Sr Packaging Designer

About the role

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.

Responsibilities

• Create and steward brand guidelines and styleguides, leading design exploration from concept through production.
• 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

• 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.

Skills

• Exceptional taste, visual sophistication, range, strong packaging craft, and the ability to create distinctive design systems from the ground up.
• Proven ability to translate strategy, consumer insight, and business ambition into distinctive, premium, scalable design systems.
• Fluency in modern creative workflows, including the practical use of AI tools for ideation, visualization, storytelling, workflow acceleration, and design exploration.
• Strong visual judgment and taste.

Benefits

Mattel offers competitive total pay programs, comprehensive benefits, and resources to help empower a culture where every employee can reach their full potential.

Pay

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.

Schedule

Mattel is 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.

Contact Us

To learn more about Mattel and how you can contribute to our mission, visit us at https://jobs.mattel.com/ and follow us on Instagram.