Senior Footwear Materials Color Developer

Aquent Talent is seeking a Senior Footwear Materials Color Developer to drive innovative color and material solutions for leading brands. In this role, you'll own seasonal color palettes from concept through production, researching trends, building CMF stories, and ensuring flawless execution across global vendor networks. You'll partner closely with design, product creation, and suppliers to manage lab dips, approvals, and quality standards.

Join a people-first, flexible, and growth-minded culture where you'll shape bold, on-brand footwear experiences for diverse, global consumers.

Responsibilities

• Lead development of footwear material color palettes from concept through production for key client brands
• Research color, material, and finish trends to inform seasonal stories and innovation opportunities
• Translate design briefs and brand guidelines into executable color standards and material specifications
• Partner with designers, product developers, and vendors to ensure color accuracy and material quality
• Manage lab dips, strike-offs, and sample approvals, troubleshooting color and material issues
• Maintain digital and physical color libraries, documentation, and tracking tools
• Collaborate with overseas factories and suppliers on color matching, testing, and timelines
• Support sustainability and performance objectives through informed material and color selection
• Present color concepts, palettes, and material updates to internal and client stakeholders
• Ensure deadlines and commercialization milestones are met across multiple concurrent projects

Required Skills

• Footwear color development
• Color theory and application
• Materials sourcing and development
• CMF (color, material, finish) strategy
• Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop
• PLM/PDM systems
• Color standards and lab dip management
• Vendor and factory communication
• Trend and market research
• Color testing and quality control