Lead Product Test Engineer

The Pegasus Footwear Lab (PFL) team is part of a global organization of innovators and explorers who shatter footwear expectations.  The footwear lab’s scope of work spans innovation and inline products across material and finished goods.

PFL (also known as Materials and Mechanical Lab) is part of the Footwear Product Creation Engineering function at Nike but is uniquely positioned to influence stakeholders from Innovation, Design, Development, Merchandising, Partner Management, and Manufacturing Partners.

The Nike Pegasus Footwear Lab (PFL) team focuses on assessing, developing, and implementing testing methodologies to support Footwear product innovations, mitigate risk, and ensure consistent product performance and quality that meets athlete* expectations.

WHO YOU WILL WORK WITH

As a Lead Test Engineer in the Pegasus Footwear Lab, you will work with various partner groups including Footwear product creation, innovation, and global teams to support testing of Nike Footwear products. You will be working with internal and external partners for implementing testing procedures on a global scale, ensuring methods can be consistently implemented. You will be working closely with a team of engineers and lab staff to enable data-driven decision making through expertise, agility, connectivity, and bringing forth advanced solutions.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We are looking for a Lead Test Engineer to join the Pegasus Footwear Lab (PFL) at our headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. The candidate needs to have excellent communication skills that can be leveraged across multiple partners, internal and external to Nike. This person must bring a deeply curious, problem-solving mindset that can be applied to developing testing solutions for Nike footwear innovations and product.

Candidate success will depend on their ability to quickly assess and implement testing solutions, build collaborative relationships with colleagues, and provide actionable testing guidance to the organization. The candidate must also be able to thrive in an ambiguous environment, paying strong attention to detail, while delivering results within tight timeframes.

In addition to being a project driver, the Lead Test Engineer will be a mentor and trainer for other Nike team members when it comes to all things test engineering—from appropriate test application and results evaluation to how results relate to human biomechanics and athlete performance.

• Minimum of 6 years directly relevant work experience
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering or Technical Degree or equivalent combination of education, experience or training
• In-depth understanding and hands-on experience in footwear materials testing is required, along with developing and implementing standard and custom test methods including the ability to translate test method data to end-use applications.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including strong data presentation and reporting skills, with an ability to effectively communicate technical information to non-technical audience required
• Exceptional analytical ability required
• Previous experience with Instron testing software and the Microsoft Office suite is required.
• Experience of biomechanics and the application of statistical design of experiments (DOE) as well as with machine maintenance, qualification, and establishing new equipment procedures/protocols. 
• Experience leading testing projects and small teams. Additionally, experience of direct management of project plans is strongly desired.
• Excels in and helps to foster a collaborative team environment as well as thorough knowledge of lab and safety procedures and capable of establishing new lab testing programs. 
• Ability to work across cultures and navigate an organization matrix with sensitivity to a variety of cultures.
• Functions well in a rapidly changing environment.
• Working understanding of ISO 17025 Quality Management System, statistical analysis software, statistical process control (SPC) software, project management software, web based applications, LIM systems, CAD software such as ProE or similar, desired.

WHAT YOU WILL WORK ON

You will work with partner groups across innovation and product creation from concepting through production.  You will perform a wide variety of tests and research, develop, and implement new testing procedures. This role acts as an internal consultant and testing SME providing technical guidance via test execution, analysis, and reporting on complex footwear innovation projects. You’ll develop customized footwear material and product test methods. You will lead new equipment innovation projects ranging from evaluate, modify, purchase, to designing new to accelerate the innovation and product creation of Nike footwear. You will bring a quality mindset when documenting test plans, execution, analysis, and results. In addition, you will support local and global teams with test method development and process improvement projects.