Lead Designer

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We’re looking for a Footwear Lead Color Designer to combine their experience, problem solving abilities, and creativity to help build the future of Women’s Sport & Fitness. The ideal candidate needs to elevate the Nike athlete product experience with a focus on both the art & science of Color. In this role, you will drive an emotional connection to footwear through the use of narrative and storytelling. 

WHAT YOU WILL WORK ON

As the Footwear Lead Color Designer in Women’s Training & Sport, you will bring to life trend-relevant, narrative-driven concepts by being a color specialist at the product and collection level. This will require driving product excellence through the connection of design, development and manufacturing. Through research and deep consumer understanding, you will be on the cutting edge of color trends, fashion, art, design and sports-related products.

WHO YOU WILL WORK WITH

This role does not have direct reports and works directly with the Senior Manager, Women’s Sport & Training . You’ll gain dynamic \experience, enhance design skills, and increase expertise of Nike’s design philosophy, products, and processes. On a day to day basis you will be working with a wide-range of internal partners including Footwear and Apparel Color Designers, Footwear Designers, Material Designers, Developers, and Product Line Managers.

WHAT YOU BRING

EDUCATION:

Bachelor’s Degree in design, or equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.

EXPERIENCE:

• At least 4 years industry experience as a footwear or apparel color designer
• Passion for storytelling with the ability to translate narratives onto physical product
• Love of sport, curiosity for athlete insight and connection to sport style trends
• Ability to collaborate with other designers to create palettes and color flow based on category color strategy
• Demonstrates a strong understanding of color technology and how to achieve desired color effects: materials, dyes, finishes and color achievability
• Ability to build seasonal color concepts
• Provides color design support for design team as needed outside of assigned product load
• Ability to conduct in-depth research on consumer insights in order to drive innovative design solutions
• Creates and delivers powerful presentations of seasonal design proposals that effectively communicate the concept behind the line for internal and external audiences
• Ability to plan and execute the product color details and review all samples, troubleshoot for achievability issues and clearly communicate changes in order to ensure timely completion of each project
• Shows ability to self-manage and lead team through change and ambiguity. Promo work can change frequently based on athlete preference and contractual obligations.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Highly proficient in Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop) and Keynote on a Mac Platform