Senior Director, Footwear Engineering

Department: Footwear Product Creation Reports to: Vice President, Product Development and Engineering Location: Portland, OR Your Opportunity at ARC’TERYX: As our Senior Director of Footwear Engineering, you will build our engineering strategy to ensure every product meets the high performance and quality standards that our athletes deserve.  You will heavily influence the creation and manufacturing of all models throughout the product creation cycle, from innovation through production.  You will deliver recommendations on organizational structures and processes needed to support all technical aspects of footwear product creation and manufacturing, across our teams in Portland, Vancouver and Asia.  You will collaborate with your cross-functional partners in both the Footwear and Supply Chain teams to develop best practices, establish toolboxes, and ensure the necessary processes are in place to guarantee performance, quality and profitability. You will drive engineering excellence by building an engineering organization over time and by influencing developers, designers and other cross-functional partners.  You will help evolve our product creation strategy and capabilities to enable Arc’teryx’s 2028+ organizational vision, and will partner with counterparts in Hardgoods, Accessories, and Apparel as well as with engineering teams in our sister brands to support this vision.  Our manufacturing partners will be key stakeholders for you; you’ll work closely with them to drive product and process excellence, and to bring our innovation and in-line product strategy to life. Finally, you will partner with our Footwear Leadership and corporate Sustainability teams to help develop and drive a sustainability agenda to support Arc’teryx’s circularity and sustainability goals and corporate mission to “Leave it Better”.   This role is based out of our Portland office.  Candidates must be eligible to work in the US.   Meet Your Team   Our Product Creation Development team is a dynamic group spread across the globe.  It sits within our Supply Chain organization and is a center of excellence partner with our Footwear Business Unit. The Arc’teryx Footwear team creates innovative, aesthetically striking product that exceeds the core mountain athlete’s outdoors needs across climbing, hiking, and trail running categories. We are builders, problem solvers and passionate outdoor enthusiasts. Fueled by curiosity, we take an immersive approach to identifying our athlete’s future needs – then, build, test, and validate products that solve for real functional challenges. We are a passionate collective with a focus on collaborative teamwork, and our vision is to redefine the industry If you were in the role of Senior Director, Footwear Engineering at ARC’TERYX, here’s what you’d be working on:

Building our global long-term vision for all Engineering functions, including product engineering, cost engineering, and manufacturing engineering.

Owning performance and quality excellence throughout our product line, by influencing the design of new products to ensure manufacturability, performance and margin targets are met

Establishing toolboxes and best practices for all models

Acting as a critical thought partner to Supply Chain and Footwear Leadership Team as we evolve our teams’ strategic priorities.

Collaborating with the Footwear and Sourcing leadership teams to establish and execute a medium to long-term partner strategy grounded in product excellence, on-time delivery, quality, and risk mitigation.

Developing recommendations on our future organizational structure and the technical resources needed to support growth, and hiring the technical talent needed to address current and future needs.

Fostering deep, collaborative partnerships with Tier 1 and Tier 2 partners to ensure Arc’teryx’s standards and processes are agreed upon and followed.  You will establish technical metrics and scorecards in collaboration with Supply Chain and Footwear team partners and develop a regular cadence of reviewing and acting upon them.

Collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders and establishing and driving a footwear innovation agenda.  You will recommend an approach to finding solutions to the technical aspects of all projects, including leveraging teams in Portland and North Vancouver, external resources, and with Tier 1 partners in Asia.

Providing a strong point of view on and heavily influencing our Sustainability agenda and our corporate mission to “Leave It Better”.

Driving profitability goals through collaboration with all Footwear and cross-functional stakeholders (including Sourcing, Materials, etc.) and establishing a system by which margin targets, cost breakdown, sheets and other financial and technical data are scrutinized and reviewed.

Leveraging your deep functional expertise to educate, coach and mentor others

Here are some of the things you could be working on in the future:

Developing and/or identifying the digital tools and processes need to lead us into the digital future

Fully resourcing a team of technical talent in Portland and/or Asia to support our recommended growth plan

Developing opportunities and programs to develop technical talent across Amer brands

Evolving our organization and processes to ensure we are well positioned for our next phase of growth

Are you our next Senior Director, Footwear Engineering?

You have 15+ years’ experience in a technical aspect of the footwear industry (engineering, development, manufacturing, etc.), ideally with extensive experience in manufacturing environments in Asia

You have proven experience building engineering systems, structures, and teams from the ground up, and can lead an organization through scale and growth You have strong influential leadership, with the ability to drive alignment across diverse cross-functional stakeholders at all levels of the business

You set a clear vision, align your team around common objectives, and foster commitment to these objectives

You have an in-depth knowledge of footwear construction, foams and rubbers, pattern making, manufacturing, costing, lasts, and materials

You have proven skills in interpreting design intent and product innovation

You have proven performance history with domestic and offshore vendors and manufacturers

You have excellent communication skills - interpersonal, written and verbal

You are entrepreneurial with the ability to make decisions and take calculated risks

You are proactive in identifying the root cause of issues and developing solutions

You remain highly flexible and adaptable when faced with ambiguity

You effectively balance autonomy and collaboration

You inspire breakthrough thinking and continuous improvement

You seek the best (sometimes not the easiest) solutions, with an unwavering commitment to do what is right

Your passion for sustainability is paralleled by your passion for getting outside and living it