Director, Core Studio Color Design

Nike•Beaverton, OR

23h

About The Position

The Director, Core Studio Color Design leads the color design direction and seasonal strategy for Core Footwear, shaping its product identity through color, narrative, and storytelling across performance, lifestyle, and solar products. The role combines creative direction with consumer and athlete insights to develop relevant concepts and a cohesive color vision across the Core consumer journey. The director collaborates with the Senior Director of Core Footwear and the Footwear Materials Design Director to align product, color, and materials into compelling collections and seasonal expressions. This position leads and mentors designers at multiple levels and works closely with cross-functional teams, including innovation, materials development, product design, merchandising, brand, development, and product operations. The director helps keep products at the leading edge of performance and culture, identifies new opportunities, and contributes to longer-term development of texture, finish, and graphics. The role also includes team leadership and management responsibilities, such as performance management, succession planning, resourcing, and pay decisions.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Design or a related field, or a suitable combination of education, experience, or training.
10+ years of relevant work experience in color design.
Ability to mentor staff, create development opportunities, make hiring decisions, and manage performance, recognition, and rewards.
Ability to build seasonal concepts and explore color innovations, technologies, and ideas, as well as short- and long-term vision.
Ability to translate consumer knowledge and insights into narratives and product executions.
Strong communication and relationship leadership skills, with clear, concise, and thoughtful verbal and written communication.
Ability to present insights and seasonal concepts to small and large groups, including executive leaders and external partners or customers.
Ability to conduct in-depth research on athlete insights and use it to drive innovative design solutions.
Ability to create compelling presentations that communicate seasonal design concepts to internal and external audiences.
Ability to self-manage and lead a team through change and ambiguity.
High proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite, including Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop, and Keynote on a Mac platform.
Positive, adaptable approach to changing business needs while maintaining creative quality.
Passion for athletes, sport, and culture; curiosity about athlete insights and connection to street-style trends.
Passion for storytelling and translating narratives onto physical product.
Strong knowledge of fashion, design, design and youth culture, past and present.

Nice To Haves

Two years of management or leadership experience.

Responsibilities

Lead Core Expression color design direction and seasonal strategy in partnership with the Material Director and Core Footwear Senior Director.
Build seasonal narratives and consumer- and culture-relevant concepts.
Develop and deliver a strategic seasonal color palette that inspires and guides the Core materials team.
Create collections integrating street fashion, art, culture, and sports.
Collaborate with category design, merchandising, and brand teams to support consistency and authenticity.
Drive cross-category alignment between statement and core counterparts to maintain a cohesive Nike brand appearance.
Partner in longer-lead-time “Bluesky” development of opportunities in texture, finish, and graphics.
Identify new opportunities and translate them into consumer-relevant design direction.
Mentor and develop designers and cross-functional collaborators.
Research trends and select seasonal color palettes and their application to products.
Plan and execute product color details, review samples, troubleshoot achievability issues, communicate changes, and support timely project completion.
Create and present seasonal design proposals to internal and external audiences.
Manage and contribute to succession planning, segmentation, performance management, pay, and resourcing decisions for direct and indirect reports.
Partner with innovation, materials development, vendors, and cross-functional teams to develop product ideas and maintain leading-edge performance and cultural relevance.