Senior Director, Franchise, Media and Retail Development

Position: Senior Director, Franchise, Media and Retail Development

Location: Irvine, CA

Job Id: 165

# of Openings: 1

Senior Director, Franchise, Media and Retail Development

The Senior Director, Marketing & Strategy leads the development and activation of BNTCA's mid- to long-term franchise, consumer, retail, and portfolio strategies. The role translates market, consumer, retail, category, competitive, and product-level insights into clear enterprise priorities that support sustainable growth across mass, specialty, ecommerce, direct-to-consumer, and experiential channels. This leader connects strategy to execution by aligning Brand, Sales, Media, Events, Analytics, Product Development, Operations, Finance, licensors, agencies, and Bandai Namco stakeholders in Japan around integrated plans, measurable KPIs, and disciplined resource allocation. The Senior Director serves as a senior strategic advisor to department and executive leadership, strengthens strategic planning capabilities across the organization, and develops a high-performing team.

The Senior Director also plays a critical role in helping to bring Bandai Namco Toys & Collectibles of America’s products to life at retail. The position will drive consumer discoverability, product awareness, and support the growth of evergreen and content driven franchises through ongoing program development. Communication skills to coordinate input and action needed from multiple departments will be critical to success in this position.

This leader will leverage a deep understanding of the retail landscape, retail buyers, and their relationships with Bandai's sales, each brand’s toy development/licensing strategy and marketing teams to lead the development of campaign strategies. This includes prioritizing and balancing product selection, marketing tactics, and promotions aimed at maximizing ROI for each campaign.

This role will also oversee the development and ongoing operations of BNTCA’s flagship retail business, including company-operated brick-and-mortar stores and other key retail locations featuring the flagship brand.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS

Strategy, Portfolio and Growth Leadership

• Lead the annual and multi-year Marketing & Strategy planning process, including franchise priorities, growth platforms, audience opportunities, channel strategies, investment choices, objectives, and KPIs.
• Create and maintain an integrated strategic matrix connecting IP, audience, retailer/channel, category, product, price point, content moment, and marketing activation.
• Identify whitespace opportunities and recommend where BNTCA should grow, defend, test, partner, or deprioritize based on strategic fit, consumer relevance, capability, risk, and financial potential.
• Prepare portfolio and franchise reviews for executive leadership, converting complex information into clear choices, implications, and recommended actions.
• Establish an operating cadence for strategy reviews, performance updates, decision forums, and course correction.

Consumer, Market and Competitive Intelligence

• Lead the use of primary and secondary research, sell-in and sell-through data, digital and cultural signals, retailer insights, and competitive intelligence to shape franchise and business recommendations.
• Partner with Analytics and Finance to define performance frameworks, dashboards, hypotheses, post-program evaluations, and actionable learning agendas.
• Provide regular companywide updates on IP, consumer, category, retail, media, pop-culture, and toy-industry trends.
• Develop annual research priorities, manage external research partners as needed, and ensure insights are translated into decisions rather than reported in isolation.

Integrated Franchise and Marketing Strategy

• Guide integrated franchise strategies across evergreen properties, tentpole content, new IP, and emerging opportunities, balancing long-term brand building with near-term commercial performance.
• Partner with Brand, Media, Events, Public Relations, Creative, and Sales teams to develop consumer and trade programs that improve awareness, discoverability, engagement, conversion, and sell-through.
• Oversee development of strategic, creative, media, and activation briefs and ensure campaign objectives, target audiences, messages, channel roles, timing, budget, and measurement plans are aligned.
• Review marketing performance and direct strategic or tactical adjustments to improve effectiveness and efficiency.
• Ensure event and experiential activations connect to broader franchise, retail, content, and community strategies.

