Associate Manager, Strategic Initiatives (Manufacturing & Procurement)

The Opportunity: 

The Associate Manager, Strategic Initiatives is responsible for translating business priorities into medium and long range product supply strategies that enable reliable, cost effective support for manufacturing and procurement within Mattel's Global Supply Chain organization. This role partners closely with Product Supply, Procurement, Manufacturing, Finance, and cross functional stakeholders to assess capacity, material availability, inventory implications, and supply risks, then convert those insights into actionable plans and recommendations. The position provides decision support to the Sr Manager, Manufacturing & Procurement who reports to the VP of Product Supply, to drive planning discipline across the function.

What Your Impact Will Be: 

• Develop and maintain performance management frameworks, models, and routines that align manufacturing and procurement plans with service, inventory, and cost objectives. 

• Partner with the Sr Manager Product Supply Operations to shape medium and long range product supply strategies, priorities, and executive recommendations. 

• Diagnose and drive improvement in manufacturing, procurement and cross-functional processes that impact product supply. 

• Translate procurement and manufacturing inputs into integrated product supply strategies, clearly identifying trade offs, dependencies, risks, and mitigation actions. 

• Analyze supply risks, including lead time shifts, supplier limitations, component shortages, and network bottlenecks, and recommend practical contingency plans. 

• Build and monitor manufacturing and procurement metrics, dashboards, and analyses related to supply performance, service, and cost efficiency. 

• Support cross functional production forums by preparing clear insights, alternatives, and decision ready materials for senior leadership. 

• Lead strategic projects tied to sourcing transitions, manufacturing footprint changes, launch readiness, productivity opportunities, and working capital improvement. 

• Drive continuous improvement in performance management, governance, and ways of working to enhance analytical rigor and speed of decision making.