Sr. Designer, Design & Development (Toys & Hardlines)

About the role

UDX Franchsie, Products and Partnerships is seeking a Senior Designer to oversee end-to-end creative and product development across Puzzles, Activities, party and packaging categories, driving design excellence, innovation, and commercial success.

This role shapes and executes product design programs in alignment with brand vision, franchise priorities, and retailer business objectives, partnering closely with retail partners to execute market-ready products. Ensure brand integrity, quality, and on-time delivery while guiding creative & product development from concept through approval to drive innovation and strengthen brand presence at retail.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and oversee product development across puzzles, activities, party goods, and packaging, ensuring brand integrity, quality, and commercial relevance.
• Provide decisive creative direction to internal and external partners, establishing clear decisions and next steps.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performing creative culture that encourages innovation, professional growth, and thoughtful risk-taking.
• Drive creative excellence while optimizing processes, timelines, and resources to align design development with business objectives and key milestones.
• Conceptualize and develop compelling, differentiated product ranges across categories.
• Collaborate cross-functionally to advance business initiatives and strategies.

Licensing & Brand Stewardship

• Apply expertise in entertainment and consumer products licensing across puzzles, activities, party goods, and packaging.
• Ensure all licensed products uphold franchise integrity, storytelling, and visual consistency.
• Guide partners through licensing and approvals, setting clear expectations for quality, timing, and execution.

Design Expertise & Innovation

• Exceptional command of typography, color theory, layout, and composition.
• Translate creative concepts into commercially viable products and identify new business opportunities.
• Serve as the subject-matter expert in materials, technical design, and execution.
• Champion brand consistency by ensuring all designs meet Universal's creative and quality standards.
• Provide partners with clear, actionable creative and product design guidance.
• Prioritize team workloads and competing demands in a fast-paced environment.
• Lead brainstorming for new product concepts, categories, and brand extensions.
• Track global design, retail, consumer, and cultural trends to identify innovation opportunities.
• Monitor competitive products and packaging to support differentiation.

Communication & Collaboration

• Build trusted relationships with internal teams, senior leaders, and external partners to enable alignment and timely decisions.
• Use negotiation and influencing skills to manage stakeholders, third parties, rights holders, and filmmakers.
• Represent the Product Design Studio (PDS) as a creative leader in internal and external meetings.
• Oversee partner collaboration from concept through production, ensuring accountability and on-brand execution.
• Partner with Category, Franchise, and Legal teams to provide the assets and guidance required for commercially compelling products.
• Present creative strategies, product designs, and line plans in ways that engage and influence diverse stakeholders.
• Perform additional duties and responsibilities as assigned to meet the evolving needs of the team and business.
• Ability to travel as required to support business and operational needs.

Additional information

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.

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

• 4 + years of professional graphic design experience, consumer products and licensing industry preferred.
• Mastery of industry-standard tools such as Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign) alongside Keynote and or PowerPoint
• Understand product development and retail timelines, from concept approval through in-store delivery.
• Use brand and category expertise to identify trends and translate strategy into market-ready product lines.
• Demonstrate strong concept-to-execution design capability across toys, hardlines, and consumer products.
• Translate brand guidelines, character stylization, and entertainment intellectual property into market-ready designs.
• Provide effective creative direction while safeguarding character and property integrity.
• Review prototypes, samples, and pre-production builds to maintain design integrity.
• Create production-ready specifications, artwork files, and presentation materials.
• Use visual storytelling and presentation skills to advocate for ideas internally and externally.
• Understand packaging structures, brand design elements, toy functionality, and product instructions.
• Apply relevant market trends to opportunities for Universal intellectual property.

Desired Characteristics

• Bachelor's degree in graphic design, illustration, or a related field required.
• Deep understanding of entertainment and consumer products licensing across toys, hardlines, and related categories.

Portfolio

• PORTFOLIO SUBMISSION GUIDLINES: Please submit a professional portfolio demonstrating strong product ideation, sketching, creative problem-solving, and design development. 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.

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.