Lead, Footwear Design Exploration

Under Armour•Baltimore, MD

11d•$110,000 - $150,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Lead, Footwear Design Exploration is responsible for identifying emerging opportunities, creating concepts, and developing exploratory design work that supports the future growth of Under Armour Footwear. Reporting to the Director, Exploratory Design, this role connects athlete needs, marketplace shifts, emerging technologies, cultural influences, and design trends to actionable footwear opportunities. This role is a creator first, developing concepts, inspiration, visual assets, and exploratory product ideas that help Product Creation teams see around corners, challenge convention, and pursue opportunities that can drive future growth and differentiation.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree with typically 8 years of relevant experience or Master's degree with typically 6 years of relevant experience or typically 12 years of relevant work experience without degree.
Experience in Footwear Design, Innovation, Concept Design, Product Creation, or a related creative product field.
Strong understanding of footwear consumer needs, category trends, product creation processes, and marketplace dynamics.
Knowledge of footwear construction, materials, manufacturing considerations, and exploratory product creation.
Strong concept development, visualization, storytelling, and presentation capabilities.
Ability to translate insights, trends, and athlete needs into compelling design opportunities.
Strong creative judgment, product sensibility, collaboration skills, and ability to influence cross-functional partners.

Nice To Haves

Experience using AI-enabled design tools, visualization platforms, and emerging creative technologies preferred.

Responsibilities

Identify emerging footwear trends, athlete needs, consumer shifts, cultural influences, and whitespace opportunities that can strengthen Under Armour’s position in the market.
Translate insights into concepts, inspiration, visual assets, exploratory prototypes, and actionable product direction for Footwear Design and Product Creation teams.
Explore new forms, constructions, materials, technologies, and design opportunities while keeping exploratory work connected to athlete relevance and business opportunity.
Create inspiration and opportunity platforms that support seasonal kickoffs, exploratory initiatives, Greenhouse work, and future product pipeline discussions.
Partner with Footwear Design, Product Management, Merchandising, Innovation, Development, Testing, strategic factory partners, and materials and technology partners to develop and refine concepts.
Utilize AI-enabled design tools and visualization technologies to accelerate concept generation, design iteration, creative exploration, and asset creation.
Maintain ongoing alignment with category teams to ensure exploratory outputs remain practical, relevant, actionable, and connected to Footwear priorities.
Share insights, concepts, and exploratory outputs that build organizational capability and support a culture of curiosity, experimentation, and continuous learning.