About the Role & Team
The Product Design and Development Senior Manager for Disney Consumer Products will lead creative and commercial development of Disney's Food+ product portfolio across EMEA. In this role you will be driving innovative food and beverage concepts inspired by Disney's brands and franchises while balancing creativity, commerciality, and brand integrity.
The Senior Manager identifies consumer and market trends, develops compelling product strategies, and partners closely with licensees, retailers, and internal teams to bring market-leading products from concept to launch. They oversee product quality, approvals, and brand integrity while leading a high-performing product development team and ensuring all Food+ offerings deliver strong storytelling, commercial success, and consumer appeal across diverse markets. If selected for this role, you will report into the Product Design and Development Director.
This permanent role is based in our London Hammersmith office, with an expectation to work onsite four days per week. You will also be required to undertake occasional international travel.
Values
You’ll join a team grounded in our Disney values, acting with Integrity, welcoming everyone through Inclusion, embracing boundless Creativity, working together through Collaboration and caring deeply for our Community. These values shape how we work and how we support one another every day.
What You Will Do
- Lead trend strategy and product design direction, delivering market leading, insight anchored product lines at the right price/value tiers across EMEA.
- Identify emerging macro themes, market dynamics, and cross line of business opportunities, crafting conceptual narratives and trend centric design directions that scale across partners, categories, and markets.
- Shape the product development roadmap by identifying future white space and growth platforms, creating compelling retailer and licensee pitch inspiration.
- Apply deep understanding of EMEA markets, including segmentation, country nuances, franchise diversity, and design trends, to elevate product relevance and performance.
- Provide senior level oversight of end to end product development quality, setting scalable and repeatable creative and development standards across the portfolio.
- Deliver commercially grounded, market leading product lines that balance innovation, consistency, and brand integrity across EMEA.
- Ensure product development meets brand, commercial, and integrity standards from concept through delivery, including packaging and approvals through online systems.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with retailers, internal stakeholders, global creative teams, and licensees to ensure aligned execution and commercial success.
- Manage assigned licensee accounts from concept through final approval, assessing pre and post quality delivery, market readiness, and approval critical paths.
- Prioritise and deliver against commercial needs, partnering with commercial teams to ensure business growth underpins all creative decisions and earned revenue targets and KPIs are achieved.
- Lead, manage, and develop the product design and development team, providing clear direction, feedback, coaching, and growth opportunities while building succession depth.
Required Qualifications & Skills
- Extensive experience in product design and development or related consumer products fields, including expertise in management leading creative or product development teams.
- Advanced trend knowledge and strong understanding of end-to-end manufacturing processes, including key techniques, vendor capabilities, and production lead times.
- Ability to translate industry and cultural trends into commercially viable opportunities for Disney Experiences’ consumer products and retail environments.
- Excellent conceptual and product design skills, including strong understanding of fabric, colour, materials, and product design principles, with proven experience creating prototypes and models.
- Proficiency in communicating design concepts through CAD and digital tools, including advanced proficiency in Mac OSX, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Microsoft Office.
- Proven partner and licensee management experience across multiple accounts and territories, fostering strong business relationships and managing approvals through systems such as OPA.
- Highly organised with excellent prioritisation and time management skills; resilient, adaptable, and forward thinking in a fast evolving environment.
- Strong leadership skills with the ability to translate strategy, delegate effectively, mentor others, and drive key deliverables across multiple related teams.
- Strong business level written and spoken English; additional European languages are beneficial.
- Bachelor’s Degree or higher in Product Design, Industrial Design, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience in a lifestyle or consumer products company.
The Perks
- 25 days annual leave
- Private medical insurance & dental care
- Free Park Entry: You will have the opportunity to enter any of our parks with your family and friends for free
- Disney Discounts: you are entitled to discounts on designated Disney products, resort F&B and ticketing
- Excellent parental and guardian leave
- Employee Resource Groups – WOMEN @ Disney, Disney Mosaic, Disney PRIDE, our disability & neurodiversity focused group - ENABLED, and our Mental Health & Wellbeing Group, TRUST.
The Walt Disney Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We strive to be a diverse workforce that is representative of our audiences, and where all can thrive and belong. Disney is committed to forming a team that includes and respects a variety of voices, identities, backgrounds, experiences and perspectives.
We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided with reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.