Lead - Footwear Developer, Athlete Servicing (Football)

Will pioneer and lead an elite football athlete footwear programme, working side-by-side with a growing roster of world-class footballers to create bespoke, game-changing boots tailored to their physical demands, pitch conditions, and biomechanics. Operating from the company's innovation hub, the postholder will translate player telemetry and pitch feedback into detailed player profiles to enable proactive performance planning, continuous boot improvements, and high athlete satisfaction. The team is innovative, creative, and science-driven, combining engineering, development, and product management expertise to convert cutting-edge ideas into high-performance footwear.

• Act as the athlete insight hub by proactively anticipating performance challenges and serving as the brand's technical authority and lead knowledge holder for elite football athletes.
• Build and scale a world-leading personalisation hub dedicated to elite football athletes, while innovating at the frontier of scalable athlete and consumer personalisation models.
• Act as the vital connector between athlete insights and radical innovation, transforming sports science data and feedback into actionable technical discoveries that fuel continuous disruption in football.
• Merge frontier technologies such as LightSpray™ with proven legacy construction techniques to unlock new paradigms in athlete-specific fit, structural support, and manufacturing efficiency.
• Direct and oversee the modification of custom boots for elite roster players, using player data to create optimised, personalised product that delivers on the premium performance promise.
• Oversee and develop player-specific soleplates, including SG/FG configurations, stud heights, conical versus bladed hybrid layouts, and custom flex or torsion plates, to balance explosive traction, rotational release, and joint protection.
• Collaborate with Dream on Labs to iterate quickly by adjusting lasts, testing experimental materials, bonding foams, and tuning composite plates to resolve player needs between fixtures.
• Lead on-site boot fittings, locker-room check-ins, and training-ground wear tests, translating subjective player feedback into concrete engineering adjustments and feeding athlete learnings into the core inline business.
• Own and drive delivery timelines across club matches, training blocks, international windows, and major tournaments, ensuring every pair complies with FIFA equipment regulations and withstands elite match-day stresses.
• Partner closely with core Inline Football Development and Materials Innovation to scale proven athlete customisations and tooling breakthroughs into commercial product lines.

• 5+ years of technical footwear development experience with a strong focus on high-performance football boots or cleated footwear, including demonstrated experience driving complex projects or mentoring development teams.
• Ability to quickly interpret, understand, and apply novel manufacturing methods, including robotic automation, additive manufacturing, and LightSpray™, while deeply respecting and mastering traditional, legacy footwear assembly.
• Comprehensive grasp of full lifecycle footwear engineering and innovation pipelines, with the proven ability to translate bespoke, small-batch athlete solutions into scalable innovation frameworks.
• Comprehensive technical understanding of cleated tooling, plate materials such as TPU and Pebax, torsional stiffness, and stud pressure distribution across various pitch surfaces.
• Familiarity with 2D/3D footwear software such as Rhino, Crispin, or Romans CAD, and experience interpreting scan, pressure, or gait data to guide boot modifications.
• Calm, organised, and solutions-oriented composure under tight deadlines, ensuring sudden fixture-related footwear needs are met without compromising product quality.
• An explorer mindset, excited by the blank canvas of building On's football presence from the ground up and blending Swiss engineering with modern football culture.

• Comfortable with hands-on sample work, such as basic lasting adjustments, custom insole fitting, minor upper tweaks, or working alongside sample room technicians to get prototypes match-ready.

• Operating out of the company's innovation hub.

• A supportive, team-oriented atmosphere.
• Access to personal self-care for physical and mental well-being.
• Tools to develop holistically, including opportunities to stay active, learn, explore, and innovate.
• An environment centred around growth and progress, where each person is led by purpose.