Lead Product Designer - Games
Mattel · El Segundo, California, United States · onsite
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 Opportunity:
Mattel is looking for an experienced and imaginative Lead Product Designer to help shape the future of one of the world’s most iconic games portfolios. From UNO, Pictionary, Scrabble, Phase 10, Skip-Bo, Blokus, KerPlunk!, and beyond, you’ll lead the design of play experiences that entertain millions of players around the world.
This is a senior individual contributor role for a designer who can move fluidly between gameplay systems, physical product design, prototyping, and creative leadership. You’ll take ownership of complex programs, establish clear design direction, and help other designers solve difficult problems while remaining deeply involved in the work yourself.
Working across Design, Marketing, Engineering, Consumer Insights, Packaging, Licensing, and Operations, you’ll help transform ideas into intuitive, compelling products while raising the creative bar for the broader Games team.
What Your Impact Will Be:
Gameplay & Innovation
- Design and develop new gameplay experiences across Mattel's portfolio of family, party, strategy, and card games.
- Own complex projects from early concept exploration through prototyping, playtesting, refinement, and final product execution.
- Apply game design principles, player psychology, consumer insights, and a strong understanding of player behavior to create experiences that are simple to learn, rewarding to play, and built for repeat engagement.
- Build and test prototypes quickly, using playtesting and consumer feedback to improve mechanics, pacing, accessibility, and overall player experience.
- Identify opportunities to reinvent established brands while developing entirely new ways to play.
Product Design Excellence
- Translate gameplay into intuitive, beautifully crafted physical products, components, and interactions.
- Develop clear design solutions through sketching, model making, CAD, rendering, prototyping, and other appropriate visualization tools.
- Partner closely with Engineering and Packaging to balance creativity with manufacturing feasibility, quality, cost, and sustainability.
- Make thoughtful decisions around materials, component design, ergonomics, visual hierarchy, tactile interaction, and overall product experience.
- Review prototypes and production samples to help preserve design intent and gameplay integrity through manufacturing.
Creative Leadership & Influence
- Provide creative leadership across projects, establishing clear design direction and helping teams navigate ambiguous or complex design challenges.
- Lead constructive critique and design reviews that strengthen ideas, sharpen decision-making, and raise the quality of the work.
- Mentor and support Product Designers and Senior Product Designers through feedback, collaboration, and hands-on problem solving.
- Communicate design strategy and recommendations clearly to cross-functional partners and senior stakeholders, building alignment around the strongest consumer experience.
- Act as a trusted design partner across the Games organization while remaining a hands-on individual contributor rather than a direct people manager.
Execution & Collaboration
- Drive projects from concept through commercialization, managing multiple parallel workstreams while maintaining creative quality and attention to detail.
- Build strong partnerships across Marketing, Consumer Insights, Engineering, Packaging, Licensing, and external development partners.
- Anticipate risks, solve complex design challenges, and make informed tradeoffs throughout development.
- Help improve design tools, workflows, critique practices, and development approaches that enable stronger collaboration and faster iteration.
What We’re Looking For:
- 7+ years of experience designing tabletop, card, party, strategy, family games, toys, or related physical consumer products, with demonstrated strength in game and product design.
- Experience leading the complete game development process, including ideation, mechanics, prototyping, playtesting, balancing, iteration, and commercialization.
- A strong portfolio demonstrating sophisticated problem solving, compelling physical product design, and the ability to translate ideas into clear, engaging play experiences.
- Deep understanding of player motivation, game systems, probability, progression, accessibility, and player experience design.
- Knowledge of consumer product development, manufacturing processes, materials, tooling, and production constraints.
- Proven ability to lead through influence, provide meaningful creative direction, and elevate the work of other designers without relying on formal authority.
- Strong communication, storytelling, critique, and presentation skills.
- Ability to manage multiple complex projects, navigate ambiguity, and maintain momentum in a fast-paced development environment.
- Passion for games, curiosity about how people play, and a desire to create products that bring people together.
Bonus Points If You Have
- Experience shipping commercially successful tabletop or card games.
- Experience facilitating structured playtesting, game balancing, and consumer research.
- Experience working across licensed entertainment brands or global product development organizations.
- Familiarity with modern tabletop gaming trends and mechanics across hobby and mass-market categories.
- Experience mentoring designers or serving as a creative lead across multidisciplinary development teams.
- A genuine love of games and play, whether that’s inventing mechanics, hosting game nights, collecting modern board games, or simply believing that bringing people together through play is one of the best jobs in the world.
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.
Our Approach to Flexible Work:
This role is an in-office role Monday-Thursday, and work from home on Fridays. We embrace a flexible work model designed to empower a cultur