WHO YOU’LL WORK WITH
As a Principal Footwear Product Developer, this person will provide project and process direction, within the project team and internal BFL teams, at an accelerated pace and close to market. The ideal candidate needs to have demonstrated advanced project management, collaboration, and problem-solving skills in a product development environment. In addition, we’re looking for people that are self-starters, quick learners, clear communicators, team players, and exhibit strong leadership skills. As a member of the BFL, this person will effectively build relationships, lead, and interact with teams across Nike Footwear Product Creation and with teams comprising of diverse cultures across various geographies.
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education, experience or training
- A minimum of 8 years directly relevant work experience
- Expert project manager with diverse project management, critical thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills.
- Proven effectiveness and fluency with verbal and written communication skills with an ability to clearly articulate goals and objectives.
- Strong influencing skills and ability to champion complex projects both cross-functionally and vertically within the organization.
- Knowledge of product construction concepts, materials, and the product creation life cycle.
- Demonstrates advanced level understanding of Consumer Product or Hard goods and knowledge:
- Footwear pattern engineering, tooling, and manufacturing processes.
- Identify & suggest cost effective solutions.
- Materials, test methods, and properties and application.
- Read technical drawings, sketches, and/or 3D digital files.
- General footwear chemistry.
WHAT YOU’LL WORK ON
As a Principal Footwear Product Developer for the BFL no two days are the same, you will work on a variety of footwear model projects across Men’s, Women’s, and Kids product, with a sharp focus on supporting our Speed footwear product creation offense. You will drive product and process excellence, within a collaborative team environment, for your assigned projects. You will also help to drive the process of converting a project brief and 2D design tech pack into a 3D sample that meets the needs of the consumer. This work helps to accelerate decision making and sets our overseas factory partners up for success. To accomplish this, you will:
- Communicate with Nike footwear designers, developers, and engineers across multiple fields of play to understand their vision for the shoe.
- Influence the design and technical direction of the project based on your expertise while leveraging the full suite of BFL capabilities.
- Review and scrutinize projects for execution of key design details, adherence to best practices, quality of construction, and manufacturability.
- Lead cross functional team projects with moderate to large resource requirements, risk, and/or complexity.
- Be a point of contact for all requests coming into the BFL and leverage the intake process to determine scope of work, prioritization, as well as capability alignment and team capacity.
- Educate the greater Nike footwear community through your work to develop and deliver training content.