Manager Quality Engineer - Brick Shop

Job Description

The Opportunity:

Mattel is currently seeking a Manager, Quality Engineering. This role is a member of the corporate Quality Engineering team and is responsible for leading a team of Quality Engineers supporting Mattel Global Brand Teams and product development programs. The Manager will work directly with Marketing, Design, Product Development, other R&D support teams, Quality Data Analytics, Product Safety and Regulatory Compliance, laboratories, and global Manufacturing and Quality teams.

The Manager, Quality Engineering will provide both people and technical leadership to ensure quality, safety, regulatory compliance, reliability, and consumer expectations are effectively integrated throughout the product development lifecycle. The Manager will shape and execute quality strategies within assigned brands, product categories, or areas of responsibility while developing engineering talent and driving consistent execution of Quality Engineering practices.

The Manager will have responsibility for team performance, talent development, resource planning, technical execution, and quality outcomes within their assigned scope. This role requires strong technical judgment and the ability to influence cross-functional decisions while building a high-performing Quality Engineering team.

What Your Impact Will Be:

Strategy Development & Execution

• Shapes and executes Quality Engineering strategies within assigned brands, product categories, or functional areas to support business objectives and consumer expectations.
• Ensures consistent execution of product quality, safety, risk management, reliability, and regulatory requirements throughout the product development lifecycle.
• Maintains a strong understanding of applicable global toy and consumer product regulations, standards, and industry best practices and ensures requirements are effectively understood and implemented by the team.
• Maintains awareness of new and evolving regulatory requirements, standards, technologies, and industry practices and supports implementation of applicable changes within the organization.
• Identifies systemic product and process risks within assigned areas and develops strategies with appropriate cross-functional partners to mitigate those risks.
• Contributes Quality Engineering expertise and lessons learned to the development and improvement of broader organizational practices and processes.

Leadership & Team Development

• Leads, coaches, and develops a team of Quality Engineers, building capability in quality systems, regulatory requirements, technical problem-solving, risk management, data analysis, and decision-making.
• Establishes clear goals, priorities, expectations, and accountability for the team and ensures alignment with Quality Engineering and business objectives.
• Provides ongoing coaching, feedback, performance management, and career development for team members.
• Develops technical and leadership capability within the team through mentoring, stretch assignments, knowledge sharing, and development planning.
• Assesses team capability and resource needs and appropriately allocates engineering resources based on product complexity, risk, workload, and business priorities.
• Supports hiring, onboarding, development, succession planning, and retention of Quality Engineering talent.
• Creates an environment that encourages technical curiosity, collaboration, accountability, continuous learning, and appropriate escalation of product quality and safety concerns.

Cross-Functional Influence

• Builds strong partnerships with Marketing, Design, Product Development, Product Safety, Regulatory Compliance, Quality Data Analytics, Play Labs, Manufacturing, laboratories, and other cross-functional organizations.
• Ensures Quality Engineering is appropriately engaged throughout product development to influence decisions affecting product quality, safety, compliance, reliability, and consumer satisfaction.
• Anticipates downstream impacts, opportunities, and risks and ensures appropriate cross-functional engagement and communication for effective resolution.
• Influences cross-functional teams and leaders to make balanced, risk-based decisions while maintaining consumer safety and regulatory compliance as fundamental requirements.
• Provides Quality Engineering leadership during significant product quality, safety, compliance, manufacturing, and post-market issues.
• Establishes effective communication and escalation practices within the team to ensure significant risks are appropriately communicated to Quality Engineering leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.

Decision-Making & Data Strategy

• Promotes objective, data-driven decision-making throughout the Quality Engineering team.
• Ensures engineers identify, collect, analyze, and appropriately interpret data needed to support product quality and risk decisions.
• Reviews technical analyses and recommendations for complex or higher-risk issues and ensures conclusions are technically sound, clearly communicated, and appropriately documented.
• Utilizes product testing, consumer complaints, returns, Quality Data Analytics, Play Lab findings, manufacturing performance, and other available data to identify trends, emerging risks, and improvement opportunities.
• Establishes and monitors appropriate KPIs and quality metrics for assigned areas and ensures meaningful trends and issues result in appropriate action.
• Communicates significant quality trends, risks, and recommendations to Quality Engineering leadership and cross-functional stakeholders.

Technical & Engineering Excellence

• Provides technical leadership and oversight for product investigations, root cause analysis, engineering studies, sampling strategies, risk assessments, product verification, and validation activities.
• Ensures appropriate use of investigation and problem-solving methodologies such as Fishbone diagrams, 5-Why, FMEA, and other applicable root cause analysis tools.
• Provides oversight and guidance for the development and maintenance of Product Requirement Documents (PRDs), Primary Concerns Documents (PCDs), testing strategies, and other Quality Engineering documentation.
• Ensures product concepts, intended play patterns, foreseeable use and misuse, consumer interactions, and identified product risks are appropriately translated into robust testing and verification strategies.
• Partners with internal laboratories and third-party testing organizations to ensure testing strategies appropriately address regulatory requirements, identified risks, and product performance expectations.
• Ensures investigations and corrective actions are thorough, technically sound, appropriately documented, and completed in a timely manner.
• Provides technical guidance on the appropriate application and interpretation of statistical analyses, sampling plans, engineering studies, and quality data.
• Ensures appropriate execution of risk management activities and application of tools such as FMEA, FTA, PHA, and other applicable risk analysis methodologies.
• Maintains a thorough understanding of internal Quality Management System procedures and ensures the team operates in compliance with applicable processes and requirements.

Product & Consumer Quality

• Ensures product knowledge, foreseeable consumer use, and play patterns are incorporated into Quality Engineering decisions and product risk assessments.
• Utilizes quality system data, consumer feedback, testing results, product returns, manufacturing performance, and post-market information to understand product and process performance.
• Identifies opportunities to improve product quality, reliability, durability, and consumer satisfaction based on available data and lessons learned.
• Leads or supports investigation and resolution of significant post-market product quality and safety issues within assigned areas.

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