Creative Manager, Packaging

Wizards of the Coast is a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. For more information about the company, please visit us at www.wizards.com.

Wizards of the Coast is looking for an energetic and resourceful individual with a passion for people and the creative process to lead our packaging development team. If you get equally geeked about print and structural design as you do about fantasy entertainment, then you may be the perfect fit to join our studio. As the Packaging Creative Manager, you will combine your geek cred and critical art perspective to lead a highly competent and passionate team of art directors and designers to create truly inspiring products. You’ll be an integral part of the Magic: The Gathering team, where your leadership and creative skills will help us engage internal and external teams in a highly collaborative and complex environment to deliver packaging design solutions to our operations team for global production and distribution.

The Creative Manager’s responsibilities are split between aligning their team to meet the needs of the departments and organization, while also being accountable for the performance and quality of the creative work. The first requires solid business knowledge and organizational management abilities, taking direction from senior executive management, while the latter requires exceptional multitasking, discipline, attention to detail and communication skill, taking direction for the Sr. Creative Art Director to transition campaign planning and concept efforts and converting these into detailed project assignments. Below are some examples of the daily responsibilities of a Wizard: * Develop and execute packaging and component development solutions for campaign, organized play, trade, event and ancillary products. * Draft or review communication briefs that clearly define the marketing and business design direction for packaging development. * Assist in development and maintenance of campaign and product style guides to drive visual continuity and consistency across the brand channels for all product and supporting marketing assets. * Manage the team’s adherence to brand, campaign, and product style guides. * Coordinate cross-departmental product development planning and responses to design issues, schedule conflicts, resource allocations or budget constraints. * Define packaging design and quality standards and evaluate results to continuously improve performance of the packaging design team. * Mentor art directors and designers, educate internal customers and promote creative thought leadership across the organization. * Prepare, review, support or resolve contractual, purchasing or administrative needs. * Empower your team, lead by example and be decisive when needed in ambiguous situations. * Uses critical thinking and strategic planning to align packaging development with organizational goals and objectives.

* Rich understanding of the interaction between creative packaging design, marketing and consumer product engagement. * Keep abreast of current packaging technology trends, design and production methods and is able to convert these into compelling product designs using strong communication, educational briefs and concept presentations. * Proven ability to bring best in class product to market, (Portfolio Required). * Strong decision making skills, both to address crisis situations and address them before they arise * Strong networking ability. Understand how to use influence to develop trust and maintain good relationships with key internal & external customers and suppliers. * Commitment to developing and maintaining a deep understanding of Magic and its fans as well as current consumer patterns, social media, and popular marketing trends in general. * Engaged in design communities to learn and share experiences that feed your passion and those of others. * Strong knowledge of print production, packaging technology and equipment, and digital design tools, (Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign). * 5+ years leading creative development teams—packaging & product development for the retail and consumer market sectors preferred. * Knowledge of Magic: The Gathering preferred or has worked with similar entertainment or gaming brands to deliver engaging and immersive design experiences * Developing product design strategies that align to revenue objectives and bring out the best of our brand story and game IP to help grow our brands * Skilled in managing budgets, contracts, schedules and resources planning in a highly complex environment. * Preparing design briefs, leading creative brainstorming, presenting concept solutions, managing approvals, configuring design for production and delivering refined high quality results. * Understands how to motivate individuals to perform at high levels, instilling confidence, ownership and accountability across the design team. * Mentoring, motivating and developing senior & junior talent and helping them grow professionally * Exceptional leadership and communication skills needed. * Cares deeply about design, people and community Education and Training: * Bachelor’s Degree or commensurate work experience.