Prototype Studio Lead

Job Description

Do you want to lead a department that makes people’s dreams a reality through invention, making, breaking, and unconventional approaches? Do you go through life with a childlike playful curiosity, asking how things work and what fills people with joy and have a desire to make life more playful?

Yes? Then grab your prototyping super pack and head to the Prototype Studio ─ a collaborative, fun, innovation lab where ideas come to life through rapid experimentation, learning, and iteration.

Lead the teams on failing fast, embracing challenges and working together to refine and deliver products and help realise ideas. Come and join the LEGO Group’s Play Discovery Team in the Creative Play Lab.

This role requires proficient working knowledge of physical prototyping methodologies, technical machine understanding and creation of new machines, product development, design and or engineering with a multi-disciplinary approach.

Please note : Please include a portfolio of your physical prototyping work in your application. We would love for your creations to display the depth and breadth of your expertise in this area. Many thanks

Core Responsibilities

You are an inventor, you dream for a living and are driven by curiosity, iteration and playfulness. We would like the Prototype Studio Lead to:

• Be a thought leader in problem solving in the world of prototyping and be a role model by approaching challenges with the curiosity and the creativity of a child.
• Have a constant desire to learn, fearlessness to step into the unknown, and desire for never ending entrepreneurialism. You will embrace discovery, making, iteration and wonder to create unconventional ways to make and invent powerful play.
• Empower the prototyping team (25+) to bravely explore new pathways and thrive in the unknown but also iterate again and again and explore in the known. You will create environments for teams to be brave, to challenge, reinvent and prototype to find a new dimension of play and get better and better at what they do.
• Create a visionary roadmap on a 3 year plus horizon for the Prototype Studio and collaborate closely with the Business to support strategic goals and inspire and challenge them to exceed targets through play prototypes which unlock massive play value.
• Keep the LEGO System-in-Play fresh and ever evolving to maintain the LEGO Group as the thought leaders in the toy industry.
• Seek for the unobvious ways and keep track of the latest advancements in machinery, materials, methodologies that give us an edge in the prototyping process focusing on generating amazing opportunities to surprise and delight children across the world to play their way.
• Champion a stable production of prototypes (quality, quantity, and speed) as well as operational excellence of all prototyping deliveries across the business by continuously improving our technology platform, processes and standards across the teams and driving creative leadership.
• Ensure yearly EHS, MSG and Workplace assessment reviews across our technology platforms to create a safe and best in class work environment.
• Prioritise and allocate specialists to ensure quality, quantity, and deadline of all prototyping deliveries (elements, decorations, stickers, textile, foil, building instruction, packaging, technology components) across the business, including high priority projects.
• Manage financially an annual 12M DKK PLUS operating budget and an investment plan with an annual depreciation cap. Analyse multiple data points, proactively build business cases and present recommendations to senior management. Deliver on a productivity target of 5% year on year.
• Create a powerful network. Rather than attempting to solve every challenge internally, you will turn to the right external partners at the right time to move more efficiently, help us set the standard and think differently. Then lead these exceptional freelancers, external expert partners and companies to their maximum potential through sharing common values.

Do you have what it takes?

Potential is more important than qualifications in a role like this. Most of our makers/prototypers have Outstanding but unexpected careers, self-directing their own path from one interesting project to the next opportunity. You will have a proven track record of successfully leading a prototyping area that meets the user needs, the business goals, and the technical requirements.

What is also expected is a deep knowledge across a broad range of innovative prototyping related software technologies (CAD/3D printing, CAM/CNC, Adobe Illustrator/photoshop/Graphic Printing, making and handmade prototypes and experience with agile methodology within prototyping, experimentation, and rapid iteration.

• A thought leader in Prototyping: A physical prototyping portfolio that breaks the boundaries of innovation in a chain of pioneering professional adventures. Your creations will display the depth and breadth of your expertise in this area.
• People-oriented: You are an empowering people leader that inspires, motivates, and engages the team. You support their growth by coaching and developing them to cultivate a playful but pioneering culture of mutual respect that encourages them to communicate and take ownership of their day-to-day activities.
• Value and results focused: Comfortable with business decisions and able to look behind any request to get the real needs and drivers, then make trade-offs based on return on investment. Focused on great results that help elevate the value of the play.
• Driven by the unknown: An experienced leader of prototype pioneers across multiple different functions that have created never been done before prototypes for several years. Experienced in directing and managing the discovery development of multiple projects from observation to physical prototype creation.
• A great interrupter: The ability to articulate advanced thinking and ideas in simple, captivating and relatable ways that get makers, designers and the rest of the business united to the same direction.
• Professionally independent: Technologically capable, and personally resilient. You embrace a renewed sense of adventure in search for frontiers to provide space to roam and rediscover and focus on reiterating on the delivery of great prototypes.
• Multidimensional thinking: Experience to know when to empower and when to motivate by pushing for higher standards across diverse teams and be the ultimate multitasker.
• A lateral problem solver: Able to show where you saw the potential that others missed and challenge in inspiring and different ways. Able to identify and resolve any issues or risks that may affect the prototype deliveries.
• A curious beacon: Experimental mentality consistently seeking evidence to check your opinions and beliefs with real consumers.

What’s in it for you?

Here is what you can expect:

Family Care Leave - We offer enhanced paid leave options for those important times.

Insurances – All colleagues are covered by our life and disability insurance which provides protection and peace of mind.

Wellbeing - We want our people to feel well and thrive. We offer resources and benefits to nurture physical and mental wellbeing along with opportunities to build community and inspire creativity.

Colleague Discount – We know you'll love to build, so from day 1 you will qualify for our generous colleague discount.

Bonus - We do our best work to succeed together. When goals are reached and if eligible, you'll be rewarded through our bonus scheme.

Workplace - When you join the team you'll be assigned a primary workplace location i.e. one of our Offices, stores or factories. Our hybrid work policy means an average of 3 days per week in the office. The hiring team will discuss the policy and role eligibility with you during the recruitment process.

Children are our role models. Their curiosity, creativity and imagination inspire everything we do. We strive to create a diverse, dynamic and inclusive culture of play at the LEGO Group, where everyone feels safe, valued and they belong.

The LEGO Group is highly committed to equal employment opportunity and equal pay and seeks to encourage applicants from all backgrounds (eg. sex, gender identity or expression, race/ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, age and religion) to apply for roles in our team.

Research shows that women and people from different underrepresented backgrounds often only apply for a job if they meet 100% of the listed qualifications. If you dream of being a part of our team and you meet many, but not all of our listed qualifications for this role, please apply.

The LEGO Group is fully committed to Children’s Rights and Child Wellbeing across the globe. Candidates offered positions with high engagement with children are required to take part in Child Safeguarding Background Screening, as a condition of the offer.

Thank you for sharing our global commitment to Children’s Rights.

Just imagine building your dream career.

Then make it real.

Join the LEGO team today.