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 fans, entertain audiences 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 company that invented Barbie and Hot Wheels is ready for its next breakthrough brand. Mattel Innovation Venture is responsible for launching breakthrough ideas - new brands, new business models, and new ways to play. The team builds from early insight and concept through visual identity, packaging, retail expression, omnichannel assets, and executive storytelling.
Job Description
The Opportunity:
Mattel is seeking a Sr. Packaging designer to help define and lead the visual future of new Venture brands. This role is broader than packaging execution: it is responsible for establishing the brand visual identity systems that bring new ideas to life across packaging, digital, e-commerce, retail, marketing, presentations, and other consumer touchpoints.
The ideal candidate is a highly experienced creative leader with exceptional taste, strong visual judgment, and a proven ability to translate strategy, consumer insight, and business ambition into distinctive, premium, scalable design systems. This person will create and steward brand guidelines and styleguides, lead design exploration from concept through production, and build persuasive executive-level presentations that clearly communicate a brand vision and the rationale behind it.
This leader must be fluent in modern creative workflows, including the practical use of AI tools for ideation, visualization, storytelling, workflow acceleration, and design exploration. They will manage internal and external resources, partner closely with cross-functional teams, and guide illustrators, photographers, retouchers, vendors, and global partners to deliver work that meets a high creative bar.
What Your Impact Will Be:
- The primary role is the creation of breakthrough brand visual identities for new Mattel Venture toy packaging from concept through production.
- Help Build brand guidelines, styleguides, visual toolkits, and design systems that clarify brand codes, graphic language, typography, color, photography/illustration direction, and packaging principles
- Partner on packaging strategy, concept development, and design execution from early exploration through production, ensuring the work is strategically grounded, emotionally resonant, and visually distinctive.
- Translate insights, raw concepts, and business strategy into clear creative narratives that secure alignment and buy-in from cross-functional partners and executive stakeholders.
- Create high-quality presentations, concept boards, visual frameworks, and storytelling materials that communicate design vision with clarity, taste, and strategic intent.
- Use AI tools thoughtfully and effectively to accelerate ideation, mood development, visualization, concept iteration, presentation development, and creative workflow efficiency.
- Set and maintain a high creative bar for design taste, craft, and consistency
- Partner with and direct, internal development designers and cross-functional creative contributors while effectively briefing and art directing external illustrators, photographers and vendors.
- Partner with product design, marketing, insights, structural engineering, program management, legal, licensing, e-commerce, and global teams to ensure packaging and graphic assets deliver on strategy and can be executed at scale.
- Balance creative ambition with cost, schedule, manufacturing, and retail realities.
- Advocate for the consumer and the brand, ensuring final creative work is compelling, ownable, understandable, and aligned with key business objectives.
- Successfully present and defend creative concepts to cross-functional teams, senior leadership, and executive management.
Qualifications
What We’re Looking For:
- 3-5+ years of progressive experience in packaging design, graphic design or related design roles, ideally across consumer products, entertainment, lifestyle, toy, fashion, beauty, tech, or culturally relevant brands.
- Team player (ability to work with immediate team members and cross functional partners)
- Ability to accept and give creative direction
- Up to date on current trends: graphics, advertising, fashion, technology, entertainment, social, etc.
- A portfolio that demonstrates exceptional taste, visual sophistication, range, strong packaging craft, and the ability to create distinctive design systems from the ground up.
- Experience establishing packaging brand guidelines, styleguides.
- Experience in packaging design from concept through production, including structure, graphics, hierarchy, typography, color, materials, finishes, retail impact, and manufacturing considerations.
- Demonstrated familiarity with AI-enabled creative tools and workflows, with the judgment to use them responsibly, efficiently, and in service of stronger creative outcomes.
- Ability to prioritize and handle multiple projects with different delivery dates simultaneously, in order to meet tight deadlines
- Excellent communication and organizational skills
- Excellent presentation skills with the ability to articulate design and vision
- Experience managing external partners, freelance specialists, and global production partners.
- Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite, presentation tools, and modern design workflows; familiarity with 3D visualization, rendering, prototyping, and AI image/concept generation tools is strongly preferred.
- Self-directed, proactive, and comfortable working through ambiguity in a fast-paced innovation environment with multiple parallel-path projects.
Preferred Experience
- Experience launching new brands, sub-brands, or franchise extensions from early strategy through consumer-facing execution.
- Experience in toys, entertainment, licensed IP, consumer products, or youth/family lifestyle categories.
- Experience developing omnichannel brand assets for retail, e-commerce, social, digital, and presentation environments.
- Experience working with overseas partners and managing creative quality through production and commercialization.
*The pay range is indicative of projected hiring range, however base pay will be determined based on a candidate’s work location, skills and experience. Mattel offers competitive total pay programs, comprehensive benefits, and resources to help empower a culture where every employee can reach their full potential.
Additional Information
Don’t meet every single requirement? At Mattel, we are dedicated to an inclusive workplace and a culture of belonging. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we still encourage you to apply. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles. Join Mattel's Talent Community and start receiving exciting updates about our company, our employees, and our culture. Also, interested in signing up for job alerts? Do so here!
How We Work:
We are a purpose driven company aiming to empower generations 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.
Who We Are:
Mattel is a leading global toy and family entertainment company and owner of one of the most iconic brand portfolios in the world. We engage consumers and fans through our franchise brands, including Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price, American Girl, Thomas & Friends, UNO, Masters of the Universe, Matchbox, Monster High, MEGA and Polly Pocket, as well as other popular properties that we own or license in partnership with global entertainment companies. Our offerings include toys, content, consumer products, digital and live experiences. Our products are sold 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 generations to explore the wonder of childhood and reach their full potential.
Mattel’s award-winning workplace culture has been recognized by Forbes, Fast Company, Newsweek, Great Place to Work, TIME, and more.
Visit us at https://jobs.mattel.com/ and www.instagram.com/MattelCareers.
Mattel is an Equal Opportunity Employer where we want you to bring your authentic self to work every day. We welcome all job seekers, and all applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, veteran and protected veteran status, disability status, and or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state or local law.
Pursuant to the Los Angeles Fair Chance Ordinance and the California Fair Chance Act, qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment.
Videos to watch:
The Culture at Mattel
Corporate Philanthropy
