Materials Development 3

Senior Footwear Materials Color Developer

Location:

Beaverton, OR Contract length: 6 months

Team details & who they will work with: FW Color Development, FW Materials Development

• Minimum required years of experience: 5+ YOE in Technical Color development for footwear materials - textiles, leathers, polymers, or printing
• Education requirements:

• Color development for footwear materials, have completed a color acuity test
• Farnsworth-Munsell Color Acuity = FM100 - have a superior score of color vision
• Can interpret color reading reports, can measure color with a Spectrophotometer, reviewing color in a light box

• Material or product development experience with a focus on color development
• Experience working with color lab dips, working in color lab, digital and visual color research
• They are not not exposed solutions or dyes

• Smartsheets, excel
• Previous Client /industry experience preference:
  Yes

As an ETW on the Footwear Color Development team, you'll partner with Color Developers, Color Design, Materials Integrity, Product Development, and global materials and footwear factory partners. You'll support the operational backbone of color development-ensuring accurate data, timely approvals, and consistent standards across materials and categories.

You're detail-oriented, organized, and energized by the mechanics of color development. You thrive in fast-paced product creation environments and enjoy supporting systems, tools, and processes that keep color moving from brief to buy.

• 5+ years experience in color development, materials development, or product creation
• Working knowledge of color theory, color evaluation, and material construction
• Familiarity with spectrophotometers, FM100, and digital color tools
• Strong organizational skills and comfort with data accuracy and tracking
• Ability to collaborate across functions and communicate clearly
• Experience with footwear materials (textiles, synthetics, foams, leathers) preferred

• Lead color development and approvals for yarns, skins, and foams
• Maintain accurate tracking, data, and seasonal color activation in our product creation tools

• Support color alignment for our highest volume materials across suppliers and constructions
• Coordinate sample flow and maintain clean, reliable color data

• Maintain physical and digital color standards libraries
• Capture spectro readings and assist with FM100 testing and lab organization

• Hands-on experience with color development systems, tools, and processes
• Exposure to cross-functional partners across product creation
• Skill development in digital color, data accuracy, and material standards
• A deeper understanding of how color moves from concept to production at scale