle, toy space and adjacent industries
- Strong relationship building skills
- Must be self-motivated and able to manage multiple parallel-path projects.
- Minimum of 2+ years of experience in production related capacity
- Have a passion for making great product
The annual base salary range for this position is between $102,000 and $128,000.
**This range is indicative of projected hiring range, however annual base salary will be determined based on a candidate’s work location, skills and experience.
Additional Information
Don’t meet every single requirement? At Mattel we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
What It’s Like to Work Here:
We are a purpose driven company aiming to empower the next generation to explore the wonder of childhood and reach their full potential. We live up to our purpose employing the following behaviors:
- We collaborate: Being a part of Mattel means being part of one team with shared values and common goals. Every person counts and working closely together always brings better results. Partnership is our process and our collective capabilities is our superpower.
- We innovate: At Mattel we always aim to find new and better ways to create innovative products and experiences. No matter where you work in the organization, you can always make a difference and have real impact. We welcome new ideas and value new initiatives that challenge conventional thinking.
- We execute: We are a performance driven company. We strive for excellence and are focused on pursuing best in class outcomes. We believe in accountability and ownership and know that our people are at their best when they are empowered to create and deliver results.
Our Approach to Flexible Work:
We embrace a flexible work model designed to empower a culture of growth, optimism, and wellbeing, where every employee can reach their full potential. Combining purposeful in-person collaboration with flexibility, our focus is to optimize performance and drive connection for moments that matter.
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.
Mattel is recognized for the second year in a row as a Great Place to Work™ and as one of Fast Company’s Best Workplaces for Innovators in 2022.
Visit us at https://jobs.mattel.com/ and www.instagram.com/MattelCareers.
Mattel is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer where we want you to bring your authentic self to work every day. We welcome all job seekers including minorities, females, veterans, military spouses, individuals with disabilities, and those of all sexual orientations and gender identities.
Videos To Watch
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