On - Lead – Innovation Footwear Developer - Zürich

Team for Career Site

Footwear Product Creation

In short

As a Lead Innovation Footwear Developer, you will be a driving force at the forefront of On’s product evolution. You will operate with a high degree of autonomy to lead complex projects, challenge conventions, and champion innovative approaches that define the future of footwear. This role requires you to master technical complexity, manage key stakeholder relationships, and translate visionary concepts into scalable, performance-driven products.

Your mission

– Lead and own the end-to-end creation of high-impact, innovative product concepts. You will manage multiple projects independently, from initial strategy and conception through to commercialization, ensuring alignment with overarching company goals.
– Leverage your expert knowledge of manufacturing processes, material properties, and biomechanics to troubleshoot significant and unique issues. With a strong root-cause analysis mindset, you will tackle challenges in tooling, molding, and assembly, and develop new material applications and specifications.
– Act as a key influencer and central communication hub between diverse internal teams and major external T1/T2 partners. You will manage expectations, negotiate effectively, and confidently communicate with stakeholders at all levels, including senior management.
– Serve as the guardian for product performance. Partner with the testing team and translate direct consumer and athlete feedback into tangible design iterations.
– Critically assess and validate last shapes with last engineers to perfect the intended fit and performance. You will collaborate with computational designers to pioneer upper patterns and construction adjustments that enhance fit, durability, and ensure scalable manufacturing.
– Own the documentation of complex tooling and upper-related issues, defining and communicating clear correction actions to all stakeholders. You will create and manage comprehensive tech packs, specification sheets, and BOMs, while driving development timelines to meet critical calendar milestones.
– Act as a leader within the team, determining methods and procedures for new assignments and potentially supervising the activities of other team members.

Your story

– 8+ years of progressive experience in footwear development, with a significant focus on innovation and bringing new technologies to market.
– Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in Engineering, Material Science, or another relevant technical field.
– Expert-level knowledge of advanced footwear manufacturing processes, including tooling, molding, injecting, welding, lasting, and assembly. You understand factory capabilities, tolerances, and limitations and know how to design for scalable replication.
– A natural technical curiosity and a robust, root-cause analysis approach to problem-solving.
– In-depth, demonstrated knowledge of advanced footwear materials, their properties, and performance characteristics, including experience with advanced testing and analysis.
– Proven ability to not only lead the scaling of new technologies but also to assess their commercial viability and factory readiness.
– Exceptional communication, negotiation, and influencing skills, with the ability to confidently present and defend concepts to senior management and external partners.
– A demonstrated ability to work with a high degree of autonomy, navigating ambiguity and making independent judgments on complex and significant issues.
– Experience in mentoring junior team members or supervising project activities is a strong plus.
– Comfortable and proficient with industrial machinery and hands-on prototyping.
– Ability to travel up to 10-15% of the time.

Meet the team

On’s Innovation team is an agile, interdisciplinary group of footwear creation, advanced manufacturing, and future of sport experts, driving On’s future innovations and athlete-informed technologies that set On footwear apart.

We challenge the status quo and push boundaries to pioneer footwear innovation. As a member of the On Innovation Team, you will think outside the box and bring new, innovative ideas to life.