Vice President, Design

What will you work on?

The Vice President, Design is responsible for the strategic leadership and execution of all aspects of design for new and carry forward products. Reporting to the President of Melissa & Doug, this role will shape and guide the creative vision for the brand.  

This role is required 4 days per week in our Connecticut office.

How will you create impact?

• Leading a team of designers at all levels and responsible for the creation and execution of products for the brand(s) in addition to partnering with vendors and inventors around the world to accomplish business goals and financials.  
• Be the brand steward, ensuring new products deliver the Melissa & Doug brand mission, aesthetic and quality.  
• Serve as a key contributor in the creation of 3-year new product strategy and review and refine as needed  
• Champion, inspire and lead the internal team and external partners for the invention of new products based on innovation, insight, research, consumer needs, play pattern, play value, quality, safety and inclusive design that reflects children of all diverse abilities and backgrounds.  
• Work with inventors and inventor relations team to evaluate submissions and reach out to the inventor and vendor community to seek out innovation.  
• Communicate vision for each product assigned in visual, verbal and prototype forms  
• Manage designer workload, employing external resources when needed for all new product development to ensure key PD launch dates are achieved and the team are delivering on all aspects of the development process.  
• Partner with cross-functional teams (Engineering, Quality Assurance, Marketing, Graphic Design, Sales, Planning, Copywriting) to ensure seamless and on-time development of each project.  
• Partner and collaborate with both internal and external design and ID consultants and manage the development costs with all design team members to bring each product within agreed project budgets and cost targets.  
• Lead the growth and development of the design team by training, mentoring and coaching team members at all levels, fostering and inspiring a culture of creativity, accountability and innovation. 

What are your skills and experience?

• Minimum of 20 years of experience in consumer product design with direct experience within the Toy business and owned Brands/IP.  
• Strong experience leading teams that drive high visibility, high impact design projects, with at least 10 years of experience managing and scaling teams, with proven mentoring and supervisory skills.  
• Highly skilled at collaborating with diverse teams and stakeholders to influence outcomes, drive execution and refine processes. 
• Proven track record of achieving KPIs in consumer product design, including product launch success, on-time delivery, cost targets and innovation pipeline performance. 

#LI-Hybrid #LI-HM1

This job posting is tied to an open vacancy.

What you can expect from us:

Our mission is to Make Life More Fun with a vision to push the boundaries of innovation, creativity, and fun.

• Growth and Career Opportunities

• Flexible Work Hours

• Innovation, Collaboration and Fun

• Comprehensive Benefits

• Other fun Perks!

What’s it like to work here?

Spin Master is a fast-paced, hands-on organization that provides many great opportunities for impactful decision-making; though our challenging start-up atmosphere isn’t for everyone, we have a proven record of opportunities for future advancement and internal transfers for our passionate and results driven team.

Everyone is welcome in our sandbox and we are committed to an accessible and inclusive hiring process that provides reasonable accommodation to all applicants.

Spin Master strives to create an accessible and inclusive application and selection process and is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to job applicants who may require provisions to participate in the recruitment, selection and/or assessment processes. Should you require an accommodation, please contact our Talent Acquisition team, by email at [email protected] or by phone at 416 364-6002 and we will work with you to meet your accessibility needs.

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We do appreciate all interest; however only those selected for interview will be contacted.