Lead Designer

Who we are looking for

We’re looking for an outstanding Lead Materials Designer to combine their experience, deep knowledge, and creative abilites to help build the future of Nike Footwear Materials. This candidate will join the Materials and Knit Design Team in Innovation. This team looks to the future, aggressively pursuing materials and methods of make that further elevate the athlete* experience, raise the bar for modern style and reduce our environmental impact.

The ideal candidate needs to be: a highly creative problem solver, someone who doesn’t settle for anything less than the best design and material solutions, and a person who looks to meet the needs of all our Nike athletes*. This person will be focused on concepting innovative material ideas and solutions for a range of products that elevate the consumer experience, and are performance and trend-relevant. Along with this, the candidate would need to have a strong ability to champion radical new ideas and material concepts through use of narrative and storytelling in order to drive an emotional connection to product. This opportunity would suit a candidate embodying a self-starting attitude with the energy to push into unchartered design spaces. A passion for driving Nike’s purpose initiatives around sustainability and people are a must.

What you will work on

If this is you, you’ll be working within the Materials and Knit Design Team on a range of inspiring projects using the latest digital and technical advancements to design future thinking footwear concepts.

You will also have the opportunity to collaborate on future material strategy and aspirations, work with technically complex material designs and curate seasonless material solutions.

Your work will range from market trend and technical textile research, athlete insights gathering, narrative building, design directions, physical and digital concepting and ideation, through to working alongside a breadth of collaborators from material innovators to product developers. The daily responsibilities of this role are; multi-faceted, challenging and rewarding.

Who you will work with

This role partners with a diverse range of groups from across Nike, Inc. Most frequently these teams function within Innovation, Design and Product Creation and include, but are not limited to, Footwear and Knit Design, Material Science, Engineering, Development and the Nike Sports Research Lab. This role requires someone that has a highly collaborative approach, with excellent communication and visualization skills.

What you bring

• Bachelor’s degree in design, art or related field; fashion design, product design, industrial design, accessory and footwear design, or textile design or related field or equivalent combination of education, experience, and training

Experience

• Ideally 5+ years of relevant design experience exemplifying the ability to push material design, and/or proven experience in Textile Design or Footwear Design.
• Ability to translate consumer knowledge/insights to narratives and product executions.
• Ability to create concepts and explore new Materials innovations, technologies, and ideas
• Ability to build inspiration/concept presentations, mood boards for both seasonal and innovation-led concepts and directions
• Ability to leverage manufacturing process to elevate new ideas, process, and materials
• Experience building 3D samples and crafting mockup samples by hand
• Highly organized and self-sufficient
• Ability to create and edit files using Adobe programs including Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign
• Ability in participating in multiple projects with differing timelines, challenging resources and meeting deadlines
• Active and proficient participant in the creative process and cross-functional communication
• Confidently communicates and presents design concepts to internal and external audiences
• Collaboration and cross-functional communication with key partners
• Understanding of the Footwear Product Creation process, a plus.
• Having a passion for the culture of the sports in which you will be Designing product