Lead Finite Element Analysis

This role is on the Performance Engineering team within Global Footwear Engineering. The Performance Engineering team provides a competitive advantage by using the power of engineering, analytical, and simulation tools to offer footwear engineering insights to our Product Creation development teams. 

This team is a centralized function that supports the product development teams and will help scale FEA capabilities to support Product Creation development projects. The role of this team is to use mechanical engineering expertise and simulation tools to provide guidance and insights to product engineers, designers, and technical developers to enable confident decision making.

This posting is for 2 positions within the Global Footwear Engineering function. 

WHO YOU’LL WORK WITH

In the Lead FEA Engineer role, you would report to and partner with the Director of Performance Engineering to collaborate with the Innovation FEA team, Product Creation footwear engineers, and mechanical test lab to develop and refine simulation methods to help ensure product performance and product excellence. You will also partner with the mechanical test lab, NSRL, and footwear product testing to develop and validate simulation methods to correlate to athlete* feedback.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

This role is a blend of highly technical mechanical engineering and creative problem solving. Candidates for this role need to have strong engineering skills and be eager to work with individuals from many different backgrounds. The right candidate will be a creative, analytical engineer with FEA experience who takes an entrepreneurial approach to helping teams understand and scope their work – applying a pragmatic approach to problem solving.

What experience you bring:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education, experience or training
• Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering or similar preferred
• A minimum of 6 years directly relevant work experience
• Experience applying engineering knowledge with a focus on engineering mechanics to explore, inform, and recommend engineering solutions
• Experience using FEA and other advanced engineering tools to provide engineering insights during multiple product development cycles
• 3+ years of experience using FEA tools (ANSYS, Abaqus, Hyperworks, etc.) and methods in a professional setting
• Demonstrated experience implementing new engineering capabilities or tools
• Proven ability to communicate and present technical concepts to non-technical audiences. 

What additional experience is nice to have:

• Industry experience with FEA tools and methods specifically with non-linear materials and deformation
• Engineering experience in the footwear industry 
• Experience using programming/scripting languages (Python, MATLAB, etc.) 
• Strong understanding of Mechanics of Materials, including non-linear materials and deformation
• Navigating cross-functional teams and communicating with necessary stakeholders across the organization 
• Experience working with global counterparts

WHAT YOU’LL WORK ON

As The Lead FEA Engineer, you will work with project teams to diagnose and understand technical problems and use appropriate engineering tools (including FEA) to provide insights to inform decision making, manage risk, and build confidence in product performance. You will use your engineering problem solving skills, FEA (Finite Element Analysis), and other analytical tools to evaluate design concepts early in the development phase and troubleshoot performance issues that surface later in the development cycle. Additionally, this role will contribute to developing new engineering capabilities, simulation and non-simulation based, to advance footwear engineering at Nike. On a regular basis, your work will consist of:

• Meeting with footwear project teams to scope engineering needs
• Using FEA and other engineering tools to deliver product performance insights and help guide decision making and problem solving
• Developing and refining simulation methods 
• Ongoing R&D projects to develop new methods of evaluating and predicting footwear performance