Senior Design Manager, Footwear & Apparel Expression, Nike Basketball Signature Athlete

Nike • Beaverton, OR

12d

About The Position

We’re looking for an exceptional Senior Design Manager, Footwear and Apparel Expression (Color, Graphics, Materials), who can bring experience, creative problem-solving, and a clear point of view to help shape what’s next for Nike Basketball. Inspired by the signature athlete, you’ll help define the visual expression of Nike Basketball across footwear and apparel—bringing together sport, style, and performance in a modern, meaningful way. This role requires broad exploration, thoughtful curation, and a clear creative point of view. The ideal teammate is a visionary design leader with exceptional taste, a refined aesthetic perspective, and a deep commitment to craft. They pursue elevated solutions with a sharp eye for detail, proportion, and storytelling, creating products that resonate with consumers on and off the court. With strong cultural awareness and an understanding of emerging trends, they will shape distinctive expressions that raise the bar for creativity, desirability, and aesthetic excellence.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Design or related field (or any suitable combination of education, experience and training).
• At least 8 years experience in design or related field.
• Exceptional knowledge of design, art, and fashion, as well as passion for sport and youth culture.
• Ability to translate consumer knowledge and insights into creative solutions and narratives.
• Ability to articulate design intent and strategy.
• Expert Photoshop, Illustrator skills.
• Experienced with presentation programs: Keynote, PowerPoint, Acrobat, etc.
• Expert knowledge of manufacturing processes and materials.
• Must be able to generate a broad range of concepts and solutions for each project.
• Ability and passion to lead, coach, collaborate, and onboard Design teammates.
• Contribute and align to shared team culture and behaviors.
• Motivated and hardworking about bringing others along.
• Extraordinary teammate, and humble leader.
• Collaborator with skill in connecting the dots.
• Speaks up with courage for self and the team.
• Open-minded, good listener, receptive to candid feedback and diverse points of view.
• Passionate and curious to learn about basketball and the athlete.
• Provide a design portfolio focused on expression work on wearable product (upload a PDF or provide a URL and password if applicable).

Nice To Haves

• Being a hooper is not a requirement.

Responsibilities

• Create concepts and developments on a range of color, materials, graphic designs for the basketball signature athlete.
• Elevate new techniques and narratives to influence new product expressions.
• Aim for product excellence by partnering with key stakeholders cross-functionally on the product creations process.
• Help bring the vision for the future of Nike Basketball products to life.
• Unleash creativity with a focus on industry leading design as well as leveraging consumer insights to inform our creative response.
• Collaborate and help build the design direction with the Senior Creative Director.
• Manage a Lead Expression Designer.
• Mentor other designers.
• Collaborate within the design community (concept, footwear, apparel designers).
• Make connections with other Design groups.

Benefits

• Accommodations to complete our interview process including screen readers, sign language interpreters, accessible and single location for in-person interviews, closed captioning, and other reasonable modifications as needed.

What This Job Offers

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