The Pokémon Center Merchandize Development division of The Pokémon Company International (TPCi) is the team that develops and/or imports products for all TPCi Pokémon Center channels. This team is also tasked with assuring that all Pokémon Center products are created accurate and true to the rules and vision of the Pokémon brand while maintaining the highest level of quality possible. Pokémon Center is a rapidly expanding business that creates everything from collectible figures to custom apparel to home goods.

This position will be responsible for creating and managing product development schedules for Pokémon Center products. This position will work cross-functionally with internal partners, managing dependencies and ensuring that products are created and delivered in the designated timeline. The role will also support streamlining processes and developing tools for product planning and enhance reporting capability. Process management, accuracy, attention to detail, communication, ability to build strong relationship, and advance excel skills are vital to this role. Exceptional organizational skills to juggle multiple projects, ability to solve problems and think analytically, and ability to work in a fast-paced rapidly evolving environment are also key.

What You Will Do

• Drive Pokémon Center product development project execution: create and manage schedule, monitor progress, mange dependencies, proactively seek and resolve blockers through effective escalation.

• Manage day-to-day operational aspects of assigned projects, coordinate and facilitate project meetings. Ensure clear, pro-active and relevant reporting flow to team members and stakeholders
• Cultivate a culture of openness and transparency to promote collaboration across cross functional teams touching Pokémon Center product development and increase the likelihood of project success. Operate in a neutral and fair position and become the bridge across teams involved in developing PC products.
• Continuous Improvement: Evaluate existing processes/systems/procedures, understand operational challenges, and identifies process gaps. Make recommendations, design and optimize processes to improve efficiency. Apply change management framework to guide people through changes for successful adoption and minimizes disruption.
• Develop and maintain excel based tools for product planning and project status reporting.
• Act as administer of Workfront project management software and team’s SharePoint libraries

What You Will Bring

• BA or BS degree
• Minimum 8-10 years of project Management experience preferably in the retail/entertainment industry
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience managing complex multiple mid to large-sized projects, application development / implementation projects, including overall responsibility for schedule and solution delivery
• Thorough knowledge of Project Management Institute (PMI), waterfall project management techniques and best practices. PMP Certification or other project management certification is desired
• Proficiency in project management software/tools to manage projects and facilitate related communication, including and not limited to Workfront, Jira, Confluence, Excel, Word, MS Project, Visio, and PowerPoint
• Excel skills to include working with data, tables, sorting, filtering
• Working with PivotTables and/or Charts
• Using formulas and functions such as VLOOKUP
• Additional experience preferred: Data modeling in Excel using Power Query and Power Pivot. Defining measures using DAX language. Using Cube formulas.
• Knowledge and experience in change management principles and methodology to encourage faster adoption of changes to business process and minimizing resistance to change

How You Will Be Successful

• Organized: You are highly skilled in time management to facilitate multiple projects, organized and have acute attention to detail. You can see the “big picture” of how all the on-going projects fit together and know when and where schedules can be altered to accommodate changes
• Communication: You have impeccable written and verbal communication with ability to translate technical information in a non-technical format.
• Bias for Action: You are self-motivated and have an eagerness to take initiative and persist in accomplishing objectives despite obstacles and setbacks. You work to resolve requests and incidents with a high sense of urgency and ownership.
• Great people skills: You know the “how” is as important as the “what” and you aim to build effective relationships across the organizations, as well as externally with 3rd You are mindful of diverse perspectives and engage team members in a professional manner.
• Passion and Pride in your work: You love what you do and how you can add value to your team; You ensure consistency and quality of your work and take a methodical approach to troubleshooting and resolution.
• Logical and analytical: You’re able to distill and synthesize complex ideas into concise, meaningful information to team members. You’re adept at prioritization and project management with attentiveness to detail and consistent follow through.
• Growth mindset: You thrive in a dynamic and fluid environment because you are a self-starter who is eager to learn, grow and build something great together; building and enhancing programs appeals to you. You have a desire to stay current on retail trends, innovations and manufacturing processes.