Global Brand Director (multiple positions)

Job Description

Position Summary

The Global Brand Director is a senior global brand and business leader for one of TOMY’s major global categories. Reporting to the category Vice President, this role owns the brand's growth agenda and turns strategy into coordinated action across product, marketing, retail, community, and regions.

This role sits at the center of a global ecosystem that may include Japan-originated IP, regional teams, commercial partners, licensors, complex launch calendars, and passionate consumer communities. The Director must connect those groups around a clear direction while staying close to the realities of the product, consumer, customer, and market.

The Director is the senior integrator for the portfolio, aligning brand strategy, product roadmap, commercial priorities, creative direction, community strategy, and regional execution. They partner closely with category leadership, Japan, Commercial, NPD & Innovation, Consumer Insights, Finance, Operations, Legal, and Marketing Shared Services.

Success requires both strategic altitude and hands-on ownership. This leader frames the choices that matter, stays close to the work, acts with urgency, and brings the humility to learn from others.

Key Responsibilities

1. Global Brand Strategy & Architecture

• Define the assigned brand's purpose, positioning, target consumer, value proposition, architecture, growth ambition, and role in the category portfolio - and ensure that direction is visible across product, content, community, retail, and communications.
• Build annual and multi-year brand plans grounded in consumer, shopper, community, category, cultural, competitive, IP, and performance insight.
• Stay close to consumers, communities, retail, culture, and regional teams. Turn those signals into sharper brand, product, and commercial choices.
• Set global brand guardrails, claims, tone, visual and content principles, product hierarchy, and channel roles; make clear what must remain consistent globally and where markets have room to adapt.

2. Portfolio, Innovation & Lifecycle Roadmap

• Own the brand / product roadmap, innovation briefs, renovation priorities, line extensions, seasonal opportunities, and lifecycle recommendations, connecting consumer needs and play behavior to product opportunity.
• Build deep product fluency. Partner with NPD, Insights, Product Integrity, IP / Japan, Manufacturing PMO, and Supply Chain on value, feasibility, timing, cost, and compliance. Challenge assumptions when the consumer or business case demands it.
• Provide pricing architecture, assortment, hero-product, exclusivity, and launch-priority inputs in partnership with category leadership, regional Commercial teams, and Brand Finance.
• Recommend where to invest, accelerate, optimize, rationalize, or discontinue - balancing growth, margin, brand equity, consumer value, and long-term franchise health.

3. Launch, Campaign & Content Direction

• Translate strategy into inspiring launch briefs, campaign objectives, target-consumer direction, key messages, content requirements, asset plans, and global toolkits that teams can actually use.
• Lead Marketing Services and agency partners with clear briefs and decisive feedback; raise the creative bar and ensure work is strategically right, culturally relevant, complete, reusable, and region-ready.
• Connect product, packaging, IP / licensor needs, content, fandom, community, partnerships, retail activation, and launch calendars into one coherent consumer experience.
• Use post-launch learning, retailer feedback, and consumer and community response to improve quickly. Build repeat engagement, advocacy, and long-term fandom - not just one-time launch awareness.

4. Regional & Commercial Enablement

• Partner with Regional Heads of Marketing to co-create local plans, cultural and language adaptation, trade / shopper activation, and market calendars while protecting a clear global strategic center.
• Equip Sales and regional teams with strong category and brand stories, launch priorities, customer materials, product narratives, and channel guidance that build retailer confidence and unlock growth.
• Clarify global guardrails: what should remain consistent, where local adaptation adds value, and where teams need tighter alignment.
• Actively seek regional, customer, and market feedback, close the loop, and use it to improve global strategy, product, content, and activation rather than treating localization as a one-way handoff.

5. Brand Economics & Performance Management

• Partner with Brand Finance on the brand P&L, pricing, margin, royalty, promotion, marketing investment, innovation economics, and the choices required to improve profitable growth.
• Create a focused view of performance across consumer, community, commercial, financial, digital, retail, and launch indicators. Make the implications clear.
• Diagnose root causes behind performance gaps, separate signal from noise, and recommend focused corrective action with urgency and discipline.
• Balance brand equity, consumer value, sales, margin, inventory, and long-term franchise health. Know when to protect the brand, push for growth, or invest for disproportionate return.

6. Cross-Functional Leadership & Brand Stewardship

• Serve as the primary global point of accountability for the assigned brand across category leadership, Japan / IP, regions, Commercial, Operations, Growth Ventures, Finance, Legal, and Marketing Shared Services.
• Lead through influence, preparation, and trust. Challenge respectfully, resolve unclear handoffs, make recommendations with conviction, and escalate material decisions at the right time.
• Create simple operating rhythms that keep decisions, actions, assets, and learning visible across functions, regions, and time zones.
• Coach and develop talent while modeling curiosity, humility, accountability, collaboration, consumer passion, and a bias for action.

Qualifications

Experience

• 8-10+ years of progressive brand, marketing, or consumer-business leadership experience at a scope appropriate to a Global Director role.
• Proven success building and growing consumer brands or franchises across product, marketing, retail, content, community, and multiple markets.
• Significant experience in toys or a closely adjacent fandom-driven category is required. Relevant adjacencies include gaming, collectibles, entertainment, sports, licensed consumer products, and youth culture.
• Strong cross-cultural leadership. Experience with Japanese headquarters, Japanese partners, or Japan-originated IP is highly valued.
• Low-ego people leadership with strong creative, commercial, and analytical judgment. Able to coach talent, influence senior leaders, and operate effectively in ambiguity.

Education & Credentials

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience. Advanced credentials are welcome; demonstrated judgment, learning agility, and results matter more.

Skills & Capabilities

• Brand strategy, positioning, architecture, franchise storytelling, portfolio roadmaps, and lifecycle management.
• Deep consumer, shopper, community, and cultural insight - including the ability to build fandom, deepen engagement, drive repeat participation, and turn consumers into advocates.
• Product curiosity and innovation judgment, from strong briefs and product evaluation through launch planning and consumer experience.
• Commercial and financial acumen across pricing, margin, assortment, retail dynamics, marketing investment, inventory, and channel roles.
• Cross-cultural matrix leadership: build trust, adapt communication style, create clarity across working norms, and influence across Japan, regions, and functions without creating bureaucracy.
• A proactive, hands-on builder mindset with compelling storytelling, agency leadership, learning agility, resourcefulness, and notably low ego.

Success Measures

• Net sales, gross margin, market share, brand health, and long-term franchise relevance.
• Innovation and launch success, time-to-market, lifecycle productivity, and quality of the consumer experience.
• Consumer and community growth, repeat engagement, advocacy, cultural relevance, and retailer / regional confidence in the brand.
• Effective pricing, assortment, inventory, and marketing investment - plus strong trust and execution across Japan, regions, Commercial, and cross-functional partners.