Principal Engineer (Technical)

What will you work on?

The Principal Engineer will be responsible for driving the technical execution of global toys and games portfolios, from concept through production, and ensuring performance, cost, quality, and schedule adherence. The position will provide expertise in proven techniques for successful product development and design for manufacturing/assembly. The Principal Engineer will be recognized as a thought leader with a high-level of functional expertise, working closely with the larger cross-functional teams (Design, Marketing, Engineering, Quality, Packaging, etc.) to drive technical development throughout the entire product lifecycle. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to, leading technical development of products, defining product specifications, identifying risks and opportunities to pre-empt development hurdles, providing escalation management, and working with stakeholders to balance business, design, and technical objectives. The person in this role will be expected to operate in a highly dynamic environment, and consistently drive towards solutions to obtain results.

How will you create impact?

• Collaborate with GBU (Design and Brand teams) on generating new innovative concepts and provide technical and cost assessment across large scope of Brands.

• Ability to create and impart best practices to effectively support high complexity items, strategic initiatives, and early concept explorations.

• Identify issues, formulate resolution action plan, and execute through to completion with limited oversight– leverage executive leadership and functional partners to gain necessary resources and support.

• Coach and review the work of lower-level professionals with active focus on imparting expertise.

• Lead strategic initiatives around operational innovation, efficiencies, or other improvements to significantly impact product development and/or processes.

• Explore new materials, technology, and manufacturing processes to continuously push Spin Master to the forefront of product development.

• Coordinate with cross-functional teams to ensure milestones and integration are on-time.

• Provide mechanical, material, electro-mechanical, and/or mechatronic engineering expertise throughout the product development lifecycle.

• Lead prototyping and proof-of-concept builds to de-risk and test new mechanisms, key features, and/or gameplay feasibility.

• Detail design of components and products for manufacturing, optimizing DMF/A.

• Create product and performance specifications.

• Be key point of contact with Manufacturing Engineering teams (in Asia, Mexico, EU, etc), and ensure alignment on all project details.

• Lead product review meetings and create action plan for technical deliverables.

• Anticipate, analyze, resolve, and escalate project issues.

• Drive productivity by implementing design for manufacturing/assembly up front.

• Partner with responsible departments to ensure all projects are delivered on-cost, on-spec, on-time.

• Use PLM software to manage and track key deliverables; proactively resolve potential issues to keep the product on track, on cost, and on specification.

• Improve efficiency in the engineering process through continuous improvement.

• Ability to travel internationally to support projects.

How will you fit into the team?

• Thought leader in area of expertise and researching white space opportunities for the company to explore.

• Influencing business decisions made by leadership via innovation and technology.

• Ability to provide strong technical leadership to drive innovative and cost-effective design solutions.

• Active focus coaching and imparting expertise to whole department resulting in overall expertise growth for the whole team.

• Lead strategic initiatives around operational innovation, efficiencies, or other improvements to significantly impact product development and/or processes.

• Out-of-the-box thinking; ability to contribute to product roadmap and process mapping; willing to take innovation risk while balancing schedule, cost, and quality.

• Cost Engineering with innovative ideas to balance design and cost.

• Track record of driving innovative, cost-effective design solutions with proven productivity savings.

• Knowledge of manufacturing with proven success in this field.

• Strong Knowledge of Solid Works, Injection Molding Tooling and Manufacturing Processes.

• Professional and positive approach, self-motivated, strong drive and ability to build working relationships.

• Successful track record of managing multiple projects simultaneously, allocating. resources and prioritizing key deliverables to optimize delivery timelines while meeting all critical requirements.

• Experience working in a dynamic interdisciplinary team environment.

• Experience working with and/or managing creative professionals (designers and engineers) both within and outside the company.

• Strong interpersonal, communication, and presentation skills.

• Demonstrates a “hands-on” team approach to solving problems.

• Ability to prioritize and manage multiple tasks and projects in a fast-paced environment

• Ability to employ critical thinking and problem-solving techniques to approach any/all issues. If unable to resolve certain issues, can demonstrate a willingness to actively engage other support teams to drive towards resolution.

• Strong attention to detail.

• Strong analytical skills.

• Proactive and enthusiastic in approaching challenges, with a solution-oriented mindset and uses mature discretion in approaching situations.

• Ability to travel in North America and internationally.

• Ability to mentor junior engineers, develop talent, and model professionalism.

• Operate with minimal supervision in technical and organizational capacities.

• Ability to take direction and flex execution style based on feedback from teams.

What are your skills and experience?

• 20+ years Product Engineering service/experience

• BS/MS in Mechanical Engineering preferred

• Toy or CPG experience

• Experience with plastics, materials, manufacturing, and/or engineering costs for durable goods