Principal Industrial Designer

SUMMARY

As a Principal Industrial Designer, Toy at Kids2, you will design engaging, consumer-centered products that support developmental play and bring our brands to life across multiple categories worldwide. Using consumer insights, storytelling, and strong design execution, you will help create meaningful product experiences through thoughtful features, color, material, and form.

This role requires a highly creative, strategic, and collaborative design leader who can guide projects from concept through production while partnering cross-functionally with Engineering, Marketing, Packaging, Product Management, and global manufacturing teams. The ideal candidate is passionate about innovation, emotionally resonant design, and leveraging emerging technologies — including AI-enabled design tools and workflows — to accelerate creativity, visualization, and product development.

The Principal Industrial Designer will also help elevate the design organization by mentoring junior designers, influencing creative direction, and contributing to the evolution of design processes, tools, and brand expression across the portfolio.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES AND ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• Create drawings, sketches, and renderings to convey new concepts and ideas to engineering, marketing, packaging, and management.
• Convey the “story” of how concepts were developed and create pitches for product/collection ideas with storyboards, trend/mood boards, drawings, sketches, and high-quality renderings or animations.
• Interpret and apply both trends and insights into excellent forward-thinking product design.
• Create 3D mock-ups and kit-bashed models to communicate scale and function.
• Create 3D surface CAD to communicate design intent, evaluate CAD from vendors to ensure adherence to design vision, and generate 3D-printed models during the process.
• Drive projects from inception to completion while balancing the design intent with constraints like cost, manufacturing processes, and stakeholder inputs/needs.
• Prepare control drawings, color specs, and descriptions for the construction of prototypes and tooling models.
• Create marketing materials and displays to aid in conveying and promoting new ideas both internally and to customers.
• Run creative brainstorm sessions, build stories, essence, and play patterns for our portfolio of brands as they come to life in toys.
• Participate in formal and informal reviews and brainstorming sessions to generate new product ideas.
• Work with outside vendors to supplement internal development resources.
• Support pre-production efforts, including approvals of tooling drawings, material samples, and pre-production product samples.
• Travel to Asia to work with designers and manufacturers 2 times a year is required. Build understanding for the target consumer, influenced by kid usability and parent expectations and needs.
• Other duties & responsibilities as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

• 5 years of experience in the design field is preferred, including internships or co-ops.
• Proven experience bringing consumer products from concept through production.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating excellence in form development, storytelling, innovation, visualization, and consumer-centered design.
• Experience working with global manufacturing partners and cross-functional product development teams.
• Experience mentoring designers or leading creative initiatives preferred.
• Experience utilizing AI-driven creative tools, visualization platforms, or workflow-enhancing technologies is preferred.

EDUCATION & SKILLS

• Undergraduate degree in Industrial Design, Product Design, Toy Design or Entertainment Design
• Requires attention to detail, excellent aesthetic sense for form and color, and high levels of cooperation and teamwork
• Strong visualization skills: 2D Sketching
• Basic understanding of business strategy
• Basic understanding of manufacturing materials and processes
• Basic modelmaking skills
• Strong time-management skills

CERTIFICATES, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS

• None required

COMPUTER/TECHNICAL SKILLS

• Proficient in Adobe Creative Suite, Illustrator, Photoshop, etc (required)
• Digital sketching software - Sketchbook Pro (required)
• Basic Microsoft Office software - Word, Excel, Powerpoint (required)
• Surface modeling software - Alias/Solidworks (preferred)
• AI-powered- Vizcom (optional)
• Parametric modeling software - Creo (optional)
• 3D visualization software - Bunkspeed/Keyshot (optional)
• 3D Printer experience (optional)

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

• While performing the duties of this job, the team member is regularly required to talk or hear.
• The team member frequently is required to sit; have flexible use of hands; reach with hands and arms; and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl.
• The team member is occasionally required to stand, walk, and taste or smell.
• The team member must regularly lift and/or move up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 - 50 pounds.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

• In office Monday - Thursday and half day on Friday