Director, Advanced Athlete Apparel Concepts, Innovation

WHO YOU’LL WORK WITH

You will work closely with the Advanced Athlete Concepts team that spans Apparel, Footwear, Sustainability, and the Kitchen/Explore team, as well as integrate into the Advanced Innovation Apparel leadership team. You will work cross-functionally with design, development, testing, Nike Sports Research Lab, materials, and capabilities teams. You will need to be knowledgeable and influential across other groups/teams within Nike including but not limited to Cultural & Societal Insights, Brand and Design Concepts teams, inline business partners across Fields of Play, as well as other downstream functions when appropriate.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We are looking for a seasoned concept creation leader at the Director level to join the Advanced Athlete Concept team leading Apparel. They must be collaborative, comfortable to execute and lead in an ambiguous environment, and must always be looking for opportunities that define what could be versus what is. This role requires a passion for storytelling with a need to be able to speak to a variety of audiences. They must have experience leading a creative team, and an interest in mentorship and collaboration.

What you bring: 

Proven Experience:

•    8+ years of experience in apparel product creation, creative strategy, human-centered research, innovation or a design-related field, and identification of future areas of opportunity 
•    Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education, experience or training 
•    Excellent portfolio of accomplishments for creating and delivering early-stage briefs or concepts
•    Excellent communication and relationship management skills with the ability to present and communicate to senior, high-profile leaders
•    Experience leading creative, product, or research teams
•    Ability to navigate complex matrixed environments, champion ideas and opportunity across stakeholder levels
•    Experience developing consumer-centric narratives

Approach & Behaviors 

•    A global innovative mindset, entrepreneurial spirit, inspires others to action through a passion for creation without a roadmap
•    Deep understanding of how to investigate the future, conduct ethnographic research, synthesize opportunity areas and galvanize a creative team
•    Energy giver and team player with a desire to make a difference
•    Passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion with a proactive attitude
•    Influential and able to collaborate across a matrix organization
•    Resilient, agile, and optimistic; embraces ambiguity and the fluid nature of early innovation and keep teammates and projects moving
•    Understands that failure is part of the creative innovation process and will lead self- and team-reflection to capture and apply learnings
•    Well-informed and stays connected to sport + culture on the international stage

Skills  

•    A seasoned leader with ability to develop high performing teams and manage with courage
•    Ability to build a portfolio of focused future opportunities whilst driving existing projects and programs
•    Creatively agile and adept in innovative thinking, vision and problem solving
•    Ability to build a vision, and uphold creative and strategic direction end-to-end to ensure that vision carries through project transitions and across a portfolio of complex programs
•    A networker who is adept at building passionate teams, attracting and seeking talent to get after the work
•    A listener and synthesizer who can make the complex simple and find clarity in ambiguity
•    Thinks holistically, identifying opportunities for disruptive enterprise solutions
•    Can partner with internal and external parties (consumer insights, agencies, athlete science/sports research, design, testing, development, engineering, manufacturing)
•    Advanced project management skills, proactively partnering to facilitate effective meetings and manage key dates and deliverables with project stakeholders
•    Expert-level narrative development and communication skills, including the ability to prepare and deliver project presentations to senior leadership

Other 

•    20% travel
 

WHAT YOU’LL WORK ON
 

In this role, you will lead the team charged with investigation, creation, execution, and storytelling for industry-defining apparel concepts. You will work collaboratively with team of creative thinkers to define a vision + landscape for future-oriented apparel concepts. You will build an apparel concepts strategy and portfolio that must ladder up to the greater Advanced Athlete Concepts mission and vision, alongside our larger Advanced Innovation mission and vision.

You will deliver concept pitches, world class briefs, and inspir