Senior Footwear Product Line Manager

About the Role

The Senior Footwear Product Line Manager is responsible for the end-to-end seasonal direction and execution of owned Brooks footwear products across portals, platforms, and pillars. The role involves providing vision and thought leadership as the consumer, market, and business expert during the footwear creation process, from brief to commercialization, and executing against the five‑year footwear strategy to meet business goals and financial targets.

• Partner with Footwear PLM leadership and Innovation partners to align athlete product work with longer‑term innovation and brand strategies, translating vision into focused, executable plans.
• Own and lead athlete‑focused footwear products that sit outside standard inline assortments, with accountability for performance‑driven outcomes.
• Partner with Principal, Footwear PLM Innovation to translate multiyear strategies, innovation pipelines, and product evolution into executable seasonal plans and athlete product briefs.
• Ensure seasonal product assortments are competitive, consumer‑relevant, and aligned to business objectives.

• Lead advanced and experimental footwear development, including highly specialized racing products and emerging performance platforms.
• Drive rapid prototyping and personalized solutions in close partnership with Design, Development, Engineering, and Run Research/Biomechanics.
• Identify future innovation concepts and create proposals that will deliver groundbreaking solutions for athletes.

• Serve as the internal expert on elite and sub‑elite athlete performance needs, competitive benchmarks, and racing requirements.
• Build and maintain direct, trust‑based relationships with athletes, engaging virtually and in person to gather real‑time product insight.
• Translate direct athlete feedback into rapid product decisions during compressed and non‑linear development timelines.
• Begin each brief with the ‘Why’ and the key consumer problem to solve.
• Combine consumer insights, biomechanics, and future innovation capabilities to articulate a crafted story that informs the product brief.
• Lead the cross‑functional brief creation process that includes story crafting, key consumer benefits, KPIs, development toolbox, and design concepts.
• Work cross‑functionally within the footwear team to drive product execution and ensure readiness at key milestones.
• Provide expert knowledge of technical execution across materials, upper construction, foams, midsole, and outsole parts (2D, 3D, and wood models).
• Maintain a level of understanding in biomechanics to facilitate detailed dialogue with Engineering while translating technical language into consumer‑friendly stories.
• Ensure athlete prototypes are competition‑ready, with clear intent, performance validation, and feedback loops.
• Travel at least twice a year to Asia development centers to finalize changes and meet in‑market timelines.

• Work alongside Principal, Footwear PLM Innovation to ensure functionally aligned deliverables.
• Partner closely with cross‑functional colleagues in design and development to create a collaborative environment covering consumer, engineering, costing, and design considerations throughout the product creation process.

• Build stories informed by athlete insights.
• Work with product marketing, merchandising, and sales to bring the product story to life and present at brief handoff, seasonal milestones, sales meetings, and vendor visits.
• Present athlete portfolio, products, concepts, and new technologies to internal and external stakeholders.
• Provide product expertise to merchandising, marketing, PR, and sales for the creation of presentations and media content.
• Craft and communicate athlete‑led product stories that inform future innovation pipelines and broader product direction.

• May manage up to one direct report.
• Mentor PLM‑I and PLM‑II on market intelligence, product briefing, and story crafting.
• Act as a role model across triads and cross‑functional footwear teams to foster a culture of collaboration and…