Altra: Footwear Designer II

Now that you’ve found the job description, what’s next?

At Altra, we are on a never-ending journey to seek out opportunities to unlock potential in ourselves and others and to create a more diverse and inclusive running community. When we’re all working together as the best versions of ourselves, we can feel empowered both individually and as a community.

So, before we get to the job details, take a minute to learn a little more about us – our values and our culture. If you can see yourself working side-by-side with a team of people driven to discover more about ourselves and the world around us, Altra just may be the place for you.

To learn more about our values and our culture, visit Altra Careers or www.altrarunning.com.

Position: Footwear Designer II

What will you do?

A day in the life of a Footwear Designer II at Altra looks a little like this.

You will be a critical role in generating functional and aesthetically appropriate footwear for the Athletic, Outdoor, and Casual categories. You will be asked to participate in the creative direction for all footwear design projects, maintain consistent and relevant design language, and provide industry insight and recommendations in creating elite technical product that aligns with Merchandising vision and overall brand strategy. You will work alongside some of the most innovative, industry-challenging leaders in creating footwear that pushes boundaries and challenges old paradigms to innovate and discover solutions for Altra customers.

Let’s break down that day-in-the-life a bit more.

• Daily management of assigned projects and workload
• Liaison with other departments including Development, Marketing, and Sales.
• Coordinate Design deadlines to ensure on-time delivery of design projects.
• Participate in product strategy meetings to ensure competitive product design and successful products for the Altra brand.
• Develop concepts and creative strategies that fulfill objectives of category, concept, briefs.
• Collaborate with cross-functional team members to ensure consumer and brand focus.
• Participate in creation of short-term and long-term creative direction strategies.
• Identify opportunities of improvement and change, and initiate own proposals/projects.
• Seek out new Design resources materials and technologies to assist in the development of leading-edge product.
• Partner with Marketing and Product Line Manager to develop and sharpen briefs and lead collaborative idea generation with cross-functional teams.
• Translate briefs and marketing plans into creative concepts that are clearly articulated in mood boards, interactive prototypes then develop presentations and storytelling vehicles to socialize and gain buy-in on your ideas
• Learn new skills and stay abreast of technical and digital design developments and successfully apply these to work practices
• Verbally present concepts and design solutions to mid and senior level managers.  Ability to constructively discuss and utilize feedback to create excellent product
• Manage multiple projects, with sensitivity to department priorities and deadlines.  Willingness and ability to travel to sourcing countries (China) to drive team projects
• Perform other duties as required/assigned by manager.

What do you need to succeed?

We all have unique skills that we bring to work and celebrate every day. For this role, there are foundation skills you’ll need to succeed and excel. Additionally, while formal education in a related field is great to have, we are most interested in your 5-7 years of experience and professional achievements.

The foundation skills you will need in this position are:

• Strong knowledge of foot anatomy
• Knowledge of how to design with biomechanics in mind
• Skilled in art direction and production, visual design, motion design and experiential design
• Excellent rendering and presentation skills required.
• High level of materials knowledge
• In-depth experience with Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop software)
• Sound understanding of footwear manufacturing processes and technologies
• Ability to read and generate blueprints and tech packs.
• ATHLETIC and ACTIVE Technical f