Senior Lead - Footwear Development

In short

This is your opportunity to become part of the worlds’ fastest growing sports company.

As a Footwear Development Senior Lead, you will lead the developer team to drive the footwear development process smoothly from concept to production. You will also work cross-functionally with multi-national product creation teams to support the development process between Zurich, Asia and factories.

Your Mission

• Lead development of seasonal projects on site with On's footwear sourcing partner(s), monitor Key Performance Matrix and facilitate our partners to build strong and sustainable performances in all areas of the development cycle
• Proactively guide the team to recommend construction/costing/process solutions in regards to all technical blueprints (bottom / upper), upper patterns and materials to optimize performance, manufacturability, and aesthetics perspective
• Ability to lead thought around footwear innovation and problem solving for commercialization and achieve on time delivery in terms of seasonal calendars
• Proficient at problem solving for development or production issues - understanding the upstream and downstream effects
• Display an in-depth knowledge of the manufacturing process with the ability to learn new manufacturing techniques and apply them to products
• Lead meetings with cross-functional teams during various phases to review, evaluate issues and drive action plans. Demonstrate strong problem-solving skills with persistent questioning to find out the “whys”
• Effectively communicate with Asia and Zurich teams of all the issues and solutions in terms of construction, cost and aesthetics
• Lead the development team to ensure that products are manufacturable and meet cost, quality, fit feel and ride expectations
• Coach and encourage team members to actively engage in questions, research, observing, networking, and experimenting to inform project and program direction
• Develop strong working relationships with internal and external partners to enable problem solving to achieve win-win situations
• Update on the latest footwear trends and manufacturing process and techniques
• Work with manager to standardize the development process across teams and factories, deliver training and share the best practice to the cross-functional product teams
• Manage and monitor factory development capacity to accompany On's volume growth, manage potential risks and key bottlenecks

Your story

• 7+ years of development experience working with multiple footwear categories or extremely specialized in category and able to provide solution driven suggestions/guidance
• People management experiences is needed
• Knowledge in industry tooling process to include 2D/3D CAD and CAM. Proficient in Adobe Illustrator is a plus. Good knowledge of pattern engineering, tooling processes and mold making
• Excellent verbal and written skills in English. Chinese or Vietnamese is a plus.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, presentation skills, must be extremely detail oriented
• Strong organizational skills and independent work habits
• 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”
• Demonstration of innovation and initiative – always looking at improving our products and processes while also displaying a willingness to dive into the details and help out wherever necessary

What to expect

We want to set everyone up for success, so here’s the lowdown on how we hire. Our process is a two-way street – bringing you into our culture, while helping us learn how you think.

Our full process can last about eight weeks from application to offer, because we care about getting it right. These steps explain how we usually do things.

Before you get started, feel free to consider if you want to work with us. Strange question? Well, we give people a lot of space to navigate their day-to-day and that style isn't for everyone. We want you to be passionate about what you do and be sure this is the right fit. Because when skills and passion combine – it creates that 'Wow' moment.

• Step One

  It starts with you...

  You'll start by submitting your application to a specific role. We try to keep this step as simple as possible. We do get a lot of applications, but we review them all. We ask that you allow around 14 days for us to come back to you with a response. If you are a good fit to the role, someone will follow up with you within that window. If you didn't receive a reply, or were unsuccessful this time around, we encourage you to look for other possible matches at On.

• Step Two

  Interview with a recruiter

  What ignites your spirit? This is where we’ll start getting to know all about you and what makes you tick – and it’s your first chance to get a feel for our culture. Chatting with a member of our talent team, you’ll learn more about On and how we work. We’ll learn about what motivates you and what you could bring to the team.

• Step Three

  Interview with a hiring manager

  Ready to dig into the details? This second interview will be held with your future manager and will focus on the specifics of the job. Together you’ll delve into your unique skills and experiences and how they could be relevant at On. It's also a time to assess how you might feel working side-by-side. Bring any questions you have about the job, the team or anything else you might like to know – this is an open forum.

• Step Four

  The Case Study

  What's your style? This task will help us understand how you think, face a challenge and give insight into your novel ideas. Designed to give everyone their best shot, your case study is based on something you might typically experience on the job. This is your chance to show us what you’ve got. So express yourself. Be you.

• Step Five

  The Experience Day

  Your first taste of the Oniverse. This is a time to meet some of the people you'll be working closest with. In person or virtually, you'll get a feel for the day-to-day at On and the people who make it happen. You'll chat with a few potential teammates - the conversations will be as equally driven by the role and your experience as by our values. We believe how you do things is just as important as what you do.

• Step Six

  The Result

  Are we a good fit? We’ll get together internally to share our feedback and decide if we’re a match. We know that job searching is a big time investment, so it’s not a decision we take lightly. It’s also time for you to reflect on the experience – are we the right place for you? No matter the outcome, we’ll give you meaningful feedback.

Step One:

It starts with you...

You'll start by submitting your application to a specific role.

We try to keep this step as simple as possible. We do get a lot of applications, but we review them all. We ask that you allow around 14 days for us to come back to you with a response. If you are a good fit to the role, someone will follow up with you within that window. If you didn't receive a reply, or were unsuccessful this time around, we encourage you to look for other possible matches at On.