Senior Footwear Design Manager

Become a Part of the NIKE, Inc. Team

NIKE, Inc. does more than outfit the world’s best athletes. It is a place to explore potential, obliterate boundaries and push out the edges of what can be.

The company looks for people who can grow, think, dream and create. Its culture thrives by embracing diversity and rewarding imagination.

The brand seeks achievers, leaders and visionaries. At NIKE, Inc. it’s about each person bringing skills and passion to a challenging and constantly evolving game.

NIKE, Inc. designs the future. At NIKE, Inc. designers chase their curiosities and build what’s next, shaping the culture and advancing human potential.

The Design teams include artists, inventors and specialists, all with different focuses, including color and material experts, and apparel, footwear and graphic designers.

Nike designers look to the future, aggressively pursuing materials, ideas and forms that further elevate the athlete experience, raise the bar for modern style and reduce environmental impact.

NXT SPACE explores the future of sport through radical imagination and barrier breaking innovation. This team exists to cultivate extraordinary possibility for athletes*.

Formerly known as Nike’s Innovation Kitchen, NXT SPACE is one of the worlds’ foremost innovation laboratories exploring revolutionary platforms and strategic products.

A playground where a diverse cohort of designers, engineers, risk takers, and dreamers draft innovative futures for product performance, experience, and manufacturing.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We are looking for an exceptional Product Design Innovator with proven design excellence and an entrepreneurial approach.

This person will create future forward footwear, apparel and experience designs that revolutionize benefit and capture the imagination of athletes*.

Its project portfolio spans team priority projects through to self-initiated concept explorations.

This candidate will play key roles in originating groundbreaking ideas, developing proof of concepts, and envisioning multidisciplinary product systems.

They author powerful narratives that inspire, generating interest in and building teams around their projects. They thrive in ambiguity, are driven by curiosity and lead with optimism.

Their creative talent is equaled by their ability to think strategically and consciously champion entrepreneurial thinking.

They champion diversity, sustainability and understand the value of sharing their knowledge to advance the innovation design community.

WHAT YOU WILL WORK ON

If this is you, you’ll be collaborating with cross-functional teams in a matrix environment. Your days and weeks will consistently look different, based on the diversity of your project portfolio.

Workload will include driving self-initiated concept explorations and supporting team priority programs.

Using performance and cultural insights originating from athletes*, and the Nike Sport Research Lab (NSRL), you will identify growth opportunities and create competitive advantages.

You’ll effectively develop and present concepts to various internal and external audiences, sharing your vision, gathering feedback, aligning with and building momentum.

You'll champion and influence new ways of strategic thinking, research, and visioning for product innovation and design.

You could manage a small team, inclusive of setting team and individual goals, development, performance management, recognition and rewards.

WHO YOU WILL WORK WITH

As a key member of the Design Innovation team, you’ll help strengthen and shape the collective as a positive force of creativity and curiosity by engaging and uplifting your Design Innovation peers.

Along with your multi-disciplinary design teammates, you will collaborate with portfolio leads, concept creators, engineers, developers, and Space leadership.

You’ll build relationships working with a variety of cross-functional teams across the organization, including Advanced Manufacturing, Materials, Sustainability, Nike Sports Research Lab (NSRL), Digital, and the Business.

You will also engage with athletes* and collaborate with external vendors and factory partners.

WHAT YOU BRING

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Industrial Design, Product Design, Fashion Design or related field or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Well-curated portfolio showcasing a variety of projects that demonstrate a strong, effective methodology for research, inspiration, design development, problem solving and final execution.
• Working directly with a diverse range of consumers / athletes*.
• Contribution to the initiation, development and implementation of in-depth research leading to new opportunities.
• Self-initiated innovation and entrepreneurial spirit.
• Innovative new methods of make and sustainability focused concepts.
• A track record of world-class commercialized products and / or innovations transitioned to downstream partners.
• Leading teams on projects with challenging briefs and through ambiguity to successful completion.
• Prioritizing workload across short-term and long-range projects with varying levels of complexity.
• Building design vision and upholding design and strategic direction end-to-end to ensure the product vision remains accurate and consistent.
• Advanced project management skills, proactively partnering to facilitate effective meetings and manage key design dates and deliverables with project stakeholders.
• Self-starter, with a bias for curiosity and action.
• Entrepreneurial design spirit that paints a compelling picture of creative ideas that inspires others to action.
• Motivates and mentors designers and other teammates within project setting.
• Influential and able to collaborate across a matrix organization, understanding connectivity between innovation, in-line business and category partners.
• Strong teammate and successful collaborator, who embraces differences and values diverse perspectives.
• Resilient, agile, and optimistic. Can embrace ambiguity and the fluid nature of early innovation and keep teammates and projects moving.
• Demonstrates self-awareness, with ability to articulate their strengths, opportunities, and takeaways.
• Understands that failure is part of the creative innovation process, leads self and team reflection to capture and apply learnings.
• Well informed and stays connected to sport, cultural and societal trends.
• Expert knowledge and ability of product design, including ideation, development, specification, and final execution of designs that balance innovation, performance, and style.
• Creatively agile and adept in innovative thinking, visioning and problem solving.
• A listener and synthesizer who can make the complex simple and find clarity in ambiguity.
• Thinks holistically across product design and business finding opportunities to disrupt.
• Ability to build a self-initiated portfolio of exploration work, whilst driving existing projects and programs.
• A capable leader, ability to self-manage, can work independently with minimal guidance.
• Can partner with internal and external parties (athlete research, testing development, engineering, manufacturing) and own the design process to ensure that Nike standards are met.
• Expert skills in Adobe Suite, Miro, and Keynote.
• Competency in 3D design tools is a plus, but desire to learn and apply is a must.
• Expert narrative development and communication skills, including the ability to prepare and deliver project presentations to Senior leadership.
• 10% travel.

NIKE, Inc. is a growth company that looks for team members to grow with it. Nike offers a generous total rewards package, casual work environment, a diverse and inclusive culture, and an electric atmosphere for professional development.

No matter the location, or the role, every Nike employee shares one galvanizing mission : To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world.

NIKE, Inc. is committed to employing a diverse workforce. Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, or disability.