Senior Product Design and Development Manager

About the Role & Team

Set and lead the product design direction for relevant areas of responsibility, ensuring output meets overarching product strategy and commercial goals.

This role will require you to be onsite 4 days a week.

What You Will Do

• Lead, run, and develop team, ensuring consistent, appropriate direction and feedback is given to grow and develop each individual

• Encouraging the team to be globally aware of current product trends that can be interpreted through a Disney lens

• Work closely with the softlines, operations, creative, commercial, senior management and product creation teams regionally across all relevant categories and franchises to deliver commercial results and strategy

• Focus on integration across EMEA, strategically aligning teams, policies, systems and processes as the highest priority, championing EMEA as a global centre of excellence, raising regional creativity by supporting and leading pitch creation, regional briefing, trend analysis, asset usage across franchise and innovation

• Demonstrate and operate with an in-depth understanding of the EMEA markets’, understanding market segmentation, country specifics, and franchise diversity, elevating product accordingly and lead and encourage to deliver outstanding product ideation driving commercial strategy and business growth

• Achieve the earned revenue targets and exceed targeted KPIs on quality and on time approvals

• Coordinate comp shops, and lead internal trend and design workshops and franchise ideation sessions across category/franchise and market segmentation, providing creative and design support to the markets collaborating and exploring untapped categories

• Service the global strategic brand pillars regionally to leverage and bring together diverse teams, knowledge, geographies and creative talent, identifying new product opportunities, which will inspire the business to produce first class conceptual designs and pitch to prospective/existing partners

• Work with creative and operations on availability of style guides, to ensure licensees are provided appropriate creative assets for product creation, developing new assets as required via the creative teams and against the specific needs of the category

• Coordinate, in tandem with operations, regional brand management approvals and build and maintain a process and framework for approval timelines

• Be responsible for calenderisation, in line with the business brief and KPIs, with particular attention to design development timelines and deliverables with regional partners

• Manage across accounts from concept through to final approved product and to assess pre and post quality delivery mitigating risk and ensuring product is fit for purpose, fit for partner and viable to go to market, giving feedback to team accordingly

• Reporting and analysis of product approvals with full visibility of the critical path and calendars to management, providing requested information when required

• We will be offering creative input and trend direction to inspire licensees/retailers and help drive quality product

Required Qualifications & Skills

• Proven commercial design experience related to relevant category, essential, with demonstrable experience in briefing and managing external/internal designers and/or agencies

• Excellent leadership skills with a strong ability to network successfully with multiple internal and external customers, driving the commercial strategy to achieve success

• A strong sense for global home and stationery trend and can support a highly skilled team

• Accountable for the achievement of the earned revenue for select account and driving initiatives to exceed targeted KPIs on quality and on time approvals

• Experience within a similar role within a consumer products commercialisation environment, essential

• An advanced knowledge of trends within the industry of relevant category and the broader world of design with working knowledge of common manufacturing techniques and their application in production

• An ability to communicate design ideas using CAD drawing, computer techniques and/or third party design resources

• Understanding of fabric, colour, and product design

• Tried experience of crafting prototypes or models

The Perks

• 25 days annual leave

• Private medical insurance & dental care

• Free Park Entry: You will have the opportunity to enter any of our parks with your family and friends for free

• Disney Discounts: you are entitled to discounts on designated Disney products, resort F&B and ticketing

• Excellent parental and guardian leave

• Employee Resource Groups – WOMEN @ Disney, Disney DIVERSITY, Disney PRIDE, ENABLED, and our Mental Health & Wellbeing Group, TRUST.

The Walt Disney Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We strive to be a diverse workforce that is representative of our audiences, and where all can thrive and belong. Disney is committed to forming a team that includes and respects a variety of voices, identities, backgrounds, experiences and perspectives.

We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.