Senior Design Project Manager

About ZURU

ZURU is on a mission to disrupt across industries, challenge the status quo and catalyst change through radical innovation and automation advances. This is in play in different pillars of the company: ZURU Toys are re-imagining what it means to play; ZURU Tech is shaping a better future by leading the next building revolution; ZURU Edge is pioneering new generation FMCG brands to better serve modern consumers.

Founded in 2003 by EY Entrepreneur of the Year and World Entrepreneur Hall of Fame brothers Nick and Mat Mowbray, ZURU has quickly grown to a team of over 5000 direct and indirect members across more than 30 international locations.

One of the largest toy companies in the world, globally recognized and award-winning brands include Bunch O Balloons, Mini Brands, XSHOT, Rainbocorns and Smashers. Our global FMCG brands include MONDAY Haircare, Rascals, NOOD, BONKERS, Gumi Yum Surprise, and more!

For more information, visit www.zuru.com.

About The Role

The ZURU Edge New Product Development team is seeking a highly motivated Design Project Manager to join our team.

What You Will Bring

• Minimum 7 years industry experience in a similar role
• Experience with project managing brand and packaging design tasks
• Excellent time management and prioritization skills
• A pragmatic approach to problem-solving
• Confidence in decision-making
• Expertise in communication and organizational skills
• Multi-tasking and collaboration skills
• Proficient with the MS office suite, experience with HIVE a bonus

Roles & Responsibilities

• Business Partnership & Communication
• Act as the first point of contact between the NPD Design team and the wider ZURU business, building strong relationships across all verticals.
• Manage and communicate project timings and status updates to stakeholders, ensuring visibility across all active work-streams.
• Organize and lead regular vertical team meetings to maintain alignment and surface issues early.
• Attend and contribute to master plan meetings with senior leadership, representing the design team's capacity and priorities.
• Production Co-ordination
• Serve as the key liaison with project managers based in China, sharing briefs, updates, and decisions in a timely and structured manner.
• Champion best-practice processes with China-based team members, ensuring consistent standards are followed for work briefing, handover, and delivery across all projects.
• Ensure project timelines are consistently updated and accurately reflect current progress across production stages.
• Run regular work-in-progress meetings with the China production team to resolve blockers and maintain momentum.
• Resource Planning & Progress Monitoring
• Own the weekly WIP process within the NPD Design team, facilitating structured check-ins to track progress across all active projects.
• Plan and manage team resource allocation, balancing workloads against project demands and deadlines.
• Maintain up-to-date project tracking tools and dashboards to give leadership clear visibility of team output and pipeline.
• Brief Management & Quality Control
• Receive incoming briefs from the business and evaluate them for completeness before passing them to the design team.
• Police brief quality rigorously — ensuring all necessary creative inputs are present before work commences, including market positioning, product specifications, target audience, key stakeholders, and confirmed timelines.
• Work with brief owners to gather missing information, asking the right questions to protect the team's time and output quality.
• Establish and champion a clear briefing process that sets a consistent standard across the business.
• Day-to-day Requests & Stakeholder Management
• Act as the first point of triage for incoming queries, requests for updates, small tasks, and revision requests from the wider business.
• Priorities and route day-to-day requests efficiently, ensuring the design team's focus is protected while stakeholders feel heard and informed.
• Maintain a responsive and professional communication style with all stakeholders, managing expectations clearly and proactively.
• Track and close out ad hoc requests systematically, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.

LIFE@ZURU

At ZURU, we have cultivated a high-performing culture that encourages excellence. Our team works towards ambitious goals, learning, performing, and improving together, all while having fun. We empower talented individuals to do their best work every day.

At ZURU, you get out what you put in. You are responsible for driving your own career and we provide the platform to achieve it. As ZURU is on such a fast growth trajectory, there are opportunities here that you won't find anywhere else.

We recognize that ZURU's success stems from our people and you can only be at your best when you are looking after yourself. ZURU encourages all our team members to invest in their wellbeing by providing an array of benefits and tools.

WHAT WE OFFER Culture for Growth Surrounded by an A Player Team Competitive Remuneration

ZURU – Tomorrow Reimagined ZURU.com