Senior Manager, Global Sample Operations & Projects

JAKKS Pacific, Inc.; Santa Monica (CA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 115,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health and Wellness benefits

401K matching

Employee discount programs

Job summary

JAKKS Pacific, Inc. seeks a Senior Manager, Sample Operations & Project Management to lead global sample requests from submission to completion in Santa Monica, CA.

You will oversee the Sample Shop, manage staff, production, quality, and workflow, and partner with Marketing, Sales, and Design to ensure correct assets and timely delivery. The ideal candidate balances competing priorities, anticipates seasonal demand, and maintains clear communication with executives.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in project management, operations, product development, production planning, creative operations, or a related field.
• Experience managing high-volume projects or requests with multiple stakeholders and competing deadlines.
• Experience managing managers, supervisors, project teams, or operational functions.
• Strong project management, prioritization, resource planning, and organizational skills.
• Demonstrated ability to manage cross-functional dependencies and drive issues to resolution.
• Strong communication and stakeholder-management skills, including experience working with senior leadership.
• Ability to anticipate workload and capacity requirements and adjust priorities as business needs change.
• Strong attention to detail and ability to identify incomplete or inaccurate requirements.

Responsibilities

• Own and prioritize the global pipeline of product sample requests from submission through completion.
• Manage and provide leadership to the Sample Shop Manager and partner on workload, capacity, staffing, and production planning.
• Primary liaison between the Sample Shop and Marketing, Sales, PR, Design, Packaging, Operations, and Executive Management.
• Coordinate requests from Marketing, Sales, PR, Design, Packaging, Operations, Executives, and other internal stakeholders.
• Establish priorities based on business needs, deadlines, product launches, customer meetings, marketing campaigns, PR events, and available capacity.
• Develop an understanding of seasonal sample demand and proactively plan resources and capacity for peak periods.
• Establish and manage a “Ready for Sample” process to ensure requests are complete and accurate before Sample Shop resources are committed.
• Partner with Marketing, Packaging, and Design to confirm the correct and most current product/item is being sampled.
• Ensure accurate product dimensions, specifications, packaging structures, artwork, and other required assets are available before production begins.
• Identify incomplete or conflicting requests and drive cross-functional resolution before releasing work to the Sample Shop.
• Maintain visibility into request status, priorities, deadlines, dependencies, backlog, and at-risk projects.
• Resolve competing departmental priorities and escalates significant conflicts when necessary.
• Establish realistic timelines and communicate status, risks, and changes to stakeholders.
• Monitor sample volume, turnaround time, on-time completion, backlog, capacity, rush requests, and rework.
• Identify opportunities to improve the existing sample request system, workflow, planning process, and cross-functional accountability.

Skills

Project management

Operations management

Cross-functional coordination

Stakeholder management

Scheduling & capacity planning

Team leadership

Tools

ERP

PLM

Product information systems

Job description

JAKKS Pacific, Inc. seeks a Senior Manager, Sample Operations & Project Management to lead global sample requests from submission to completion in Santa Monica, CA.

You will oversee the Sample Shop, manage staff, production, quality, and workflow, and partner with Marketing, Sales, and Design to ensure correct assets and timely delivery. The ideal candidate balances competing priorities, anticipates seasonal demand, and maintains clear communication with executives.