Brooks Sports, Inc.:
Senior Footwear Designer, Innovation Job in Seattle, VT

Who We Are: Brooks is a team of passionate people united by a desire to do meaningful work lead healthy lives and make a difference. We share a focused mission: to inspire everyone to run and be active. Thats it. No distractionsits all about the run. Through science creativity service authenticity and connection we obsess over delivering the best running gear on the planet. We do it our way with our unique spirit with a goal of being more relevant to runners than any other brand day after day and mile after mile. We are determined to innovate challenging ourselves to lead thought at every turn. Inside these walls and on the roads tracks and trails we live and breathe Run Happy celebrating the positive impact running has on our lives and others. We inject it into all we do because it makes everything better smarter more fun and more memorable. Our company culture defines us bonds us together and creates the conditions for success. It is lived daily as a behavioral expression of our collective set of brand values: Connect with People Innovate for our Customer Compete as a Team Build Trust Have Fun Bring Passion and Be Active. If youre on our team it means youre part of creating something extraordinary. Youre part of Brooks. As the Senior Footwear Designer Innovation you are the flywheel of our business; you inspire new materials concepts and design possibilities and you envision and bring clarity to a complex future for running footwear. You will create beautiful innovative performance-led footwear from concept to the commercialization. You will align with Brooks' values and Brooks long-term design strategy. Using consumer insights you will design and create compelling future product and ensure commercial success of our products and brand. You will create signature looks that communicate meaning and value to a runner. Your sage ability to collaborate across teamsand partner with Inline Design Color and Trend Product Line Management RD and Manufacturers to influence innovation and leading design elements will bring you success in this role. If you are passionate about design; you bring fresh perspective; you lead with expertise and inspiration; you bring calm to uncertainty; you breathe life into science and you are committed to making running better for all who run we want to talk to you NOTE: to be considered for this position please submit a portfolio of your work along with your application materials Responsibilities: • Create: • Be the leader in creative re framing of large questions that we need to deliver-on for the runner. • Walk the talk: draw draw draw concepts concepts concepts. • Create and explain concepts at a high level of finish and depth of meaning. • Brainstorm beautifully: be one with the Post-Its. Love the smell of dry-erase in the morning. Lead brainstorming sessions and distill findings to move design of the future forward. You practice unorthodox or atypical ways of solving problems to conceive innovative leading-edge concepts / ideas. • Collaborate with the Brooks RunSight Lab to better understand our consumer and connect to their needs and desires to make the run more powerful and transformational. You conduct interviews and draw qualitative insights from runners complex stories needs and desires. • Think about 5 years from now with the same intensity as today. Organize and focus each day so that you are taking steps to ideate and create the product of the future. • Submit sketches detailed technical drawings renderings etc. to product development operating within fixed timelines. • Generate technical development packages to communicate intended construction and aesthetic details of each project to overseas development partners. • Work with Wear Testing and the Human Performance Lab on the testing and validation of all performance characteristics from early prototypes to final confirmation. • Partner with product merchandising and marketing counterparts to deliver industry leading stories. • Continually consider alignment with Apparel Design to create synergies across the brand (graphic patterns color palette etc.). • Respond to design critique with multiple solutions and ensure that production schedules are effectively met for assigned categories. • Participate in key business and cultural milestones (evaluations shows etc.) • International and domestic travel as required to achieve a high level of product and technology development including visits to manufacturing and supplier home countries/ factories to assist and review testing commercialization and production. • Manage: • Manage outputs of a small team of Designers. • Provide support coaching and training for members of your team as well as other product and cross-functional teams. • Break large and complex goals into meaningful and achievable objectives. Provide clarity to the Designers you manage. • Strategize our footwear design and future innovation against company goals. • Plan resources and timing to meet goals of our 5-year Innovation Road-map. • Create expectations and deliver on them. • Live the Design Direction. Qualifications: • NOTE: to be considered for this position please submit a portfolio of your work along with your application materials • Bachelors Degree in Design or related field required; may substitute education for specific experience. • 5 successful years of experience in product design • 2 years leading managing and mentoring a design team • Ability to create innovative compelling and competitive product designs across product categories including in-depth knowledge of consumer insights and market trends • Footwear design knowledge preferred but not required. • Understanding of color composition and theory with a quick learned eye for color and materials required • Knowledge of all aspects of product from concept/design market branding and positioning to manufacturing and final release to market. • Ability to mine data and use insights to design products that delight and inspire runners • Experience managing Designers required • Proven success coaching mentoring teaching and inspiring for top performance • Proven ability to lead and influence in a collaborative cross-functional matrixed group to meet strategic objectives. • Demonstrated ability to develop highly productive relationships with individuals and teams that are made up of diverse disciplines and cultural backgrounds resulting in effective working relationships across the company. • Confidence presenting ideas and building collaboration across teams to gain buy-in and execute your vision • Strong verbal and written communication skills with an advanced ability to communicate new ideas concepts and functional expertise within project teams and to external stakeholders. • Keen attention to detail in planning organization and execution of tasks (self and through others) while still seeing the big picture and understanding how all the pieces fit together and affect one another. • A solution focused mind-set required • Ability to anticipate how a decision made can affect our customers our partners our products or other departments operations and/or morale; connecting the dots. • Curious and open minded; always open for a challenge inventive creative. Ability to challenge the status quo always looking at improving our products and processes while also displaying a willingness to dive into the details. • Strong computer skills including experience with Illustrator and Photoshop; CAD experience a plus. • Passionate participation in Brooks sports activities a plus overridden by the ability to understand and empathize with the runner to develop loyal engaging relationships with our customers partners and the Brooks community. • Unwavering demonstration of Brooks corporate values: Connect with People Innovate for our Customer Compete as a Team Build Trust Have Fun Bring Passion and Be Active. • Must be able to travel internationally as required for the job At Brooks we celebrate diversity equi