Principal Materials Innovator, Apparel Innovation

Nike • Beaverton, OR

1d

About The Position

The Principal Materials Innovator is an individual-contributor technical leader on the Apparel Materials Innovation team. The role sets technical direction and leads discovery, engineering, evaluation, and scale-up of advanced textile materials for sport-performance apparel. It connects consumer and athlete needs with material science, manufacturing capabilities, and data-informed development to create differentiated, technically credible, commercially viable solutions ready for product application.

The position combines hands-on expertise in performance textile engineering, materials science, and advanced manufacturing with the ability to guide complex programs and influence multidisciplinary teams without direct reporting authority. The successful candidate translates performance opportunities into material strategies and leads development from research through prototyping, validation, pilot production, and manufacturing integration. The role also evaluates technical and economic feasibility, scalability, cost drivers, readiness, and risk, while building external partnerships and strengthening organizational technical capability.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in textile engineering, textile science, materials science, textile design, industrial engineering, industrial design, or a related field; suitable combinations of education, experience, and training are accepted.
• Demonstrated experience leading textile or apparel-material research and development from technical concept through prototype, validation, and commercial-scale manufacturing.
• Advanced expertise in at least one textile-creation discipline, such as knitting, weaving, or additive manufacturing.
• Working knowledge of yarns, dyeing, finishing, performance testing, and large-scale textile production.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex, multidisciplinary technical programs and influence internal and external partners without direct reporting authority.
• Strong communication, project leadership, data analysis, and evidence-based decision-making skills.

Nice To Haves

• Experience applying statistical methods, computational tools, machine learning, or AI to material design, experimentation, modeling, testing, or decision-making.
• Experience conducting technical and economic feasibility assessments for research, development, equipment, or manufacturing investments.
• Experience developing intellectual property related to materials, products, manufacturing methods, or processes.
• Established relationships with textile mills, yarn suppliers, machinery manufacturers, testing laboratories, research institutes, universities, startups, or industry consortia.

Responsibilities

• Translate performance opportunities into material strategies, technical briefs, experimental plans, and decision criteria.
• Engineer and evaluate yarn, textile structure, process, and finishing combinations across knit, woven, additive, and emerging textile platforms.
• Lead material development from early research through prototyping, application trials, testing, data analysis, pilot production, and manufacturing integration.
• Assess technical feasibility, performance potential, scalability, cost drivers, manufacturing readiness, and development risk.
• Build and lead multidisciplinary project teams, influencing decisions across materials, design, product development, manufacturing, digital, and sustainability functions.
• Establish external partnerships with suppliers, mills, equipment manufacturers, laboratories, research institutions, universities, startups, and other technology organizations.
• Develop technical methods, identify intellectual-property opportunities, communicate research findings, and share knowledge with technical and product-creation teams.
• Collaborate with Apparel Innovation, Design, Global Apparel Materials, Digital Product, Product Development, and Advanced Manufacturing.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal