Sr. Principal Industrial Designer - US

At Kids2, we’re really good at what we do. And when we’re great at our jobs, we help parents be great at their jobs.

Parenting is demanding, and that’s where we come in. We want to reimagine how brands can make it easier for early stage parents – not by just selling them products, but by providing holistic solutions that transcend borders, categories and aisles.

No matter our title or department, at Kids2, our job is to create more tiny wins for parents, so they can create bright futures for their little ones. That’s a big task!

We’re serious about what we do, AND we love to have fun. Our team is hardworking, entrepreneurial, and passionate about helping families create millions, if not billions of tiny wins.

SUMMARY

As the Sr. Principal Industrial Designer at Kids2 you will shape the future by designing products that help parents create tiny wins, keep every baby safe and delighted across multiple brands worldwide. With an understanding of developmental and consumer insights, designer will establish engaging play patterns and learning opportunities through storytelling, thoughtful features, and design excellence in color and form.

The Principal Industrial Designer can facilitate ideas from conception to production, including processing insights, presenting concepts to individuals of varying departments, and working both remotely and in-person with our Asia team.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES AND ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• Create drawings, sketches, and renderings to convey new concepts and ideas to engineering, marketing, packaging, and management.
• Convey the “story” of how concepts were developed and create pitches for product/collection ideas with storyboards, trend/mood boards, drawings, sketches, and high-quality renderings or animations.
• Interpret and apply both trends and insights into excellent forward-thinking product design.
• Create 3D mock-ups and kit-bashed models to communicate scale and function.
• Create 3D surface CAD to communicate design intent, evaluate CAD from vendors to ensure adherence to design vision, and generate 3D-printed models during the process.
• Drive projects from inception to completion while balancing the design intent with constraints like cost, manufacturing processes, and stakeholder inputs/needs.
• Prepare control drawings, color specs, and descriptions for the construction of prototypes and tooling models.
• Create marketing materials and displays to aid in conveying and promoting new ideas both internally and to customers.
• Run creative brainstorm sessions, build stories, essence and play pattern for our portfolio of brands as they come to life in toys. 
• Participate in formal and informal reviews and brainstorming sessions to generate new product ideas.
• Work with outside vendors to supplement internal development resources.
• Support pre-production efforts, including approvals of tooling drawings, material samples, and pre-production product samples.
• Travel to Asia to work with designers and manufacturers 3 to 4 times a year is required.  Build understanding for the target consumer, influenced by kid usability and parent expectations and needs.
• Other duties & responsibilities as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

• 7+ years of experience in design field is preferred, including internships or co-ops.

EDUCATION & SKILLS

• Undergraduate degree in Industrial Design, Product Design, Toy Design or Entertainment Design
• Requires attention to detail, excellent aesthetic sense for form and color, and high levels of cooperation and teamwork
• Strong visualization skills:  2D Sketching
• Basic understanding of business strategy
• Basic understanding of manufacturing materials and processes
• Basic modelmaking skills
• Strong time-management skills

CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS

• None required

COMPUTER/TECHNICAL SKILLS

• Proficient in Adobe Creative Suite, Illustrator, Photoshop, etc (required)
• Digital sketching software - Sketchbook Pro (required)
• Basic Microsoft Office software - Word, Excel, Powerpoint (required)
• Surface modeling software - Alias/Solidworks (preferred)
• Parametric modeling software - Creo (optional)
• 3D visualization software - Bunkspeed/Keyshot (optional)
• 3D Printer experience (optional)

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

• While performing the duties of this job, the team member is regularly required to talk or hear.
• The team member frequently is required to sit; have flexible use of hands; reach with hands and arms; and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl.
• The team member is occasionally required to stand, walk, and taste or smell.
• The team member must regularly lift and/or move up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 - 50 pounds.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.
   

WORK ENVIRONMENT

• General office environment

We offer competitive pay, flexible hours, and generous benefits. Plus, to keep things fun (because we are all kids at heart), we offer a host of team member activities and philanthropic efforts throughout the year and company-wide awards and recognition for a job well done!

Check out our website at www.kids2.com and our social media pages on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram for more information and open positions in the career section.

Drug Free Workplace M/F/D/V