Senior Product & Packaging Designer (Toy Designer)

Senior Product & Packaging Designer (Toy Designer)

• Remote (Latin America-based)

• Compensation: Competitive, based on experience, plus performance-based bonuses

• Schedule: Flexible and productivity-based. Able to overlap several hours daily with China Standard Time (GMT+8) and connect with a US-based founder.

• Tech Stack: Expert in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. 3D tools (Blender, Fusion, Rhino, KeyShot, Dimension) are a strong plus

At Near, we connect top talent in Latin America with exciting remote opportunities at U.S.-based companies. Our mission is to create better lives by fostering a remote work culture that transcends borders.

About the Company

Our client is a fast-growing US toy company. Their products are sold in over a thousand independent retail stores across the United States, and they grew from $200K to several million dollars in revenue in a single year — because their products are genuinely unlike anything else on the market, and they cannot keep them in stock.

They are small, lean, and ambitious. The founder leads product vision and sales, and their operations lead runs the day-to-day. You will be their third core team member. Every product they launch will have your fingerprints on it, and you will see your work on shelves in a thousand stores.

The Role

This is a creative partner role, not a production design role. We are looking for someone whose product instincts are as good as the founder's. You will sit beside him in the idea phase, not downstream of it. He will bring many of the ideas and will always have final say — but we want someone who walks into a Monday call with three concepts of their own, argues for the best one, and is right often enough to change what we build.

Alongside ideation, you will own the design of our physical presentation: packaging that stops a shopper in a crowded toy store, and an unboxing experience that a kid or a collector wants to film. We do not want packaging that is merely correct. We want packaging so distinctive that it becomes part of the product.

Your core responsibilities:
 

• Product ideation and concept development. Generate original toy and product concepts. Bring us ideas we have not thought of, spot emerging trends and aesthetics early, and develop your own concepts far enough that we can judge them honestly. Kill your own weak ideas quickly. 
• Design critique and product improvement. Our factories in China produce the actual engineering and tooling files. You do not need to create those — you need to make them better. You will review factory designs and 3D files and return specific, actionable feedback on proportion, play value, ergonomics, durability, finish, color, assembly, and cost-versus-impact tradeoffs. 
• Experiential packaging design. Design packaging as an experience, not a container: shelf presence, structural and mechanical ideas, reveal sequences, inserts, magnets, hidden details, print finishes, and the moment-by-moment unboxing journey. You should be as excited about how the box opens as what is inside it. 
• In-store presentation. Design counter displays, floor displays, and shelf presence for all types of retailers — this is where we win or lose against much larger brands with much larger budgets. 
• Production-ready execution. Take your own designs across the finish line: dielines, prepress files, color specs, proof review, and artwork rounds with our factories. You should be able to do this manually when it matters, even though we expect you to use AI wherever it is faster. 
• Sales and marketing collateral. Sell sheets, line sheets, catalog pages, trade show graphics, and marketplace listing imagery.

How We Work With AI

We use AI aggressively and expect you to as well. If a concept board, a mockup, a texture, a variant set, or a first-pass layout can be produced faster with AI, that is the correct approach, and we will happily pay for whatever tools you need.

The bar is this: AI should multiply your taste, not substitute for it. You must also know how to do the work manually for the edge cases where AI cannot get us across the finish line — final production files, precise structural packaging work, and anything requiring exact specifications. Candidates who can only prompt, and candidates who refuse to prompt, are both wrong for this role.

What Makes You a Great Fit

• Demonstrable product ideation ability. You can show us concepts you originated — not just work you executed for someone else's brief. Personal projects, spec work, and side ventures count fully here. 
• A genuine eye. You have strong opinions about why one form, proportion, color, or finish is better than another, and you can articulate them.
• Physical product experience. You have worked on products that were actually manufactured. Toys, games, collectibles, consumer electronics, housewares, beauty, or premium packaging backgrounds all translate well.
• Experiential packaging instinct. You pay attention to how great brands stage a reveal. You have ideas about structure and mechanics, not just surface graphics.
• Ability to critique engineering constructively. You can look at a factory's 3D file or sample and articulate exactly what to change and why, in terms a manufacturer can act on.
• Production competence. Expert in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. You understand dielines, bleed, CMYK versus spot color, lamination and specialty finishes, and how to hand off clean files. 3D tools (Blender, Fusion, Rhino, KeyShot, Dimension) are a strong plus.
• AI fluency. You already use generative tools in your workflow and can show us how.
• Excellent written and oral English and directness. You will exchange blunt creative feedback daily with a founder who has a strong point of view, and written specifications with Chinese factories.
• Feedback: Must be motivated by direct critical feedback.
• A note about the founders workstyle: This is not a democracy. The founder has final say, and we are looking for someone who reads the moment well: pushing hard where their instincts add real value, and following direction cleanly and without ego or friction where the call has been made.
• Bonus points: toy or gift industry experience, direct experience with Chinese manufacturers, familiarity with CPSIA/ASTM F963 safety testing, product photography, motion graphics.

What We Offer

• Competitive compensation, benchmarked to senior creative talent, reviewed as the company grows.
• The first 2-4 months will be treated as a paid trial period, if you pass this, opportunity for significant bonuses tied to company performance will become available.
• Real creative ownership: your ideas will become products, and you will know within months whether it was a good or bad idea, this is your mark on the world.
• Fully remote with flexible hours, within agreed overlap windows
• Direct daily partnership with a founder who has an exceptional product eye and wants to be argued with
• A clear growth path toward Chief Product Officer as we scale
• Our company grew by over 1500% this year, and was capped by supply, not demand. These supply limitations have been addressed and next year we anticipate growing at least 300-500%. This level of growth and opportunity is scarcely available elsewhere.