Sr. Director, Product Lifestyle & PMO Ops

CA EMPLOYEE PRIVACY RIGHTS: https://www.mgae.com/ca-employee-privacy-rights [https://www.mgae.com/ca-employee-privacy-rights]

MGA Entertainment [https://www.mgae.com/] is on a mission to inspire imagination and creativity through innovative toys, entertainment, and experiences that transform play into limitless possibilities. As the largest privately held toy and entertainment company in the U.S., MGA is a global leader in designing and delivering world-class consumer products that spark wonder and drive play forward. Headquartered in Los Angeles with offices worldwide, MGA’s portfolio spans a dynamic range of original and licensed brands — from toys, dolls, games, and electronics to fashion, home décor, and entertainment content including hit movies and TV series. The company is recognized for its bold approach to storytelling, trendsetting design, and deep commitment to quality. The award-winning MGA family includes fan-favorite brands such as L.O.L. Surprise!™ [https://shop.mgae.com/collections/l-o-l-surprise], Little Tikes® [https://www.littletikes.com/], Rainbow High™ [https://shop.mgae.com/collections/rainbow-high-1], Bratz® [https://www.bratz.com/], MGA’s Miniverse™ [https://shop.mgae.com/collections/mgas-miniverse], Yummiland™ [https://shop.mgae.com/collections/yummiland], CarTuned™ [http://cartunedcars.com/], Wonder Factory [https://wonderfactory.mgae.com/]™, BABY born® [https://babyborn.mgae.com/], and Zapf Creation® [https://www.zapf-creation.com/en/]. To learn more, visit www.mgae.com [http://www.mgae.com/] and follow MGA on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/mga-entertainment/], TikTok [https://www.tiktok.com/@officialmgaentertainment], Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/mgaentertainment/] and Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/mgaentertainment].

Role Overview

The Senior Director, Product Lifecycle & PMO Operations will lead the transformation of MGA’s product operations and program management organization into a highly disciplined, execution-driven operating function focused on accelerating product delivery, improving launch predictability, and strengthening cross-functional accountability.

This role will serve as the central integrator across Product Development (LA & HK), Supply Planning, Licensing, Packaging, Procurement, Vendors, Factories, Marketing, Legal, and Commercial teams to ensure products move efficiently from concept through production readiness and launch execution.

The position is responsible for actively managing product schedules, licensing milestones, TRA readiness, production risks, and launch dependencies across a complex, high-volume global product portfolio. This role is not a passive reporting function — it is accountable for driving timelines, escalating risks early, influencing decisions, and ensuring operational alignment across the organization.

The ideal candidate combines strong PMO discipline with operational expertise, factory awareness, licensing coordination, and end-to-end product lifecycle management.

Key Responsibilities

End-to-End Product Lifecycle Ownership

• Own and actively manage product development schedules from concept through production readiness and launch.
• Ensure timelines are actively managed, challenged, compressed, and recovered where necessary.
• Drive accountability across cross-functional teams for milestone completion and schedule adherence.
• Identify opportunities to accelerate development timelines by 6–8 weeks where operationally feasible.
• Maintain visibility to all critical dependencies impacting launch readiness.

PMO Leadership & Operating Discipline

• Lead the evolution of MGA’s PMO organization from status reporting to active execution management.
• Establish standardized operating cadences, escalation processes, milestone governance, and decision-making frameworks.
• Develop centralized dashboards, reporting tools, and workflow systems that support action-oriented execution.
• Drive consistency across brands, categories, and regional operating teams.
• Ensure all projects have clear ownership, recovery plans, and escalation paths.

Licensing & Cross-Functional Coordination

• Manage licensing milestone execution including asset approvals, product approvals, contractual deliverables, and launch readiness.
• Partner closely with Licensing, PD, Packaging, Marketing, Legal, and Vendors to ensure timely approvals and execution.
• Standardize licensing workflows, intake processes, and approval tracking across brands.
• Ensure compliance with licensing requirements while maintaining launch timelines.
• Improve visibility into licensing pipeline health, approval risks, and milestone dependencies.

TRA & Production Readiness Management

• Own operational discipline around the TRA process and production readiness pipeline.
• Ensure products progress through development, approvals, tooling, and production with clear visibility and accountability.
• Identify and escalate blockers related to forecasting, approvals, tooling, materials, costing, capacity, or factory readiness.
• Partner with Supply Planning and Procurement to align production timing with vendor lead times and market requirements.
• Ensure ex-factory timing and launch readiness remain aligned to commercial commitments.

Active Risk Management & Escalation

• Identify risks early and drive resolution before timelines become critical.
• Lead cross-functional escalation management with clear ownership, timing impact, and recovery actions.
• Re-sequence workstreams, challenge assumptions, and force decision-making when required.
• Maintain active oversight of high-risk launches, seasonal programs, exclusives, and priority initiatives.

Product Pipeline & Portfolio Management

• Maintain active control over the product pipeline across brands, categories, and launch priorities.
• Identify overloaded development periods, capacity constraints, and competing priorities.
• Influence prioritization decisions based on operational feasibility, commercial importance, and supplier capability.
• Support forecasting alignment by documenting launch timing changes and pipeline impacts.

Experience & Qualifications

• 10–15+ years of experience in PMO, product operations, supply planning, program management, product lifecycle management, or manufacturing operations.
• Strong experience managing complex, high-volume consumer product pipelines.
• Demonstrated success driving cross-functional accountability and on-time delivery.
• Experience working with overseas vendors, procurement teams, and factories.
• Strong understanding of licensing approvals, tooling, production readiness, factory constraints, and launch management.
• Exceptional project management, communication, and escalation management skills.
• Experience with PLM, D365, Airtable, Power BI, or similar workflow and reporting tools.
• Ability to operate strategically while remaining highly detail-oriented and execution-focused.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in the toy industry or other highly seasonal, high-SKU consumer product environments.
• PMP certification or Agile project management experience preferred.
• Experience managing licensed product development and launch processes.
• Background in supply planning, manufacturing operations, or procurement strongly preferred.

Leadership Profile

• Execution Driver: Pushes teams forward and drives timely decisions.
• Schedule Owner: Treats timelines as active operating plans, not static reports.
• Operational Integrator: Connects teams, factories, vendors, and stakeholders into one execution rhythm.
• Problem Solver: Escalates issues early with solutions and recovery actions.
• Change Agent: Builds structure, discipline, and accountability across the organization.
• Factory-Aware Operator: Understands how production realities impact launch execution.

• Success Metrics
• Product development schedules accelerated by 6–8 weeks where feasible.
• Improved on-time delivery of milestones, approvals, and launch readiness.
• Reduction in late-stage escalations, production delays, and expedited costs.
• Improved licensing approval cycle times and visibility.
• Stronger alignment between LA, HK, Procurement, Factories, and Commercial teams.
• Increased accountability and ownership across cross-functional workstreams.
• Improved pipeline visibility tied to actionable recovery plans and execution.

• Why This Role Matters
• This role is designed to transform MGA’s operational execution model from reactive tracking to proactive delivery management.
• Success in this role will improve launch predictability, accelerate development timelines, strengthen factory readiness, reduce operational disruption, and create a more disciplined and scalable product operating system across the organization.

Salary

$160,000.00 - $200,000.00 /year