Senior Lead - Sustainability, Footwear Creation

Senior Lead - Sustainability, Footwear Creation

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At On, innovation, performance, and sustainability go hand in hand and it’s in the creation process where big ideas meet real-world impact. As Senior Lead, Sustainability - Footwear Creation, you’ll turn sustainability vision into scalable reality. Working at the intersection of Footwear Development, Engineering, Materials, and Testing, you’ll ensure every product decision moves us closer to a lower-impact, higher-quality future. You’ll act as the change leader and trusted advisor for sustainable creation, providing the structure, expertise, and insight that enable teams to make the right decisions at the right time, while partnering closely with our Sustainability Design, Strategy and Innovation Management leaders to connect concept, creation and scale, shaping how sustainability lives across On’s entire footwear ecosystem.

• Translate sustainability from concept to scale
• Guide how sustainability ambition turns into daily creation reality, from early design through development and scale‑up, ensuring every step reduces impact and enhances product quality.
• Define and implement the frameworks, tools and metrics that help the Footwear Creation teams embed sustainability within Development, Engineering, Materials and Testing.
• Act as a thought partner and consultant, helping teams interpret data, deconstruct LCAs and make informed material, process, construction and product decisions.
• Provide clarity, structure and alignment across functions, ensuring sustainability principles are applied consistently throughout the creation process.
• Anticipate dependencies and translate complex goals into practical roadmaps that balance innovation, performance, cost and manufacturability.
• Communicate progress through clear storytelling and insight, connecting data to meaningful impact across products and teams.
• Drive sustainable creation and material integration
• Lead the scale‑up of key initiatives such as dope dye and low‑impact dyeing solutions across core footwear franchises, ensuring alignment across Development, Engineering, Materials and Sourcing.
• Integrate sustainability into creation workflows, from material & compound selection and component engineering to prototyping and testing.
• Partner with Sourcing as the bridge for transfer and scaling, building supplier readiness and enabling successful transfer at commercialisation level.
• Collaborate with Testing to validate durability, quality and product lifespan, ensuring sustainability choices support performance and longevity.
• Partner with Materials Leadership to evolve the footwear material toolbox, accelerating adoption of preferred and low‑impact materials while maintaining On’s premium aesthetic, performance and quality standards.
• Track and report on creation‑centric KPIs: material integration and consolidation rates, material waste reduction, digital vs physical sample creation, readiness milestones, process improvements – contributing to On’s Impact Progress Report.
• Enable teams and lead change
• Serve as a change catalyst, helping teams embrace sustainability as a driver of innovation and quality.
• Deliver training, tools and frameworks that empower creation teams to make sustainability‑led decisions with confidence.
• Offer expert guidance and coaching on LCA interpretation, material trade‑offs and sustainable decision‑making.
• Foster collaboration between Zurich Lab and VN creation hubs, ensuring consistent adoption of sustainability practices and learnings.
• Influence leaders and peers to embed sustainability into planning, ways of working and success metrics across Product Creation

• 8+ years of progressive experience within the apparel or footwear industry with similar industrial production challenges
• Educational background in material or environmental science
• You are first and foremost an operator – someone who thrives on setting targets, hitting deadlines and turning complex strategy into structured execution.
• With a background in footwear product creation and experience working within a production or factory environment, you understand the full journey from…