Product Development Manager, Hard Goods

Product Development Manager, Hard Goods

Join us in telling the stories of Santa's North Pole! The Lumistella Company is a global intellectual property company dedicated to bringing Santa's North Pole to life for children around the world through consumer products, original entertainment and brand experiences. We are home to the most iconic and beloved Christmas brands of this generation including The Elf on the Shelf, Elf Pets, and Elf Mates.

The Product Development Manager, Hard Goods will own the development of toy SKUs across Lumistella's core and inbound licensed hard good lines, being the technical expert responsible for ensuring plastic components and products are fully engineered and manufacturable. This role ensures the functional, visual, and safety integrity of every toy while aligning with cost, feasibility, and storytelling goals. This role works closely with Design and Sourcing to deliver accurate, vendor-ready documentation and to ensure storytelling and play-value are preserved through sampling and spec refinement. This role bridges creative intent and technical execution to deliver safe, engaging, and fully manufacturable toys. This person is essential to ensuring factories are successful in building tooling and executing projects on time by providing accurate & complete production-ready CAD, and by working closely with the factory and their toolmaker on tool design and development. Each season can have upwards of 25 unique and innovative toys, plastic characters, and elf-sized props/wearables for new development, in addition to products sold globally year after year requiring updates from previous seasons.

The Product Development Manager, Hard Goods will:

• Manage development of plastic, molded, and hardline toy products from design hand-off through pre-production approval.
• Own development for items that are a hybrid of plastic molded components and soft goods elements, with support from Soft Goods Product Development Manager on plush/fabric construction, if needed.
• Lead early breadboard sample evaluations and cross-functional reviews during Concept & Design Phases.
• Provide CAD files and other material data, plus tool designs to Costing team to assist with product cost estimates.
• Finalize engineering and material specs, including component tolerances, mold constraints, and safety compliance.
• Partner with Production teams to ensure that CAD assemblies, tolerances, and materials are aligned with real-world manufacturing conditions.
• Own the creation and finalization of specifications with engineering drawings and bills of materials, especially for complex assemblies, interactive features, and dimensional accuracy.
• Deliver and maintain:
• • Dimensional overlays
  • Exploded views
  • CAD visualizations
  • Component fit guidance
  • Assembly diagrams (as needed)
  • Tool Design (as needed)
  • BOM's
• Maintain accurate version control of specifications throughout sampling cycles.
• Write instruction sheets for products requiring consumer assembly; include creating line drawings, validating assembly steps, order of operations, etc.
• Provide samples to the Packaging Structural Designer to validate product/packaging fit; packaging spec ownership is the responsibility of the Packaging Designer.
• Provide samples to the Packaging Graphics team as needed for photography; ensure final art files are provided to the factory on time during Pre-Production phase.
• Oversee sample reviews, functional feature validation, and DFM readiness in partnership with Sourcing, Costing, and other cross-functional teams.
• Provide clear, actionable feedback to factories on sample revisions, materials, and construction adjustments, and integrate feedback into final engineering documentation.
• Work with Compliance & QC to validate all toys meet ASTM, EN71, and CPSIA safety and labeling standards.
• Validate all toys meet performance and functional requirements as defined in conjunction with the Director of Product Development and cross-functional team members.
• Manage manufacturing specifications, including revisions to update product for new countries of sale and any other engineering changes requested for ongoing items being produced year over year.
• Work closely with Program Management to maintain schedule adherence and escalate risks for projects that are in danger, offering solutions to mitigate the risks and minimize impact to ship dates.

If you want to be one of us... The ideal candidate will bring:

• 6+ years in product engineering within consumer goods, toys, plastics/injection molding, or similar industries
• Expert knowledge in play feature development, injection molding, and mechanical function validation
• Proficiency in CAD software (SolidWorks, Rhino, ArtiosCAD, or equivalent)
• Deep understanding of product assembly, tolerance management, and DFM (Design for Manufacturing)
• Experience reviewing samples and resolving spec issues in partnership with vendors and sourcing
• Experience working with global suppliers and factories, particularly in Asia.
• Proficiency in BOM creation, vendor coordination, and mold cost optimization
• Experience managing development cycles across seasonal and licensed product lines
• Experience working with licensed IP partners on product submissions and approvals
• Digital tool experience preferred (PLM, Adobe Illustrator)
• Familiarity with global toy safety and compliance standards
• Core Competencies
• • Cross-Category Specification Ownership
  • CAD Documentation & Exploded View Development
  • Technical Risk Mitigation During Sampling
  • Vendor & Factory Feasibility Collaboration
  • Material, Tolerance, and Assembly Precision
  • Cross-Functional Problem Solving & Communication
• Protects company assets through the proper management of asset files and adherence to company policy with regard to information security and management.

Education requirements:

• Bachelor's degree Mechanical Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Engineering Technology, or related field.

The above is intended to describe the general content of and requirements for the performance of this job. It is not to be construed as an exhaustive statement of essential functions, responsibilities or requirements. A full and complete copy of the Job Description is available upon request. The Lumistella Company is an equal employment opportunity employer.