Senior Director, Sports Marketing, Athlete Development

Nike • Beaverton, OR

2d • Onsite

About The Position

WHO YOU’LL WORK WITH The Senior Director, Athlete Development is a senior people leader within Nike’s Global Sports Marketing organization. This role leads and develops a team of leaders responsible for delivering integrated, holistic athlete roadmaps across sports, geographies, and categories. The role partners closely with leadership teams cross-functionally to identify needs and opportunities across the portfolio. Sports Marketing is a critical connective function at Nike—known for setting standards, developing talent, and enabling teams to translate athlete insight into meaningful brand and business impact. This role collaborates closely with Sports Marketing leadership, Sport General Managers, Brand, Product Creation, Marketplace, and Geo teams, while being able to foster strong relationships with key external partners. WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR We are looking for a seasoned people leader who brings clarity, empathy, and high standards to building and sustaining a world-class team. The ideal candidate has deep experience managing teams, coaching, and creating an environment where teams can do their best work. They are comfortable operating at altitude—shaping strategy, guiding priorities, and assisting the VP in cross-Sport leadership—while enabling strong execution through their team. This leader must be highly collaborative, focused on making work happen through people, and comfortable being an enabler. Skilled at navigating complexity in a global, matrixed organization. They must also be able to take ambiguous direction and create clarity vs only operating with clear direction. Must be open to work in Beaverton, Oregon.

Requirements

• Minimum 12+ years of experience in Sports Marketing, Athlete Management, Brand Strategy, or related fields.
• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Communications, or related field. Will accept any suitable combination of education, experience, and training.
• Demonstrated experience leading and developing teams.
• Proven ability to partner with and support executive leadership in a cross-functional, global environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead, develop, and enable a high-performing team responsible for delivering integrated athlete roadmaps across Nike’s Sports Marketing portfolio.
• Set the vision, standards, and operating model for the function, while partnering closely with the VP to drive alignment, consistency, and impact across Sports.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, growth, and accountability across the team.
• Set the vision, priorities, and operating rhythm for Athlete Development to ensure consistency and clarity of execution.
• Serve as a trusted thought partner and extension of the VP, Athlete Development, supporting cross-Sport planning and leadership representation.
• Guide teams in creating holistic athlete roadmaps that integrate insights, services, key moments, brand plans, and business objectives.
• Ensure athlete insight is consistently integrated into Brand, Product Creation, and Marketplace conversations.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees