Footwear Innovation Developer II, Racing Footwear

Who We Are:

At Brooks, we believe movement is the key to feeling more alive. That’s why we’re driven to create gear and experiences that take people to the place that makes them feel more alive — whether it’s a headspace, a feeling, or a finish line.

Everyone who works at Brooks is propelled by a company culture that sparks excitement, fuels collaboration, inspires creativity, and ignites innovation.

Our brand values help bond us together and drive our success:

• Runner First
  • We act in the best interest of the runner
• Word is Bond
  • We do what we say we’ll do
• Champion Heart
  • We give our all in everything we do
• There is no “I” in Run
  • We stay generous with our humanity
• Keep Moving
  • We find ways to move every day, because joy is kinetic!

We welcome everyone from every walk of life looking to inspire others through the power of movement - because we’re all moving towards something. Let’s run there.

The Footwear Innovation Developer II – Racing Footwear utilizes advanced, technical product and process knowledge, to work with a cross-functional product creation team from the collection of insights through commercialization to deliver the highest-performing racing footwear for Brooks professional athletes like the Beasts Track Club, Hansons-Brooks ODP, Mavericks, NIL athletes, and Brooks runners of all levels.. Your work has a direct impact on the Brooks professional athlete results, Brooks Sports Marketing strategy, and technology learnings that trickle into the full Brooks performance product line.

You have successful hands-on experience and knowledge of the total footwear construction process including outsole/midsole technical 2D/ 3D, pattern engineering, material construction and properties, and costing. You understand, through curiosity, intuition, and direct feedback, the nuanced needs of elite track & road racing athletes and foresee innovation opportunities to equip them with revolutionary racing product. Other critical responsibilities include understanding manufacturing capabilities, anticipating issues, problem solving, and timely resolution.

Your ideas around engineering principles that enhance product performance, product value, and your ability to communicate them across the product teams is a must for this role.

• Own leading execution and management of multiple New Upper, New Tooling racing footwear projects including leading projects from brief creation to final confirmation with T1, T2, and T3 factories at overlapping stages and intro dates.
• Deliver on Brooks Fit, Feel, Ride principles and goals via an unwavering dedication to always deliver product excellence at every prototype round.
• Empathize with the needs of elite athletes require from their racing footwear and be able to craft stories on how their success in racing impacts the overall Brooks Enterprise. Collaborate with Sports Marketing and Brooks professional athletes to ensure product development and introduction timing meets Enterprise needs.
• Manage racing shoe & track spike development sample and production approval process with World Athletics and be an industry representative for Brooks on the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry (WFSGI). Be the technical product expert in the room on the WFSGI to ensure rules and implementations match to Brooks racing footwear product vision. Plan and execute project development according to the highly-accelerated seasonal critical dates that lead to on–time delivery of development samples and production confirmation in time for major competitions, international championships, national championships, and World Majors.
• Identify gaps in technologies; lead new innovation technology projects to solve, test, implement and commercialize for your racing footwear projects; and ultimately tech transfer learnings to other cross-functional teams.
• Partner with and influence vendors and factories in the manufacturing process with the ability to steer the process to advance and achieve new manufacturing techniques which enhance the overall performance of product.
• Partner with and guide Design. Asia Development, and PLM teams to ensure that designs are manufacturable and meet cost and quality objectives…