Director Strategic Initiatives, Digital Gaming

CREATIVITY IS OUR SUPERPOWER.  It’s our heritage and it’s also our future. Because we don’t just make toys. We create innovative products and experiences that inspire fans, entertain audiences and develop children through play. Mattel is at its best when every member of our team feels respected, included, and heard—when everyone can show up as themselves and do their best work every day. We value and share an infinite range of ideas and voices that evolve and broaden our perspectives with a reach that extends into all our brands, partners, and suppliers. The Team: Mattel’s Digital Gaming team is seeking a Director of Strategic Initiatives to play a central role in driving execution across a dynamic and growing digital portfolio. This role partners closely with the Head of Digital to translate strategic priorities into measurable outcomes, leading high-impact initiatives from planning through delivery. The Director will own cross-functional coordination, operating cadences, and governance across teams and external partners such as Mattel163, ensuring alignment on roadmaps, milestones, and decision-making. This position serves as a critical hub for visibility, execution, and collaboration—bringing structure to complex initiatives, accelerating decision velocity, and ensuring consistent progress across the product lifecycle. The Opportunity:  Mattel is hiring a high-agency operator to help the Head of Digital turn priorities into outcomes across Digital Gaming, Digital Experiences, and Future Lab. This role owns the planning, cross-functional execution, and operating mechanisms behind critical initiatives so leaders have clarity, teams have momentum, and work lands with measurable progress. You will lead high-priority initiatives end-to-end, create visibility across the digital portfolio, and improve decision velocity in a matrixed environment, including tight collaboration with Mattel163. What Your Impact Will Be:  Own the strategic initiatives portfolio "single source of truth" across Digital Gaming, Digital Experiences, and Future Lab (priorities, milestones, dependencies, risks, decisions) so leadership can make timely trade-offs. Lead high-priority strategic initiatives end-to-end, from framing and planning through execution, stakeholder alignment, and delivery. Own the operating cadence and collaboration model with Mattel163, including joint planning, roadmap and release alignment, monthly performance reviews, and a shared risk/decision log. Coordinate cross-functional approvals and dependencies that sit between Mattel and Mattel163 (e.g., brand, legal, finance, marketing, product/tech), including clear handoffs, turnaround expectations, and escalation paths. Build and run an operating cadence for the Head of Digital's leadership agenda (e.g., weekly leadership syncs, monthly initiative/performance reviews, quarterly planning/offsites), including agendas, pre-reads, decision logs, and follow-through. Drive decision-quality by structuring options, surfacing constraints, and packaging recommendations into clear, executive-ready narratives and materials. Partner with Finance and functional leaders to coordinate planning cycles, resource allocation conversations, and performance reporting (scope of ownership to be confirmed). Create lightweight governance for cross-functional execution, including clear owners, timelines, and escalation paths, especially for initiatives that cut across product, tech, brand, legal, and finance. Operationalize Future Lab work by setting a repeatable pipeline (e.g., intake, experiment design, learning review, scale/stop recommendation), ensuring experiments are purposeful and learnings are captured. Coordinate stakeholder management on behalf of the Head of Digital: prepare briefings, synthesize updates, and ensure tight follow-through on action items. (If applicable) Lead and develop program talent (project/program managers) by setting standards, coaching, and establishing reusable templates and rituals. What Success Looks Like in 6-12 months A clear, adopted operating rhythm is in place (cadences, pre-reads, decision logs, action tracking) and reduces last-minute escalations. Leadership has a reliable view of the digital initiatives portfolio with visible risks/dependencies and clear escalation paths. Mattel163 collaboration runs on a predictable cadence with clear owners and fewer late-stage surprises (e.g., approvals, priorities, release readiness). Priority initiatives show predictable execution (clear owners, timelines, decision points) with fewer stalled cross-functional handoffs. Planning cycles produce crisp priorities and usable operating plans, not just presentations. Future Lab has a disciplined pipeline with clear hypotheses, learning goals, and scale/stop recommendations. Key partners (e.g., Finance, Legal, Product/Tech, Brand) report improved clarity and responsiveness from the Digital org. Ways of Working / Interfaces Primary partner: Head of Digital (daily/weekly). Core interfaces include leaders across Digital Gaming, Digital Experiences, and Future Lab; Mattel163 leadership and operational counterparts; and cross-functional partners such as Finance, Legal, HR, Brand/Marketing, Product/Engineering/Tech, Data/Analytics, and external partners as needed. Decision rights (intended): you own the operating mechanisms (cadence, artifacts, governance) and drive recommendations on priorities and trade-offs; final decisions sit with the Head of Digital and/or functional owners (to be confirmed during role setup). Why Mattel / Why This Team You will operate at the intersection of beloved brands and digital innovation, helping a senior leader drive outcomes across a portfolio that spans games, interactive experiences, and innovation. This role is designed for an operator who wants to build the operating system behind a modern digital portfolio and be accountable for execution, not just coordination, including strong col