Director, Core Studio Color Design

The Director of Colour Design leads the future of Core Footwear colour, combining experience, versatility, problem solving and creativity to elevate the product experience with a focus on both the art and science of colour. The role drives an emotional connection to footwear through narrative and storytelling across performance, lifestyle and solar product, and sets seasonal direction that aligns the functional team and cross-functional business partners with consumer and trend-relevant solutions. The position leads and manages a team of designers at a variety of levels, working with the Senior Director to ensure product, colour and materials tell a cohesive and compelling story through industry-leading product.

• Lead the colour design direction and seasonal design strategy for Core Expression in conjunction with the Materials Director counterpart and the Core Footwear Senior Director.
• Set silo and seasonal direction for the team and oversee how it comes to life for new creation model and seasonal expression footwear.
• Build seasonal narratives and end-in-mind ideas that are culturally and consumer relevant, and develop a strategic seasonal colour palette that inspires and drives the core material team to action.
• Create compelling collections that integrate street fashion, art, culture and sport.
• Provide colour solutions that lead to product and marketing success, including trend research and selection of the seasonal colour palette and its application on product.
• Partner closely with internal category design, merchandising and brand teams, and with Innovation, Footwear Material and Product Design teams, to ensure consistency and authenticity and to drive cross-category alignment between statement and core counterparts.
• Partner in bluesky and longer lead-time development of opportunity spaces for texture, finish and graphic.
• Proactively identify new opportunities and translate them into consumer-relevant design direction.
• Mentor and develop a high-performing team of designers and cross-functional collaborators.
• Manage and provide input into succession planning and segmentation activities, and hold responsibility for performance management, pay and resourcing decisions for direct and indirect reports.

• Bachelor's degree in Design or a related field; any suitable combination of education, experience or training will be accepted.
• 10+ years of relevant working experience in colour design.
• Ability to mentor staff, build opportunities for staff development, make hiring decisions, and drive performance management, recognition and rewards.
• Ability to build seasonal concepts and explore new colour innovations, technologies and ideas, as well as short- and long-term vision.
• Ability to translate consumer knowledge and insights into narratives and product executions.
• Ability to plan and execute product colour details, review all samples, troubleshoot achievability issues and clearly communicate changes to ensure timely completion of each project.
• Strong communication and relationship leadership skills.
• Strong knowledge of fashion, design and youth culture, current and past.
• Clear, concise and thoughtful presentation and communication style, with strong verbal and written skills and the ability to present new insights or seasonal concepts to small and large groups, including executive leaders and external partners or customers.
• Passion for storytelling with the ability to translate narratives onto physical product.
• Love of sport culture, curiosity for athlete insight and connection to street style trends.
• Ability to conduct in-depth research on athlete insights in order to drive innovative design solutions.
• Ability to create and deliver powerful presentations of seasonal design proposals that effectively communicate the concept behind the line to internal and external audiences.
• Ability to self-manage and lead a team through change and ambiguity.
• High proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop) and Keynote on a Mac platform.

• 2 years in a management or leadership role.