Manager, Design & Development (Toys & HL - Collectibles)

About the role

UDX FPP is looking for a creative and strategic Design Manager to guide product design and development from initial concept through final execution. This role combines hands-on design expertise, creative direction, team leadership, brand stewardship, and cross-functional collaboration to deliver products that are innovative, consumer-relevant, commercially viable, and authentic to Universal's properties.

With the primary focus on the collectibles market, this role requires a deep understanding of the collector consumer and the ability to respond quickly to evolving trends, fandom, nostalgia, emerging aesthetics, new formats, and product innovation. In addition, this role requires a deep understanding of Universal's properties and franchises including our animated, live action and horror portfolios.

Design & Development

• Oversee product approvals and provide timely, actionable feedback to licensees through the online product approval process.
• Embrace coaching and mentoring as opportunities to support individual and team growth.
• Deliver accurate design direction, draw-overs, and overlays aligned with property guidelines and franchise priorities.
• Serve as a design expert across assigned categories, materials, technologies, and 2D/3D execution.
• Create mood boards, concept sketches, visual direction, and assets for presentations.
• Research trends, innovation, and consumer insights to inspire new product ideas, with a strong focus on collectibles while remaining flexible across categories.
• Lead the creative vision and design direction across assigned product categories.
• Maintain a high standard of character, property, and brand integrity throughout development.
• Communicate effectively and confidently across internal teams, external partners, and leadership.
• Understand packaging structure, branding elements, legal requirements, and toy functionality.
• Provide clear meeting recaps, next steps, and action items to management and key stakeholders.
• Embrace Artificial Intelligence as an evolving creative tool and demonstrate a willingness to learn, experiment, and improve.
• Demonstrate versatility across design styles and aesthetics to respond to changing consumer and market trends.

Design Strategy

• Identify emerging trends, consumer behaviors, new play patterns, technologies, and white-space opportunities.
• Translate business and franchise strategies into compelling product concepts and design solutions.
• Monitor emerging trends and innovation across collectibles, toys, and adjacent product categories.
• Understand the competitive landscape, target consumer, and evolving collector mindset.
• Build clear, polished design strategy presentations for internal and leadership reviews.
• Plan, develop, and execute visual line plans that communicate cohesive product strategies and storytelling.
• Present concepts, product strategies, and design recommendations clearly and confidently to leadership.
• Balance nostalgia, fandom, current trends, and forward-looking innovation to create products that connect with both established and emerging collectors.

Licensing Expertise

• Understand the licensed entertainment and consumer products landscape.
• Maintain brand consistency across licensed characters, storytelling, products, assets, and toolkits.
• Guide product development from show to shelf, translating Universal IP into compelling consumer products.
• Direct external partners and licensees toward creative solutions that authentically represent Universal properties.
• Review product submissions and provide clear, actionable design feedback throughout development.
• Balance partner creativity with franchise authenticity, particularly within the collectibles space, while maintaining Universal's quality standards.

Collaboration & Communication

• Communicate strategically and effectively with internal teams, leadership, licensees, and external partners.
• Lead creative discussions, product reviews, kickoff meetings, and approval conversations.
• Maintain clear, consistent, and productive communication with licensees throughout development.
• Collaborate closely with Category, Franchise, Legal, Retail, and other cross-functional teams.
• Build strong relationships with internal and external partners to drive alignment and successful product execution.
• Advocate for strong design solutions while working collaboratively toward shared creative and business goals.
• Can confidently present creative concepts, product designs, and strategic recommendations to executive leadership, clearly articulating how creative solutions support franchise objectives, licensing opportunities, partner needs and broader business goals.
• Perform other related duties assigned to support the needs of the team.

This position is eligible for company sponsored benefits, including medical, dental and vision insurance, 401(k), paid leave, tuition reimbursement, and a variety of other discounts and perks. Learn more about the benefits offered by NBCUniversal by visiting the Benefits page of the Careers website.

Qualifications & Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in licensing, manufacturing, consumer products, toy design, collectibles, or a related field.
• Bachelor's degree in industrial design, Toy Design, Illustration, or a related field preferred.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating commercial product development and trend-forward design.
• Demonstrates openness to giving and receiving constructive feedback, embracing continuous improvement, and adapting approaches and ways of working to meet evolving business needs.
• Strong traditional and digital sketching skills, with strength in figures, collectibles, character-driven products, and stylized design trends.
• Strong understanding of the collectibles market, including established, emerging, and upcoming consumer trends.
• Demonstrated ability to identify trends and translate them into relevant product opportunities.
• Proactive, solutions-oriented mindset with the ability to drive projects forward.
• Strong communication, presentation, and creative-direction skills.
• Experience developing licensed entertainment products.
• Strong understanding of product development and manufacturing processes.
• Excellent illustration, conceptualization, and design skills.
• Proficiency in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, with working knowledge of InDesign, Keynote, PowerPoint, Word, and Excel.
• Strong understanding of 2D composition and 3D form.
• Highly organized, detail-oriented, and adaptable within a fast-paced development environment.
• Confident advocating for design recommendations while collaborating toward shared solutions.
• Comfortable experimenting with emerging creative technologies, including AI-assisted ideation and visualization.

Portfolio

• PORTFOLIO SUBMISSION GUIDLINES: Please submit a professional portfolio demonstrating strong product ideation, sketching, creative problem-solving, and design development is highly preferred. Examples of collectible or other three-dimensional product design are strongly preferred. Portfolios must showcase the full product development lifecycle, from concept to shelf, and include examples of sketches, trend research, pattern and print development, overlays/redlines, technical design packages (tech packs), sampling iterations, and final produced products. All submitted work must be the candidate's original work, with clear examples of their individual design contributions.

Additional Requirements

• Travel may be required
• Hybrid: This position currently has a hybrid schedule, which requires contributing from the office a minimum of four days per week. The Company reserves the right to change in-office requirements at any time.

About UDX FRANCHISE, PRODUCTS & PARTNERSHIPS

Universal Destination & Experiences' Franchise, Products & Partnerships team (UDX FPP) extends NBCUniversal's iconic brands, characters and stories through global consumer products and games, theme park merchandise and retail, in addition to the UDX enterprise function of franchise management and strategic partnerships. Supporting NBCUniversal's owned portfolio of properties as well as third-party partners across the theme park business, UDX FPP creates products, experiences and partnerships that deepen fandom and connects audiences around the world with the characters, stories and worlds that define Universal.