Director of Product Development
Position Overview:
At OOFOS, our mission is to make people feel good through our proprietary OOfoam™ technology and innovative footbed design, company culture, and community initiatives. We prioritize empathy, inclusivity, and creativity, leaving a lasting sense of WOW! We are committed to providing exceptional experiences for both our customers and employees, fostering a trusted and inclusive environment. You’ll have the autonomy and flexibility to develop your career and contribute to our innovative products, that enable people to live life in ultimate comfort.
The Director of Product Development is a pivotal strategic leader responsible for translating OOFOS’ brand, vision, and advanced design concepts into scalable, market-leading recovery footwear. Reporting to the VP/Head of Product Development HQ, this leader drives the global strategic vision for product creation, material/process innovation, and calendar execution across all footwear lines.
The Director oversees the development organization, scaling key operational frameworks, optimizing vendor and manufacturing partnerships, and aligning cross-functionally with Design, Merchandising, Brand, Sourcing, and Quality leadership. As a key guardian of OOFOS’ proprietary OOfoam™ technology, the Director will ensure all products deliver uncompromised fit, performance, margin targets, and recovery benefits at global scale. The ideal candidate is a creative and technical leader who thrives in a fast-paced, collaborative environment. They bring a pioneering mindset to innovation and sustainability, inspire and develop a high-performing team, and drive alignment across Product, Design, Merchandising, Marketing, and our Asia-based partners to deliver exceptional results season after season.
Key Responsibilities:
Strategic Line Execution & Global Scalability
- Drive Strategic Execution: Own the global strategic execution of all seasonal product lines—including New Product introductions, material innovation, carryover programs, and color/graphic updates—ensuring target margins, premium quality, and strict timeline adherence.
- Process Optimization: Own, refine, and enforce the strategic product development calendar from concept hand-off through to commercial production, implementing process efficiencies to scale operations as OOFOS expands globally.
- Cross-Functional Leadership: Partner as an executive peer with Design, Merchandising, Brand, and Operations leaders to turn line plans into commercially viable, highly scalable, and category-defining footwear portfolios.
- Asia Development Partnership: Partner closely with Asia-based development and manufacturing teams to ensure successful pre-production, tooling readiness, commercialization, and seamless execution from development through production.
- Risk & Portfolio Management: Oversee sample milestone processes globally, managing portfolio risks, identifying and escalating supply chain or engineering roadblocks, and balancing trade-offs between design intent, margin targets, and delivery dates.
Advanced Innovation & Fit/Performance Excellence
- Technological Stewardship: Protect and advance OOFOS’ proprietary OOfoam™ technology and pushing boundaries in footwear construction methods. Partner with innovation development to ensure smooth transition of new technologies into inline seasonal developments.
- Standards & Rigor: Partner and oversee global standards for fit, feel, biomechanic performance, and durability testing from early development through post-market evaluation.
- Continuous Improvement: Lead cross-functional root-cause analyses and corrective action frameworks for complex technical or quality issues, applying lessons learned across future product cycles.
Organizational Leadership & Talent Development
- Team Building: Build, mentor, and inspire a world-class team of product developers, technical developers, costing and materials managers, fostering a high-performance culture grounded in technical rigor, curiosity, accountability, and continuous learning.
- Resource Allocation: Manage departmental budget, organizational structuring, tool/PLM software utilization, and workload balancing across multi-season projects.
- Vendor & Factory Strategy: Collaborate with Sourcing and Quality leadership to align development strategies with global manufacturing partners, lead cost negotiations with Asia development and manufacturing partners, and drive technical capability, cost optimization, and manufacturing excellence at the factory level.
Requirements:
- 10+ years of progressive footwear development experience with a minimum of 3–5 years in a managerial or directorship role.
- Bachelor’s degree in Footwear Design, Industrial Design, Mechanical Engineering, Polymer Science/Materials Science, or related field). Master’s degree (MBA or MS in Engineering/Materials) is a strong plus.
- Proven track record leading global product development teams for high-growth, top-tier footwear brands (performance, active, comfort, or recovery categories strongly preferred).
- Deep technical expertise in various footwear constructions from performance to lifestyle products.
- Demonstrated experience scaling operations, establishing development processes, and managing international development calendars.
- Proven experience collaborating with Asia-based development and manufacturing partners to drive successful commercialization, tooling readiness, and cost negotiations that achieve quality, timeline, and margin objectives.
Technical & Strategic Mastery
- End-to-End Technical Expertise: Expert knowledge of global footwear manufacturing, tooling investment economics, BOM construction, lasting, bottom constructions, and quality engineering.
- Materials & Biomechanics Innovation: Advanced understanding of materials science, foam mechanics, polymer development, and biomechanical performance testing.
- Financial Acumen: Strong command of footwear costing models, target margin strategies, yield optimization, and long-term tooling ROI.
- Systems Leadership: High level proficiency with PLM systems (e.g. Flex PLM), product creation software, and digital workflow tools.
Leadership Competencies
- Strategic Vision & Grounded Execution: Ability to think at a high strategic level while maintaining the technical fluency to engage with engineers and sample-room teams.
- Global Leadership & Cultural Intelligence: Proven capability to build high-trust relationships with U.S. executive leadership, global cross-functional partners, and Asia-based factory management.
- Executive Presence & Decision-Making: Highly decisive under pressure; adept at making complex technical, cost, and timeline trade-offs aligned with corporate goals.
