Lead Product Engineer - Footwear

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Lead Product Engineer - UGG Footwear

Sr Manager, Product Engineering--UGG

Goleta, CA (Hybrid) – Typically 3 times per week in office, Tuesday – Thursday

As a Lead Product Engineer, you’ll independently lead the development and validation of footwear across multiple product categories, with a particular focus on tooling. You’ll drive execution from concept through commercialization, ensuring alignment to design intent, manufacturability, cost targets, and quality standards. You’ll serve as a key technical partner across Design, Product Development, and Asia teams, influencing decisions, resolving tooling challenges, and advancing best practices within the product engineering organization.

• Lead tooling development across assigned categories, ensuring alignment to design intent and engineering standards
• Create, refine, and implement tooling procedures, documentation standards, and best practices
• Provide technical guidance to team members and support consistent execution across projects
• Apply structured analytical approaches to resolve complex tooling issues and drive corrective actions
• Anticipate and mitigate risks early through trial analysis, modeling, and development insights
• Develop and enhance tooling SOPs, checklists, and process workflows to improve consistency and efficiency
• Track and improve key tooling KPIs and support vendor benchmarking and capability development
• Partner with Design, Product Development, and Asia teams to ensure tooling feasibility, cost alignment, and scalable production solutions
• Lead tooling readiness for commercialization, ensuring performance, durability, and aesthetic standards are met
• Provide training, coaching, and technical guidance to engineers to elevate team capability

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or related field (or equivalent industry experience)
• 6+ years in footwear engineering, tooling, or mold development
• Proven experience leading tooling development across multiple projects or categories from concept through commercialization
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex development challenges and anticipate risks across the product lifecycle
• Experience collaborating with global teams and Asia-based manufacturing partners
• Track record of improving processes, tooling performance, or development efficiency
• Strong technical knowledge of tooling construction and processes (EVA, rubber, PU, injection)
• Advanced problem-solving and root cause analysis capabilities using structured, data-driven approaches
• Ability to evaluate and interpret 2D/3D drawings, tooling blueprints, and engineering specifications
• Project management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities and timelines independently
• Experience developing and improving processes, SOPs, and engineering best practices
• Strong cross‑functional communication and collaboration skills
• Proficiency in PLM systems, Excel tracking tools, and engineering documentation

• Competitive Pay and Bonuses – We’ve created a variety of competitive compensation programs to foster career development, reward success and to show our employees just how much they’re valued.
• Financial Planning and wellbeing – No matter what financial goals our employees have set, we want to help them get there. Our plans provide powerful ways to protect income, pay for expenses and invest in the future.
• Time away from work – Sometimes we need time away to be with family, focus on our health or just simply…