Our client is a well established privately owned manufacturer of character plush and stationery located in Northern Bavaria. The company creates its own characters as well as taking character licenses, and it develops up to 1000 new SKUs each year, with new launches each month. This enormous volume of product development is accomplished by a team of 20 designers and developers . A Director of Design Development is to be recruited who will direct, lead and manage this vital work. Appropriate candidates will have the leadership and management experience to be able to manage this team to combine creativity with iron discipline in keeping to cost estimates and timing. Team management skill is more important than personally being creative, though experience and skill in development of toys or related products would be beneficial.

The Director of Design Development will develop strategy for the year ahead and will write the plan to execute the strategy.  He or she will  lead research into the market to identify trends in characters, colours and themes which can be the basis for new ranges, and will develop pricing strategy. The right person must be able to speak English well, and to work effectively with production managers in China. Ability to speak German would be advantageous but is not essential.

This position is based at the company’s head quarters in Northern Bavaria. The Director Design and Development will report to the CEO and be part of the Management Board of the company.

For more information on this and other positions for which we are recruiting please contact Margit Pendl at the executive search division of Gameplan Europe Ltd. margit@gameplaneurope.com or 01442 870100.