Retail and Channel Strategy

• Partner with Sales and Retail Development to create annual retailer and channel strategies tailored to the consumer, franchise, assortment, promotional calendar, and operating realities of each account.
• Recommend prioritized product mixes and activation approaches based on franchise potential, retail context, category role, consumer need, and commercial objectives.
• Build scalable evergreen and content-driven retail programs while identifying retailer-specific opportunities that generate incremental placement, visibility, and growth.
• Apply retail, shopper, and fan insights to direct-to-consumer, flagship, convention, specialty, mass, and e-commerce opportunities, as applicable.

Licensor, Agency and Japan Collaboration

• Serve as a senior strategic partner to licensors, agencies, retailers, and Bandai Namco stakeholders in Japan, enabling timely and accurate information flow, alignment, approvals, and joint planning.
• Integrate licensor and content roadmaps with BNTCA product, retail, media, and activation plans while protecting franchise integrity and commercial objectives.
• Partner with Licensing and Finance to monitor key contractual and commercial considerations, including minimum guarantees and revenue implications, as applicable.
• Build trusted relationships that position BNTCA as a collaborative, insight-led, execution focused partner.

Leadership, Governance and Team Development

• Lead, coach, and develop strategy team members through clear objectives, ongoing feedback, capability building, succession planning, and performance management.
• Create cross-functional clarity on decision rights, ownership, milestones, dependencies, risks, budgets, and expected outcomes for strategic initiatives.
• Prioritize the team's portfolio of work, resolve competing demands, and elevate material decisions or risks with concise options and recommendations.
• Promote a one-company mindset, constructive debate, accountability, inclusion of diverse perspectives, and disciplined follow-through.
• Model sound judgment, confidentiality, integrity, and alignment with BNTCA and Bandai Namco corporate philosophy.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• Strong and Strategic leadership.
• Integrated Marketing knowledge.
• Vast knowledge of toy and retail landscape and timelines.
• Established experience of retail sales and/or buying.
• Strong presentation skills and an ability to react quickly and think on their feet • Innovative and capable of working and leading multiple initiatives simultaneously.
• Strong analytical skills and understanding of the retail business and financial concepts.
• Problem solving mentality, positive attitude, and deadline focused.
• Team oriented and ambitious to grow within the company.
• Ability to operate independently on projects with minimal oversight, maintaining timely responses and execution on all projects.
• Familiar with pop culture fan conventions and consumer trends and the ability to translate those trends into actionable creative strategies.
• Proficient with Adobe creative applications, PowerPoint, Planogram software and other creative design software.
• Working knowledge of project management platforms.
• Strong organizational and analytical skills to oversee and prioritize projects.
• Excellent interpersonal communications, presentation, and leadership skills.
• Knowledgeable and understanding of Japanese pop culture titles and products.

CORE SKILLS

• Accuracy – Works with minimal/acceptable error rate; seeks help for problems; pays attention to detail; follows established work procedures; alerts others when preventable problems arise.
• Reliability – Consistently dependable in meeting work expectations; good work output; keeps commitments. Maintains an acceptable attendance level.
• Judgment – Makes reasonable and defensible decisions based on relevant information.
• Loyalty – Keeps confidential company information; follows company policies; seeks management approval when sharing such data; reports violations of company policies to proper management authority.
• Communication – Writes and speaks with accuracy and sensitivity; uses proper language, tone, location, medium (in person or via electronic form) and timing when conveying information; and respects different communication styles of individuals with different backgrounds or perspectives.

JOB REQUIREMENTS

EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing or Business Administration or a related field.

EXPERIENCE AND WORK REQUIREMENTS

• Minimum 10+ years retail sales, marketing experience.
• Understanding of retail timelines and processes.
• Experience working with buyers and other key retail stakeholders.
• Understanding of North American consumer products and retail trends.
• Acumatica knowledge a plus but not required.
• Familiarity with and understanding of Japanese pop culture titles and products.
• Excellent interpersonal communications, presentation skills.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

White-collar office environment.

WORKPLACE TEMPERATURE

Typical Office.

WORK CONDITIONS

NOISE LEVEL

Mild.

PHYSICAL SIGHT

Able to read both hardcopy and computer-based text.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

Sitting and standing for long periods of times.