Footwear Design Director

Location
:
Bangalore preferred;
London/UK, then Europe considered.

Travel (if based outside Bangalore):
Four visits per year, approximately two weeks each.

Experience
: 8–12 years

Compensation and Benefits
:
Competitive Salary, annual performance bonus, medical insurance and relocation support available.

ABOUT AGILITAS

Agilitas is building India’s first global sports company by bringing together world-class product innovation, manufacturing excellence, iconic brands and an integrated retail ecosystem. We are creating category-defining products and experiences for athletes and consumers while building businesses with global ambition.

Our integrated sportswear ecosystem spans:

You will shape the creative direction and design development of footwear for an Agilitas brand, helping build a globally competitive sports business from India.

This is a formative opportunity within a young, fast-growing organisation. You will combine hands-on design with team leadership, establishing a distinctive visual language, strengthening technical performance-footwear capability and helping build the processes behind the product. It will suit someone excited by the opportunity to create, influence and bring structure—not someone expecting a long-established system to already be in place.

Working closely with Product Line Management, Development, Materials, R&D and Sourcing, you will turn consumer needs into commercially relevant footwear. Your initial focus will be setting clear design direction, developing stronger concepts and progressing priority projects.

• Define footwear design direction, concepts and visual language across the collection.
• Lead and mentor designers, developing their capabilities while setting creative priorities and providing clear feedback.
• Stay hands-on in concept development and key design decisions.
• Translate consumer, sport and market insights into relevant product ideas for the Indian and global consumer.
• Partner with PLM to define collection needs and align design briefs with brand and commercial objectives.
• Brief and collaborate with external studios and freelancers, welcoming fresh perspectives while protecting a coherent brand identity.
• Collaborate with technical teams to maintain design intent through development and manufacturing.
• Build practical design processes and reviews that help the team move quickly, maintain quality and adapt as the business grows.
• Work effectively across locations and cultures, creating clarity and momentum for colleagues and creative partners.

• 8–12 years of footwear design experience, including hands-on design leadership within performance or sportswear.
• Strong technical sports-footwear expertise, with a portfolio showing original concepts developed through to commercially relevant product.
• A clear creative point of view, with the ability to translate consumer, sporting and brand insight into a distinctive product direction and design story.
• Experience guiding and developing designers or creative partners; able to give clear feedback, build capability and bring structure to a growing team.
• Comfortable working across design, PLM, development, materials, R&D, sourcing and manufacturing—maintaining design intent while balancing feasibility, cost and speed.
• Sound knowledge of footwear construction, materials and manufacturing at scale.
• Strong consumer and commercial awareness, with the judgement to combine global design standards with the needs of the Indian market.
• A proactive builder: motivated by the opportunity to shape a brand and team, create effective ways of working and move ideas forward in an evolving business.
• Collaborative, adaptable and comfortable working across locations and cultures, with a practical, low-ego approach to solving problems.
• Openness to new creative technologies and ways of working.