Mattel

Director, Strategy & Operations - Consumer Products & Experiences

Mattel$130K — $180K *
Retail & Consumer Goods
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 10-15+ years in strategy, business operations, program management, or similar fields
  • Experience in complex, matrixed global organizations
  • Proven experience leading cross-functional initiatives with senior stakeholders
  • Supportive role for executive teams in driving operating rhythms
  • Preferably background in consumer products, entertainment, or retail
  • Familiarity with global brand organizations is advantageous
  • Experience managing external partners and agencies is preferred

Responsibilities

  • Lead strategic planning and execution across key initiatives in the organization
  • Maintain visibility of critical initiatives, including milestones and performance indicators
  • Translate market dynamics and organizational goals into actionable execution plans
  • Drive governance processes for timely resource allocation and decision-making
  • Manage high-priority strategic initiatives from planning to execution
  • Establish communication frameworks and governance structures for project tracking
  • Enhance operational alignment and communication across global and regional teams

Benefits

  • Comprehensive benefits package
  • Resources to empower a culture of growth and potential
  • Programs supporting creativity and collaboration
  • Inclusive workplace culture encouraging diverse applicants to apply
  • Opportunities for continuous improvement and innovation collaboration
Full Job Description
Job Description

The Opportunity:

Mattel is seeking a strategic and collaborative leader to help drive alignment, execution, and operational excellence across the Consumer Products & Experiences organization.

Reporting directly to the Chief Consumer Products & Experiences Officer, this role partners closely with senior leadership across Mattel to turn priorities into action, strengthen cross-functional coordination, and help teams operate with greater clarity, focus, and efficiency. The Director will help shape the operating rhythms of the CPX organization-supporting strategic initiatives, enabling decision-making, and improving how teams work together across brands, categories, regions, and functions.

The ideal candidate is a strong operator and trusted thought partner who brings a balance of strategic thinking, operational rigor, and relationship-building skills. They are energized by solving complex business challenges, navigating ambiguity, and helping teams deliver results in a fast-paced, highly collaborative environment.

What Your Impact Will Be:

Strategy & Organizational Leadership
  • Lead strategic planning and execution processes across key initiatives within the Consumer Products & Experiences organization, ensuring alignment between priorities, timelines, business goals, and measurable outcomes.
  • Maintain visibility across critical initiatives, including milestones, dependencies, risks, decisions, and performance indicators.
  • Translate business priorities, market dynamics, consumer trends, and organizational goals into actionable recommendations and execution plans.
  • Drive governance and prioritization processes that enable leadership to make timely trade-offs and resource allocation decisions.
  • Partner with Finance and functional leaders on planning cycles, investment prioritization, budget alignment, and performance reporting.

Operational Excellence & Cross-Functional Execution
  • Lead high-priority strategic initiatives end-to-end, from framing and planning through execution, stakeholder alignment, and delivery.
  • Build and manage scalable operating cadences including leadership meetings, business reviews, quarterly planning sessions, executive forums, and cross-functional governance rituals.
  • Establish lightweight but effective governance frameworks including decision logs, escalation paths, accountability structures, and execution tracking.
  • Coordinate cross-functional approvals, dependencies, and workflows across Brand, Product Development, Licensing, Experiences, Commercial, Creative, Legal, and regional teams.
  • Drive operational alignment across global and regional teams to improve communication, execution efficiency, and organizational transparency.
  • Support organizational transformation and process improvement initiatives by identifying opportunities to streamline workflows, clarify ownership, and improve execution consistency.

Executive Enablement & Communications
  • Partner closely with senior executives to translate complex strategic and operational work into clear executive-level narratives, presentations, and decision-ready materials.
  • Lead development of executive presentations, business reviews, strategic updates, and organizational communications.
  • Prepare leadership briefings, synthesize cross-functional inputs, and ensure rigorous follow-through on action items and strategic priorities.
  • Facilitate executive forums and leadership meetings, ensuring clarity, alignment, accountability, and actionable outcomes.

