Director, Product Engineering - HOKA Footwear

At Deckers Brands, Together, Every Step is a promise kept that every employee can bring their authentic self, is valued and supported, as a whole person, at work and beyond. Together, Every Step is how we continue to deliver exceptional business results, experience an amazing place to work, and have a positive impact on the communities and world around us. 

Job Title: Director, Product Engineering – HOKA Footwear

Reports to:  Sr. Director, Product Development

Location:  Portland, OR

The Role

As a key leader within our product creation organization, the Product Engineering Director will oversee the research engine of HOKA Footwear, directly influencing HOKA product creation and development towards the highest performance standards. The Product Engineering Director will own and influence engineering resources and strategies to align with long-term brand visions, key business needs and corporate responsibility goals.

This role will lead a team of Product Engineers, influencing brand culture, industry knowledge, and product expertise within the team, while developing a positive and inclusive work environment to support company growth. This team will work most closely with Product Development, Innovation, Design, Testing, Materials, 3D, Costing and Product Marketing teams as part of the product creation. In parallel, the Product Engineering Director will also lead a close collaboration with other Engineering departments within our Commercialization and Supply-Chain teams overseas. These global collaborations will enable the development of key concepts, material and processes innovation.

The Product Engineering Director will bring expertise and research-oriented insights and contribute to product excellence, through leadership within the Engineering department and amongst other key functions of HOKA Footwear.

All leaders at Deckers Brands must be able to demonstrate our leadership behaviors –

• Come As You Are
• Better Together
• Commit To Create
• Own It
• Do Good and Do Great

We celebrate diversity--of your background, your experiences and your unique identity. We are committed to ensuring an inclusive and equitable workplace where all of our employees can Come as They Are. We believe that when we bring our different perspectives to work, we are truly Better Together.

Your Impact

Team and workstreams management

• Lead and influence workstreams and processes within the Product Engineering team, as part of the product creation group (PLM, Design, Development, Costing, Materials, Engineering).
• Review seasonal brands needs and align key team resources against business priorities.
• Represent the Product Engineering team in conversations with other functional leadership globally.
• Oversee the collaboration and communication with specific partner organizations (research laboratories, sponsored athletes, test facilities) to lead research campaigns.

Product Engineering lead

• With the support of Engineers and Specialists, and in close collaboration with the Innovation team, lead the development of key concepts developments (materials, tooling, machinery, processes, manufacturing), from initial lab tests to concept validation in a product.
• Globally represent the product engineering function in the dialogs with the brands, leading the introduction of new concepts within the inline development timing, as well as longer reaching innovations.

Continuous Improvement

• Represent the Product Engineering team in key product creation and development milestones to understand the context of products evolutions season after season.
• Collaborate with Development, PLM and Design teams to drive process change and improvements based on key test results and learnings from research programs.
• Connect with Engineers and Product Testing experts to influence processes innovation.
• Share relevant comments from tests with the larger product testing team, and then with development and product creation teams, to suggest new ideas, construction types, technologies or usages relevant to the product and usage.
• Mentor team members in sharing expert feedback within their own project groups, making suggestions within the product creation process based on continuous research learning.
• Work closely with Materials, Legal and Corporate Responsibility departments to identify and prioritize research and development of key new concepts in alignment with corporate strategies and business needs.

Who You Are

• Able to guide partners and influence decision making
• A Strong communicator with a passion for people
• An open, curious, and adaptive problem-solver

We’d love to hear from people with