Job Description

Are you a kid at heart looking to build a career with a leading global children's toy, entertainment and digital gaming company?


At Spin Master, our unwavering commitment to open mindedness, integrity and innovation is a great part of what has made us an industry leader. How do we stay ahead of the pack? By hiring the best and brightest minds--and that's why we want you!

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Spin Master Ltd.

225 King St. W.

Toronto, ON M5V 3M2

Senior Designer

Job Overview:


The Senior Designer role requires creativity to design exceptional products for our Early Learning toy team. This person should be diverse and flexible as a designer to take on additional products as the department warrants expansion. This person may also take on managing outside design talent and overseeing model development.

Reporting Relationships:


This position reports to the Design Director.

Job Responsibilities:

Works independently, requires minimal supervision. Clearly demonstrates a solid understanding of the brands and the competitive environment as it relates to toy products and construction toy brands. Has excellent problem-solving skills. Consistently maintains a positive attitude and is considered a good role model. Partner with Creative Management and Brand Management to set direction for new brands and individual items. Delivers innovative results that support brand strategy. Works with production team to ensure integrity of design in final deliverables. Works with project management to set priorities, schedules and assign projects. Manage the timelines of the projects assigned to you. Maintain a consistently high level of quality, thoroughness and attention to detail. Effectively communicate all project related progress/issues or concerns to the team and to Project Management in a timely and professional manner. Solicit creative direction from the Brand Leads and Director of Packaging in a timely manner. Develop marketing support materials, creative boards and layout presentations for new and existing business development presentations, trade shows and new initiatives. Collaborate with Structural Engineering, Marketing, Quality Control and Product Development teams as well as overseas agents, as necessary, in the product development and approval process. Maintain knowledge of new technologies within your area of expertise

Qualifications

Critical Hard Skills:

Ideation Conceptualization - can participate in brainstorms and may be able to run some small ones as needed with help of a mentor; Starts to generate ideas on their own and become familiar with the toy industry and category; Understands what Spin Master innovation means; Play Pattern Development - understands a good play pattern within a category, consumer isle or pillar; Is provided guidance from Design Lead/Design Manager to develop clear, easy, fun and effective 1-2-3 play patterns.

Core Hard Skills:

Sketching - creates more refined sketches for communicating ideas internally; Directs vendors with confidence; Can do very good quick napkin sketches to communicate effectively. Design Software - can effectively draw or illustrate in Photoshop/Illustrator; Can create engaging PowerPoint presentations with flashy GIFS and animations; Can film and create basic sizzles in video editing software. Specification Documenting - creates accurate specs with manufacturing considerations in the forefront; Knows to liaise closely with PD partner for costing and engineering issues; Has proficient understanding of special documentation needs like licensor approvals. Model Development - can autonomously create CAD, sketches or specification communication in order to direct a model maker; Can accurately evaluate, test models and provide next steps for can do, play pattern and engineering mechanism with some help from Design Lead/Design Manager, EI teams and PD teams; Can sometimes alter model to get to the next steps with manufacture feasibility and cost efficiency; Develops or works on existing mechanism innovation. Product Life Cycle - has completed many rounds of product life cycles and understands how schedule influences each stage and starts to intuitively anticipate next steps and challenges, then plan for them. Visual Communications - proficient at creating presentation decks, engaging visual boards and beautiful and focused island shots that communicate exactly what is intended; Understands the importance of layout, colors, text size, product placement etc. and how it can affect the presentation outcome. Manufacturing Understanding - has gained historical knowledge of manufacturing processes from previous projects; Understands and applies sound principles during all stages of development; Has thorough understanding of manufacturing capabilities within their category. Presentation Skills Proficiency - can read the room and gauge energy, interest; May know how to adjust and flex presentation when necessary; Starts to leverage voice, body language and props for strategic discussions and develops basic 'storytelling' skills to sell concept.

Critical Soft Skills

Collaboration - starts to build and foster collaboration with peers, internal customers, cross functional teams; Contributes to brainstorms, group tasks; Seeks advice and guidance from peers and coaches; Starts to establish good working relationship with team members; May still work in 'silo' on projects and find difficulty in sharing tasks or projects with peers. May not understand how to divide up tasks with peers on group projects. Communication - able to articulate ideas and arguments clearly; Comfortable in a group discussion or presentation; Effectively articulates ideas and action plans in written format; Listens well and able to accurately summarize conversations while learning how to communicate upward with help from Design Lead/Design Manager;

Core Soft Skills:

Strategic Time Management

-relies on Design Lead/Design Manager to set timelines and priorities; Needs set structure to meet deadlines and milestones; May need help with sudden last-minute projects and shift in workload priorities; Starts to identify strategies for workflow and multi-tasking when bottle necks happen. Budget and resource management

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understands using resources; Needs guidance from leaders about mindful spending, vendor resource allocation; Still learning about financial strategy and health of a line, brand, category. Problem solving - can identify issues as they arise and work with Design Lead/Design manager and cross functional teams to Minimum 8 years in Early Learning toy design. Undergraduate degree in Industrial Design, (BFA) or equivalent; or 4 or more years related experience and / or training.

Terms of Employment

Permanent, Full-Time

Language of Work

English

Wage

$95k - $110k CAD


5% Bonus (Based on company performance for the year)

Benefits Package offered

5% Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP)


Health Benefits Package


Employee Share Purchase Plan (Eligible after 12 months of service)


20 Days PTO accrued 1.25 days per month plus additional days that the company may shut-down in December.


Birthday Off

Work Location

Toronto

Contact information

Email: TAinquiries@spinmaster.com


Phone: 416 364-6002


#LI-Hybrid

What you can expect from us:

Our mission is to Make Life More Fun with a vision to push the boundaries of innovation, creativity, and fun.

Growth and Career Opportunities Flexible Work Hours Innovation, Collaboration and Fun Comprehensive Benefits Other fun Perks!

What's it like to work here?

Spin Master is a fast-paced, hands-on organization that provides many great opportunities for impactful decision-making; though our challenging start-up atmosphere isn't for everyone, we have a proven record of opportunities for future advancement and internal transfers for our passionate and results driven team.


Everyone is welcome in our sandbox and we are committed to an accessible and inclusive hiring process that provides reasonable accommodation to all applicants.


Spin Master strives to create an accessible and inclusive application and selection process and is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodation to job applicants who may require provisions to participate in the recruitment, selection and/or assessment processes. Should you require an accommodation, please contact our Talent Acquisition team, by email at TAinquiries@spinmaster.com or by phone at 416 364-6002 and we will work with you to meet your accessibility needs.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @SpinMaster to stay up to date on Spin Master career opportunities.

We do appreciate all interest; however only those selected for interview will be contacted.