WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We are seeking a Senior Manager, Footwear Development to play a critical leadership role on the Greater China Local Creation Footwear Development Team, driving product excellence for the Greater China consumer in a fast-paced, close-to-market environment.

As the Senior Manager, Footwear Development, this person will lead the Sportswear Footwear Development team and provide strategic direction across the footwear development portfolio, ensuring product, process, and team excellence while enabling speed, agility, and high-quality decision making.

The ideal candidate is an experienced footwear creation leader with demonstrated strength in people leadership, strategic thinking, product development, cross-functional collaboration, and problem solving. This person is expected to navigate ambiguity, establish clear priorities, empower the team to make fast and effective decisions, and create strong alignment across functions and geographies.

As a member of the Greater China Local Creation Footwear Development leadership team, this person will build trusted relationships and influence across Nike Footwear Product Creation, Global Product Teams, manufacturing partners, and cross-functional teams comprising diverse cultures and geographies.

WHAT YOU’LL WORK ON

As the Senior Manager, Footwear Development for Greater China Local Creation, you will lead the Sportswear footwear development strategy and execution across Men’s, Women’s, and Kids, enabling the team to bring ideas from 2D design and tech packs into 3D, Go-To-Market samples and ultimately commercialized products.

You will provide strategic direction across the footwear development portfolio, balancing consumer needs, business priorities, product complexity, resources, and timelines to enable fast and effective product creation.

You will drive product and process excellence in a fast-paced, collaborative environment, ensuring projects deliver against design intent, performance, quality, cost, sustainability, and timing expectations while meeting the needs of the Greater China consumer and Local Creation business strategy.

Beyond individual projects, you will identify opportunities to continuously improve development capabilities, processes, ways of working, and cross-functional collaboration to enable greater speed, agility, and scalability for GC Local Creation.

A critical part of this role is building and developing a strong Footwear Development team—setting clear expectations, coaching talent, empowering developers to make decisions at the right level, and creating an environment of accountability, ownership, and continuous learning.

WHO YOU’LL WORK WITH

As part of the Greater China Local Creation Footwear Development leadership team, this role partners closely with key footwear functions including Color and Material Design, Material Development, Product Management, PCC/PMO, Costing, Sourcing, Planning, Manufacturing, and Operations.

You will work closely with Global Footwear Product Creation and Global Product Teams to ensure alignment with Nike Footwear Development standards, product excellence, and broader creation strategies while advocating for the unique needs of the Greater China consumer and Local Creation business.

You will build strong partnerships with PCC/PMO and manufacturing partners to enable fast problem solving, clear decision making, and effective execution throughout the product creation process.

This role will report to the Footwear Development Director for Greater China, Local Creation.

Key Responsibilities & Attributes

• Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design, Engineering, Business, Physical Sciences, or related field. Will accept any suitable combination of education, experience, and training.

• 8+ years of Footwear Product Creation experience, with demonstrated experience leading teams and complex footwear development portfolios.

• Lead and develop the GC Local Creation Footwear Development team, building strong capabilities, accountability, and a high-performing team culture.

• Empower the team to make fast, informed decisions while providing clear guardrails and appropriate leadership support.

• Drive innovation and product initiatives across footwear dimensions, categories, and divisions.

• Leverage deep technical knowledge across lasts, uppers, materials, tooling, costing, testing, commercialization, and manufacturing.

• Demonstrate strong strategic thinking, project management, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, with an achieve-results mindset.

• Anticipate product and execution risks, establish priorities, and mobilize cross-functional teams toward timely solutions.

• Build strong cross-functional partnerships and influence effectively across functions, geographies, manufacturing partners, and leadership levels.

• Create clarity in complex or ambiguous situations and enable teams to move forward with clear priorities and accountability.

• Demonstrate resilient and inclusive leadership with a high tolerance for ambiguity, changing priorities, and a fast-paced creation environment.

• Develop talent through coaching, feedback, stretch opportunities, and succession planning while building future footwear development capabilities.

• Drive continuous improvement in product creation processes and ways of working to improve speed, efficiency, quality, and cross-functional effectiveness.

• Strong understanding of the end-to-end creation process, including production planning, forecasting, costing, commercialization, and scheduling, to deliver product quality in a timely and effective way.

• Travel up to 15% as needed