Design Manager

Universal Products & Experiences is seeking a Design Manager to oversee design initiatives supporting the Lifestyle business across Fashion, Home, Food, Beauty, Care and Toys/Hardlines product categories, reporting into the Sr. Manager, Product Design Studio. This role plays a key part in delivering creative, high-quality and brand-aligned programs and products for the ANZ, Southeast Asia and India markets. The role ensures brand integrity, creative excellence, and commercially viable product solutions across licensed portfolios, partnering closely with internal teams and external partners to deliver innovative, market-relevant products aligned with global and regional objectives. While this role does not hold product approval responsibility, it plays a critical role in managing relationships and communications with external partners—including licensees, retailers, agents, third-party approvers and creative agencies—to ensure alignment, clarity, and strong execution throughout the development process. Key Responsibilities Lead design projects and initiatives with internal and external cross-functional teams, driving clear decisions, outcomes, and next steps aligned to ANZ & SEAI business strategies. Demonstrate strong creative judgment and decision-making, inspiring confidence and alignment across stakeholders and partners. Champion, develop, and present new creative concepts and design strategies across product lines and categories. Support creative brainstorming sessions to generate new product concepts, categories, and brand extensions. Support the development and evolution of style guides and creative assets to ensure brand strength and strategic alignment for regional creative needs and global creative rollouts. Create product mockups, trend and inspiration boards that inform seasonal direction, innovation, and visual storytelling across multiple categories. Partner with Category teams and our Agents in SEAI to translate creative ideas into commercially viable, market-ready products. Licensing & Brand Stewardship Strong understanding of entertainment and consumer products licensing across the Lifestyle business. Ensure brand integrity through character/design revisions, storytelling, and asset/toolkit delivery. Stay informed on global design, retail, consumer and cultural trends, to identify new opportunities for product and design innovation. Design Expertise & Innovation Lead design initiatives and design review meetings, setting creative direction and preparing high-quality materials for presentations, pitches and projects. Drive the development and evolution of creative assets and style guides to support franchise priorities and business needs (including but not limited to product mockups, style guides, trend/mood boards, presentations, retail pitches). Deliver innovative, on-brand products aligned with franchise strategies, category goals, and commercial objectives. Serve as a category and execution expert, providing guidance on materials, construction, technical feasibility, and manufacturing considerations. Guide and elevate licensee design execution by aligning creative & innovation with partner capabilities and production realities. Identify product and design opportunities, translating insights into actionable concepts. Provide clear, constructive, and strategic design feedback to internal teams and external partners to elevate creative quality. Oversee the creation and refinement of product mockups, graphics, illustrations, and packaging concepts to support development and partner communication. Stay informed on global design, retail, consumer, and cultural trends to inform innovation and future-facing product strategies. Monitor the ANZ/SEAI retail and competitive landscape to drive differentiation, relevance, and continuous improvement. Design Strategy Develop design plans aligned with IP/franchise priorities and ANZ/SEAI business objectives. Demonstrate strong awareness & understanding of annual financial targets, retail objectives, and how design choices can support overall category performance. Demonstrate strong understanding of design strategies that align creative vision with brand priorities and support the team to deliver against business objectives. Communication & Collaboration Build and maintain strong working relationships with both internal and external partners, fostering trust, alignment, and open creative dialogue throughout the development process. Build strong relationships with external creative agencies and freelance designers to support development of creative assets, product mockups, and pitch presentations. Represent the PDS team in internal and external development meetings, providing creative input, cross-functional support and assist with follow-up actions as needed. Confidently pitch and present creative & product designs, and creative strategies to partners and leadership teams.