Senior Product Designer - Games

Mattel is hiring a Senior Product Designer - Games in El Segundo, CA (hybrid) to shape new gameplay experiences and turn early concepts into intuitive physical products. This is a hands-on role spanning the full journey from exploration and prototyping through playtesting, refinement, and commercialization, working closely across Mattel’s product and games ecosystem.

What you’ll do

• Design and develop new gameplay experiences across Mattel’s portfolio of family, party, strategy, and card games.
• Take projects from early concept exploration through prototyping, playtesting, refinement, and final product execution.
• Use 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, leveraging playtesting and consumer feedback to improve mechanics, pacing, accessibility, and overall player experience.
• Explore ways to evolve established brands while contributing original ideas for new ways to play.
• Translate gameplay into intuitive, beautifully crafted physical products, including components and interactions.
• Develop clear design solutions using sketching, model making, CAD, rendering, prototyping, and other visualization tools.
• Partner closely with Engineering and Packaging to balance creativity with manufacturing feasibility, quality, cost, and sustainability.
• Make thoughtful decisions about materials, component design, ergonomics, visual hierarchy, tactile interaction, and the overall product experience.
• Review prototypes and production samples to help preserve design intent and gameplay integrity through manufacturing.
• Collaborate across Product Design, Graphic Design, Narrative Design, Marketing, Consumer Insights, Engineering, Licensing, and external development partners.
• Present concepts and design rationale clearly using strong visual storytelling to build alignment and move work forward.
• Participate in design critiques by offering constructive feedback and incorporating input to strengthen outcomes.
• Share knowledge with junior designers, supporting higher-quality thinking and execution across the team.
• Manage multiple projects and priorities across different development stages while maintaining a high standard of creative execution.
• Identify design challenges early, develop practical solutions, and make informed tradeoffs throughout development.
• Contribute to evolving design tools, workflows, and best practices that support faster iteration and stronger collaboration across the Games organization.

What you bring

• 4+ years of experience in game design, toy design, industrial design, consumer product design, or a closely related field, with demonstrated experience developing physical products.
• Experience designing tabletop, card, party, strategy, family, or adjacent play experiences, with a strong understanding of what drives engaging gameplay.
• Demonstrated experience with ideation, prototyping, playtesting, iteration, and product development from concept through production.
• Strong industrial design fundamentals, including sketching, form development, prototyping, visualization, and 3D design tools.
• Understanding of consumer product development, materials, manufacturing processes, tooling, and production constraints.
• Ability to translate complex ideas into clear, compelling concepts and presentations.
• Strong collaboration, communication, organization, and problem-solving skills.
• Curiosity about how and why people play, plus a passion for products that bring people together.

Bonus points (if applicable)

• Experience shipping commercially successful tabletop, card, or family games.
• Experience facilitating structured playtesting or working with consumer research.
• Experience working across licensed entertainment brands or global product development organizations.
• Familiarity with modern tabletop gaming trends, mechanics, and player communities.
• A genuine love of games and play, including inventing mechanics, hosting game nights, collecting modern board games, or focusing on why a great game works.

Tools

• CAD
• Rendering

Work setup

• In-office role Monday-Thursday, with work from home on Fridays.

Compensation

USD 95,000 - 119,000 per year.

Location: El Segundo, CA (hybrid)

Minimum experience: 4 years

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