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Sr. Play Designer

Sago Mini is an award-winning publisher of preschool apps and toys worldwide. Supported by a team of artists, designers, developers, product managers, thinkers, and doers who are devoted to play. With over 75 million downloads, three subscription services, 40+ apps, and a line of physical toys, Sago Mini brings thoughtful design to life for kids and parents worldwide.

About the Role

The Sago Mini team is on the lookout for our next Sr. Play Designer! Leading the creative vision for our School app, you will be a key advocate of the child and parent experience. You will inspire, motivate, rally, and support your colleagues within the craft of Play Design. You’ll be the driving force behind the creation of playful and educational interactions for kids. Join us today and play with your work!

This will be a hybrid position that allows you to work from home and also at our headquarters located at 171 John Street in Toronto.

You’ll thrive in this role if you:

• Are empathetic, naturally curious, and capable of making careful observations and conclusions with an open mind
• Prefer to prioritize progress and not perfection.
• Can be willing to let good ideas go for even better ones.
• Have a keen ability to rally the team - leading brainstorms, sharing insights, motivating and building excitement, and fostering idea generation.
• Can earn confidence from your team to provide answers from a kid’s point of view as they know you have the best intentions for the product.
• Have a passion for fun and intuitive learning experiences.
• Are an excellent communicator with a knack for preparing clear and concise documentation.
• Love working with and for children.
• Enjoy keeping up with emerging play experiences and trends.

Your day-to-day responsibilities will cover:

• Collaborating with our team of product owners, educational consultants, developers, designers and artists to create new, exciting features that align with business goals.
• Pitching and selling the creative vision to the Sago Mini School team, stakeholders and wider team.
• Crafting fun, intuitive, touchable, digital learning experiences for children 2-5.
• Managing priorities and core goals.
• Providing feedback to the team on current work, leading discussions, and gathering the right people to move things forward.
• Sketching, storyboarding, wireframing, animating, and prototyping in order to work quickly towards the earliest playable form of a given play pattern
• Presenting clear and concise design documentation that is accessible and actionable by the whole project team.
• Observing and playing with kids to better understand their motivations and expectations when it comes to play.
• Using in-person and remote play testing effectively by planning ahead with questions and assumptions based on what is being tested.
• Applying insights from testing and research to establish and iterate on the details of play, interaction, and visual design and clearly communicating these insights and observations to the team.

Some of the qualifications and skills we are looking for include:

• A degree or diploma in interactive design, industrial design, toy design or have demonstrable working experience.
• At least 7+ years of professional experience working in design.
• Comfort with using visual tools to communicate ideas - animatics, videos, sketches, etc.
• Experience leading, motivating, and rallying team members.
• A curious, playful, and enthusiastic lateral thinker.
• A comfortable communicator and excellent collaborator.
• The ability to communicate interaction design details that account for the needs of artists and developers.
• A strong interaction design sensibility and a passion for details.
• Experience in the education space or gaming space is an asset.

About our interview process:

• Once you apply, you'll receive an email from us confirming that we've received your application. After we've had a chance to review your application, we'll reach out to let you know what the next steps are.
• If you are moving ahead, we’ll book a 30 minute Zoom interview where we'll learn more about you and answer any questions you have about the role.
• If you are successful after your first interview, we will administer a short take-home assignment which will help us better understand your level of skill.
• If your assignment is successful, you will meet with a few members of our hiring team to dive further into your experience. This will also be an opportunity for you to learn more about the role and team goals from the subject matter experts.
• Finally, if you are successful after meeting with the hiring team, we’ll organize an interview for you to meet with a cross-functional group of Sago Mini team members so they can get to know a bit more about you prior to a decision being made.

We welcome and encourage applications from people with disabilities. Accommodations are available upon request for candidates taking part in all aspects of the selection process.

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Based in Toronto, Sago Sago Toys of Spin Master Limited a leading global children’s entertainment company that creates, designs and manufactures a diversified portfolio of innovative toys, games, products and entertainment properties. We hire humble, collaborative, and ambitious people who care about doing great work. Sago Mini is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity at our company.