Product Manager, LiveOps - Mattel Digital Studio

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 Game Studios' mission is to harness the power of Mattel's iconic brands and IP to create a wide variety of engaging digital games. Our team is guided by industry leaders with decades of experience in various facets of the gaming industry. We are seeking talented individuals to join us in our mission to create innovative and engaging digital experiences that resonate with our beloved brands. If you are passionate about gaming and eager to be part of a dynamic, forward-thinking team in family entertainment, this is the opportunity for you! 

The Opportunity: 

Mattel Game Studios is seeking a Product Manager, LiveOps for our casual portfolio. Your first assignment is our upcoming title built around Barbie, our flagship IP, with scope extending to additional casual titles as the slate grows. 

This role owns LiveOps strategy and the meta-layer end-to-end: progression systems, collection and customization mechanics, event architecture, offer strategy, and reward structures — from pre-launch architecture through live operations. You will define the product strategy for these systems around the IP to create a cohesive experience where the brand drives player engagement, retention, and long-term revenue. 

Mattel Game Studios operates as a publisher with external development studios. This role is the LiveOps lead on the publisher side, working day-to-day with the studio's Game Design, Engineering, and Production teams while aligning internal stakeholders across Product, Marketing, and Data. 

The ideal candidate is passionate about casual mobile games and IP-driven player experiences, has strong instincts for how fashion, lifestyle, or collection-based meta systems drive engagement, is scrappy and proactive, thrives in a build-from-scratch environment, brings a bias toward experimentation and rapid iteration, is comfortable operating with ambiguity in a game still taking shape, and keeps up with the latest trends in LiveOps, monetization, and the broader free-to-play market. 

What Your Impact Will Be: 

• Co-own the game's feature roadmap with Product, Game Design, Production and the external development studio. Drive prioritization of features that strengthen the meta experience and IP expression, support the LiveOps strategy, and maintain a healthy game economy. 

• Develop the LiveOps event framework and cadence strategy from scratch, defining event types, reward structures and seasonal beats — then execute and iterate a content calendar that maximizes engagement, retention and monetization. 

• Own the meta-progression and offer strategy: define the player-facing shape of collection and customization progression, offer architecture, and the promotional calendar. Specify economic intent and success criteria; the Lead Designer, Systems and Economy models and balances the underlying systems to meet it. Ensure the meta-layer gives players meaningful reasons to engage with the IP across every session. 

• Own LiveOps and economy outcomes: set and hold targets for engagement, retention, revenue per user, payer conversion, and economy health, and hold the go/no-go on economy changes shipping to live. Partner with the Lead Designer, Systems and Economy, who owns the underlying economic model and math. Partner with Data to analyze performance, design and run experiments continuously, and report against targets with clear action plans. Share learnings and a data-driven playbook of what works across the team and the external studio. 

• Champion the IP in product decisions: ensure that events, offers, collections, and progression milestones express the brand in ways that resonate with the target audience. Partner with Game Design and the external studio to translate IP strength into product requirements and content strategies that drive engagement and monetization. 

• Define LiveOps requirements for the external development studio, review builds, provide feedback on design decisions that impact economy and progression, and ensure the publisher–studio feedback loop is tight and productive. 

• Keep a pulse on player sentiment via app reviews, community channels, and surveys. Translate feedback into testable hypotheses in coordination with Game Design to inform event design and economy tuning. 

• Work cross-functionally across Production, Game Design, Engineering, and Marketing to align on objectives and execute key beats. 

What We’re Looking For: 

• 4+ years of experience in free-to-play mobile games in a Product Management or LiveOps role. 

• Direct experience working on a casual mobile game with strong meta-layer or collection/customization systems such as fashion, lifestyle, or dress-up games strongly preferred (e.g. Covet Fashion, Design Home, or similar IP-driven titles). Match-3 or puzzle experience is a plus. 

• Deep understanding of F2P LiveOps mechanics, meta-progression systems, and game economy fundamentals — you've built or tuned event frameworks, collection or customization loops, and offer strategies, with a track record of measurable impact on engagement and revenue KPIs. 

• Strong experimentation instinct — you default to testing hypotheses and move fast to learn and iterate. 

• Experience using data tools (BigQuery, Excel/Sheets, Tableau or similar) to drive decisions, including working with economy models and sink/source analyses. 

• Excellent written and oral communication skills, with the ability to present key learnings to the broader team. 

• Comfortable with ambiguity — you can contribute to or adapt to game design decisions that are still in flux. 

• Preferred Qualifications 

• Experience working in a publisher model or collaborating closely with an external development studio. 

• Experience with soft launch, geo-testing, or bringing an F2P mobile game from development through global launch. 

• Experience working with licensed or well-known consumer IP. 

Don’t meet every single requirement? At Mattel, we are dedicated to an inclusive workplace and a culture of belonging. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we still encourage you to apply. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles. Join Mattel's Talent Community and start receiving exciting updates about our company, our employees, and our culture. Also, interested in signing up for job alerts? Do so here!

How We Work:
We are a purpose driven company aiming to empower generations to explore the wonder of childhood and reach their full potential. We live up to our purpose employing the following behaviors:

• We collaborate: Being a part of Mattel means being part of one team with shared values and common goals. Every person counts and working closely together always brings better results. Partnership is our process and our collective capabilities is our superpower.
• We innovate: At Mattel we always aim to find new and better ways to create innovative products and experiences. No matter where you work in the organization, you can always make a difference and have real impact. We welcome new ideas and value new initiatives that challenge conventional thinking.
• We execute: We are a performance-driven company. We strive for excellence and are focused on pursuing best-in-class outcomes. We believe in accountability and ownership and know that our people are at their best when they are empowered to create and deliver results.

Our Approach to Flexible Work:
This role is an in-office role Monday-Thursday, and work from home on Fridays. We embrace a flexible work model designed to empower a culture of growth, optimism, and wellbeing, where every employee can reach their full potential. Combining purposeful in-person collaboration with flexibility, our focus is to optimize performance and drive connection for moments that matter.

Who We Are:
Mattel is a leading global toy and family entertainment company and owner of one of the most iconic brand portfolios in the world. We engage consumers and fans through our franchise brands, including Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price, American Girl, Thomas & Friends, UNO, Masters of the Universe, Matchbox, Monster High, MEGA and Polly Pocket, as well as other popular properties that we own or license in partnership with global entertainment companies. Our offerings include toys, content, consumer products, digital and live experiences. Our products are sold in collaboration with the world’s leading retail and ecommerce companies. Since its founding in 1945, Mattel is proud to be a trusted partner in empowering generations to explore the wonder of childhood and reach their full potential.

Mattel’s award-winning workplace culture has been recognized by Forbes, Fast Company, Newsweek, Great Place to Work, TIME, and more.

Visit us at https://jobs.mattel.com/ and www.instagram.com/MattelCareers.
Beware of recruiting scams: Mattel will only contact you through official @mattel.com or @smartrecruiters.com email addressesand will never ask for payment or sensitive personal information during the hiring process.

Mattel is an Equal Opportunity Employer where we want you to bring your authentic self to work every day. We welcome all job seekers, and all applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, veteran and protected veteran status, disability status, and or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state or local law.

Pursuant to the Los Angeles Fair Chance Ordinance and the California Fair Chance Act, qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment.

The pay range for this position is between $168,000 and $185,000. The pay range is indicative of projected hiring range, however base pay will be determined based on a candidate’s work location, skills and experience. Mattel offers competitive total pay programs, comprehensive benefits, and resources to help empower a culture where every employee can reach their full potential. 

Videos to watch:
The Culture at Mattel
Corporate Philanthropy