Global Collaboration & Stakeholder Management
  • Drive operating cadence and collaboration models across internal and external stakeholders.
  • Ensure alignment across brands, regions, business units, and enterprise initiatives through structured communication and planning processes.
  • Build strong relationships across matrixed teams and influence without direct authority to drive alignment and execution.
  • Standardize reporting, operational insights, and execution frameworks to support enterprise decision-making and organizational visibility.


Qualifications

What We're Looking For:

Experience
  • 10-15+ years of experience in strategy, business operations, program management, consulting, or related fields.
  • Experience operating in complex, matrixed global organizations.
  • Proven track record leading cross-functional strategic initiatives with multiple senior stakeholders.
  • Experience supporting executive leadership teams and driving enterprise-level operating rhythms.
  • Experience in consumer products, entertainment, licensing, retail, media, or similarly fast-paced global organizations strongly preferred.
  • Familiarity with global brand organizations and franchise-driven businesses strongly preferred.
  • Experience managing external partners, agencies, vendors, or strategic alliances preferred.

Skills & Capabilities
  • Exceptional strategic thinking and problem-solving skills with the ability to structure ambiguity into clear recommendations and action plans.
  • Strong executive communication and storytelling abilities, including development of executive-ready presentations and narratives.
  • Excellent operational leadership and program management capabilities with strong attention to detail and follow-through.
  • Demonstrated ability to influence across functions and levels without direct authority.
  • Strong financial and analytical fluency, including KPI management, planning processes, and business case development.
  • High emotional intelligence, sound judgment, and discretion in handling sensitive matters.
  • Ability to balance long-term strategic thinking with day-to-day operational rigor.
  • Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously.
  • Curious, adaptable, and energized by continuous improvement and collaboration.

Why Mattel

Mattel is at its best when creativity, collaboration, and innovation come together to create meaningful products and experiences for fans and consumers around the world.

*The pay range is indicative of projected hiring range, however base pay will be determined based on a candidate's work location, skills and experience. Mattel offers competitive total pay programs, comprehensive benefits, and resources to help empower a culture where every employee can reach their full potential.

Additional Information

Don't meet every single requirement? At Mattel, we are dedicated to an inclusive workplace and a culture of belonging. If you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we still encourage you to apply. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles. Join Mattel's Talent Community and start receiving exciting updates about our company, our employees, and our culture. Also, interested in signing up for job alerts? Do so here!

How We Work:
We are a purpose driven company aiming to empower generations to explore the wonder of childhood and reach their full potential. We live up to our purpose employing the following behaviors:
  • We collaborate: Being a part of Mattel means being part of one team with shared values and common goals. Every person counts and working closely together always brings better results. Partnership is our process and our collective capabilities is our superpower.
  • We innovate: At Mattel we always aim to find new and better ways to create innovative products and experiences. No matter where you work in the organization, you can always make a difference and have real impact. We welcome new ideas and value new initiatives that challenge conventional thinking.
  • We execute: We are a performance-driven company. We strive for excellence and are focused on pursuing best-in-class outcomes. We believe in accountability and ownership and know that our people are at their best when they are empowered to create and deliver results.

About Mattel

Mattel, Inc. is a global toy company that designs, manufactures, and markets a wide range of toys and games. The company's brands include Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price, American Girl, and more. Mattel's products are sold in over 150 countries and the company has manufacturing facilities in 10 countries. Mattel is committed to sustainability and has set a goal to achieve 100% recycled, recyclable, or bio-based plastic materials in all products and packaging by 2030. The company is also committed to diversity and inclusion and has been recognized for its efforts in this area.
Learn more about Mattel
Size
36,300 employees
Market Cap
$5.9 billion
Industry
Net Income
$126.6 million
Founded
1945
5 Year Trend
-4.3%
Revenue
$4.5 billion
NASDAQ

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