Job Description
Company Description
CREATIVITY IS OUR SUPERPOWER. It’s our heritage and it’s also our future. Because we don’t just make toys. We create innovative products and experiences that inspire fans, entertain audiences and develop children through play. Mattel is at its best when every member of our team feels respected, included, and heard—when everyone can show up as themselves and do their best work every day. We value and share an infinite range of ideas and voices that evolve and broaden our perspectives with a reach that extends into all our brands, partners, and suppliers.
The Team:
Mattel Game Studios’ mission is to harness the power of Mattel’s iconic brands and IP to create a wide variety of engaging digital games. Guided by industry leaders with decades of experience, our team is building innovative, engaging experiences that bring beloved brands to life for players worldwide.
Job Description
The Opportunity:
We’re looking for a QA Manager to own release confidence and quality outcomes across a portfolio of digital game titles developed with external studios and validated by specialist QA and localization partners. With a strong focus on mobile free-to-play (F2P) games, this is a publishing-side leadership role that manages quality strategy, risk management, partner accountability, and scalable QA operations—so players get stable, polished experiences at launch and throughout LiveOps.
What Your Impact Will Be:
Establish QA process within the publishing workflow: Partner with internal Publishing Platform and Core Team leads to integrate vendor QA processes into the production and release workflow.
Own quality strategy and signals: Define quality standards, test strategies, KPIs/metrics, and reporting that guide prioritization and drive change across teams and partners.
Lead release readiness: Establish quality gates, exit criteria, and go/no-go recommendations for launches, updates, and hotfixes—balancing scope, timing, and acceptable risk without becoming a bottleneck.
Manage partners and vendors: Define QA deliverables, SLAs, and success KPIs with vendor partners; oversee performance reporting, capacity planning, turnaround times, test coverage accuracy, and issue escalation paths; conduct regular vendor performance reviews and continuous improvement initiatives to optimize cost, quality, and time-to-market.
Run defect triage and escalation: Enforce defect quality standards, severity frameworks, and escalation paths; ensure fixes are verified, regression-safe, and communicated clearly to stakeholders.
Scale QA operations: Implement reusable test plans, checklists, bug taxonomy, device/OS coverage strategy, and continuous improvement rhythms (reviews, audits, corrective actions).
Champion LiveOps quality: Support fast, safe release cadence with post-release validation, incident support, and learnings/root-cause analysis that reduce repeat issues.
Support App Store submissions: Partner on submission readiness (checklists, technical compliance/disclosures, signing/build variants) and coordinate rapid response to first-party feedback to keep releases on track.
Qualifications
What We’re Looking For:
6+ years in mobile games QA or related quality operations with 2+ years managing third-party vendor relationships or distributed teams.
Demonstrated experience managing QA for live mobile free-to-play (F2P) through LiveOps and release cycles, with strong ownership of release readiness and quality outcomes.
Deep knowledge of QA test methodologies, defect lifecycle management, and mobile device/OS test coverage strategies.
Proficiency with QA tooling (e.g., Jira, TestRail, Zephyr) and analytics dashboards.
Strong operational judgment: risk-based testing, exit criteria, prioritization in fast-moving environments, and clear, decision-driving reporting.
Confident cross-functional leadership and communication with producers, engineers, product leaders, and external studios.
Nice to Have
Experience with portfolio QA operations across multiple titles/time zones; comfort directing work remotely.
Familiarity with modern games QA practices (automation-aware thinking, quality metrics, testability) and ability to be hands-on when needed.
Localization QA experience (multi-language/multi-region launches).
Certifications such as CSM / PSM.
*The pay range is indicative of projected hiring range, however base pay will be determined based on a candidate’s work location, skills and experience. Mattel offers competitive total pay programs, comprehensive benefits, and resources to help empower a culture where every employee can reach their full potential.
Additional Information
Don’t meet every single requirement? At Mattel, we are dedicated to an inclusive workplace and a culture of belonging. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we still encourage you to apply. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles. Join Mattel’s Talent Community and start receiving exciting updates about our company, our employees, and our culture. Also, interested in signing up for job alerts? Do so here!
How We Work:
We are a purpose driven company aiming to empower generations to explore the wonder of childhood and reach their full potential. We live up to our purpose employing the following behaviors:
- We collaborate: Being a part of Mattel means being part of one team with shared values and common goals. Every person counts and working closely together always brings better results. Partnership is our process and our collective capabilities is our superpower.
- We innovate: At Mattel we always aim to find new and better ways to create innovative products and experiences. No matter where you work in the organization, you can always make a difference and have real impact. We welcome new ideas and value new initiatives that challenge conventional thinking.
- We execute: We are a performance-driven company. We strive for excellence and are focused on pursuing best-in-class outcomes. We believe in accountability and ownership and know that our people are at their best when they are empowered to create and deliver results.
Our Approach to Flexible Work:
We embrace a flexible work model designed to empower a culture of growth, optimism, and wellbeing, where every employee can reach their full potential. Combining purposeful in-person collaboration with flexibility, our focus is to optimize performance and drive connection for moments that matter.
Who We Are:
Mattel is a leading global toy and family entertainment company and owner of one of the most iconic brand portfolios in the world. We engage consumers and fans through our franchise brands, including Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price, American Girl, Thomas & Friends, UNO, Masters of the Universe, Matchbox, Monster High, MEGA and Polly Pocket, as well as other popular properties that we own or license in partnership with global entertainment companies. Our offerings include toys, content, consumer products, digital and live experiences. Our products are sold in collaboration with the world’s leading retail and ecommerce companies. Since its founding in 1945, Mattel is proud to be a trusted partner in empowering generations to explore the wonder of childhood and reach their full potential.
Mattel’s award-winning workplace culture has been recognized by Forbes, Fast Company, Newsweek, Great Place to Work, TIME, and more.
Visit us at https://jobs.mattel.com/ and www.instagram.com/MattelCareers.
Mattel is an Equal Opportunity Employer where we want you to bring your authentic self to work every day. We welcome all job seekers, and all applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, veteran and protected veteran status, disability status, and or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state or local law.
Pursuant to the Los Angeles Fair Chance Ordinance and the California Fair Chance Act, qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment.
Videos to watch:
The Culture at Mattel
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