Senior Lead, Innovation Commercialization Engineer
As a Senior Lead, Innovation Commercialization Engineer, you will be a driving force at the forefront of On's product evolution. Operating with a high degree of autonomy, you will lead complex projects, challenge conventions, and champion innovative approaches that define the future of footwear. This role requires mastery of technical complexity, managing key stakeholder relationships, and translating visionary concepts into scalable, performance-driven products.
Your Mission
- Independently manage multiple high-impact footwear development projects from confirmation to production, defining methods and procedures for new assignments and potentially supervising other team members.
- Leverage your expertise to guide and influence both management and your team as a senior contributor.
- Spearhead the end-to-end commercialization process, utilizing your knowledge of manufacturing processes, fit, material properties, mold, and process manufacturing while employing a strong root-cause analysis mindset to troubleshoot significant and unique issues.
- Act as a critical liaison between On's inline development and production teams, working closely with strategic vendors to ensure product intent is maintained while meeting commercial and operational requirements.
- Engineer products for efficient manufacturability, lowest cost, and highest quality and performance.
- Manage expectations and negotiate effectively with diverse internal teams and major external T1/T2 partners and sourcing teams across regions as a key influencer and central communication hub.
- Collaborate with computational designers on upper patterns and tooling construction adjustments to enhance fit, durability, and ensure scalable manufacturing, overseeing full size run grading, technical manufacturing operation manuals, initial production trials, ERP system updates, and scalability sign-offs.
- Document complex tooling and upper-related issues, defining and communicating clear corrective actions to all stakeholders for manufacturing guidelines.
Your Story
- 10+ years of progressive experience in the footwear industry, with a significant focus on innovation and market introduction of new technologies.
- Bachelor’s or Master's Degree in Engineering, Material Science, or another relevant technical field.
- Experience with 2D and 3D computational design and algorithmic capabilities is a plus. Proven ability to lead the scaling of new technologies while assessing their commercial viability and factory readiness.
- Expert-level knowledge of advanced footwear manufacturing processes, including robotics, automation, tooling, molding, injecting, welding, lasting, and assembly.
- A natural technical curiosity and a robust, root-cause analysis approach to problem-solving.
- Exceptional communication, negotiation, and influencing skills, capable of confidently presenting to senior management and external partners.
- Demonstrated ability to work with a high degree of autonomy, navigating ambiguity and making independent judgments on complex and significant issues.
- Experience in mentoring junior team members or supervising project activities is a strong plus.
- Ability to travel up to 15-20% of the time.
Apply online using the form below. Please note that only applications matching the job profile will be considered.