Product Design & Development Associate

About The Role & Team

Step into a truly magical “sketchbook to shelf” opportunity at Disney, where your creativity will help shape the future of Hardlines, especially within our beloved Plush category. Here, you’ll dream up, design, and develop trend-setting products for licensees and DTRs, guiding imaginative concepts all the way from initial sketches to the hands of Disney fans. 

You’ll provide technical direction, creative inspiration, and hands-on support throughout the entire product journey, ensuring every plush creation captures the enchantment and storytelling Disney is known for.

This position is a permanent role located in the Hammersmith, London office, with an expectation of four days per week in the office.

What You Will Do

• Championing the Creative Process: Lead the journey from blue-sky brainstorming through design development, ensuring every plush concept is both innovative and unmistakably Disney.
• Design Direction & Trendsetting: Offer dynamic design insight, creative feedback, and trend forecasts to licensees, whether it’s the perfect 2D sketch or a 3D prototype that brings characters to life.
• Storytelling Through Product: Craft compelling pitches and mock-ups that capture the essence and magic of Disney’s beloved icons, collaborating closely with the Senior Product Design and Development Manager.
• Inspiring Partners: Empower licensees by sharing your expertise on Disney’s brand, creative assets, and product development tools, ensuring every collaborator is set up for creative success.
• Building Lasting Relationships: Forge strong connections with licensees and stakeholders, nurturing a collaborative spirit and a shared vision for magical results.
• Keeping Disney’s Legacy Alive: Immerse yourself in Disney’s rich universe, its characters, stories, and creative traditions to authentically translate them into new, trend-setting consumer products.
• Staying Ahead of the Curve: Dive into design and pop-culture trends, attend inspiration trips, and bring back fresh ideas to keep the Hardlines portfolio vibrant and relevant in the EMEA market.
• Ensuring Excellence: Oversee the approval process, guiding product submissions through Disney’s Online Product Approval (OPA) system, and make sure every creation meets the highest standards of quality and compliance.
• Team Player: Collaborate across regional, local, and global teams, lending your creative eye and expertise wherever needed on special projects or design initiatives.

Required Qualifications & Skills

• Demonstrated proficiency in 3D design, graphic illustration, and sketching, with advanced skills in Photoshop and Illustrator, supported by strong visual abilities.
• Demonstrated commercial product development experience, ideally within related categories or in a product design capacity at a licensee, retailer, or supplier
• Exposure to packaging processes and familiarity with style guides and the Online Product Approval (OPA) system (desirable)
• Hands-on experience in creating prototypes or models
• Awareness of industry trends within relevant categories and broader design fields, along with working knowledge of key manufacturing techniques and their applications
• Strong communication skills to express clear product design briefs and basic design concepts using CAD, digital tools, or collaboration with third-party design partners
• Ability to meet deadlines and manage budgets as directed
• Exceptional design and conceptual abilities
• Understanding of fabric, colour, and product design principles
• Confident presentation skills for sharing design ideas with internal and external collaborators at all levels
• Awareness of production methods and graphic applications, with an eye for colour and form (preferred)
• In-depth knowledge of fabrics and stitching techniques (preferred)
• Capacity to positively influence and support change among stakeholders
• Proficiency in written and spoken English for business; additional European languages are a plus
• Digital literacy, including familiarity with Mac OSX, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and MS Office
• Cultural sensitivity and an understanding of diverse markets across EMEA

The Perks

• 25 days annual leave
• Private medical insurance & dental care
• Free Park Entry: the opportunity to enter any of our parks with your family and friends for free
• Disney Discounts: entitled to discounts on designated Disney products, resort F&B and ticketing
• Excellent parental and guardian leave
• Employee Resource Groups – WOMEN @ Disney, Disney DIVERSITY, Disney PRIDE, our new 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.