Footwear Lead Materials Developer

Title: Footwear Lead Materials Developer 

Location: Beaverton, OR

Duration: 7 months contract

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, it’s about each person bringing skills and passion to a challenging and constantly evolving game.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR 

We are seeking a Footwear Lead Materials Developer to be an integral part of our North America Express Lane Footwear Product Creation Team. With technical expertise, you’ll help drive product excellence through materials within Nike’s footwear product, at an accelerated pace and close to market. You will provide tools, palettes, and data across multiple material types to enable effective material selection for end-use and category ease of use. You will present facts and solutions clearly, with category & consumer in mind, so the team can make informed decisions. In addition, we are looking for people that are self-starters, quick learners, clear communicators, great teammates, and exhibit strong leadership skills. As a member of the Global Express Lane team, 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.

WHAT YOU’LL WORK ON

As a member of the Nike Materials Development function and part of the Global Express Lane team, we’re looking for you to apply your expert level knowledge and experience. You will be focused on driving functional excellence and material readiness with a sharp focus on execution of material creation, material sourcing, cost, quality, and implementation of sustainable solutions. Materials Development collaborates with vendors, Nike product creation, and other functions to establish seasonal material direction, attain on-time delivery, and ensure product excellence for both consumers and athletes.

• Manage the materials creation process from initial concept through to commercialization for assigned materials ensuring on time delivery and development according to critical dates and specifications
• Drives functional and cross-geo material strategies and initiatives (e.g. Palettes, sustainability, PCX, etc.)
• Keeps informed of market trends, new technology and consumer preferences
• Mentors team members
• You will engage in all phases of the product process to ensure projects are managed according to critical dates and completed on time, while meeting design intent, performance goals, costing/profitability and sustainability targets. 
• You will ensure that your projects are ready for the commercialization process and can ultimately be manufactured.

WHO YOU’LL WORK WITH

As a member of the Global Express Lane team, you will collaborate with key footwear functional partners: Color/Material Design, Product Development, Product Management, Partner PCC and PMO Teams, and Operations Teams. You’ll need to navigate the Nike matrix to ensure that our processes model and match Global Footwear Materials Development standard methodologies to enable informed decision making. You'll serve as the primary contact for vendors as it relates to category specific issues (price, technical specs, performance). You’ll also be the key point of contact between the vendor and the footwear product team and must ensure that communication during the development process is complete, clear, and accurate. This role reports to the Footwear Product Development Director for Global Express Lane.

WHAT YOU BRING

• Bachelor’s Degree in Materials, Chemistry, Product Development or Product Engineering, Manufacturing, Marketing, Industrial Design or equivalent combination of education, experience or training
• Minimum of 6+ years directly applicable work experience
• High communication and influencing skills, including the ability to interact with leadership and cross functional product creation team members
• Demonstrated expertise of footwear material types including fibers, yarns, textiles, leathers, synthetic leathers, components or trims, manufacturing technologies and equipment, tooling, and materials is highly preferred
• Understanding of various product Materials manufacturing processes required
• Successful experiences mentoring or managing people
• Ability to interpret design intent and offer alternative solutions
• Ability to anticipate needs, mitigate risks, and solve problems
• Acts as a resource for colleagues with less experience; may direct the work of other staff members
• Lead or support technical training
• Explains difficult concepts and influences others to adopt a different point of view
• Leads others to solve complex problems; takes a broad perspective to identify innovative solutions
• Attention to detail, active follow-through, assertiveness, self-motivation and the ability to work in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to balance multiple competing projects and independently manage workload
• Solid digital literacy with working knowledge of MS office software; material management systems experience preferred
• Ability to travel up to 15% of the time