Sr Director Product Innovation - Footwear

Job Title: Sr Director – Product Innovation - Footwear Reporting line: Chief Executive Officer & Chief Operations Officer Location: Bangalore, India / Gurugram, India Virtua are delighted to be managing the search for Sr Director, Product Innovation - Footwear for the impressive Agilitas business. This role will be based primarily in India, and we can look at at a flexible set-up for the right candidate. This will lead the entire product innovation calendar and be hire number one for this business area. Your Impact: At Agilitas, we're not just shaping movement; we're crafting the essential details that elevate it. As Sr Director Product Innovation, Your technical knowhow and innovation driven approach will play a vital role in ensuring our footwear product offering is at the forefront of performance footwear consumer landscape. You will be responsible for leading our entire product innovation pipeline including setting up our testing & innovation labs, material innovation centres, T1 & T2 vendor supplier base, and building out an entire team from scratch as the first senior hire in our innovation team. Responsibilities:

• Partner with our CEO, COO, Product Development, and Mochiko factory teams to develop, own, and direct the entire footwear innovation pipeline for Agilitas across all categories (footwear & apparel).
• Actively direct the product innovation team, including roadmap, project briefs, workload allocation, timelines, budget (OPEX and CAPEX), intellectual property filings, and successful transition of knowledge/education/technologies.
• Ensure that cross-functional partners, such as product development, design, sourcing, merchandising, wear testing, and external vendors/researchers have the most up-to-date information/education on each project and collaborations are effective.
• Direct innovation team to successfully adhere with go-to-market deadlines, such as innovation review, category kick-off, etc.
• Ensure the innovation process runs succinctly with all dates and gates, tracking concept readiness and communicating updates to cross-functional teams appropriately.
• Use extensive development and product creation / project management skills to actively create and develop project prototypes with all levels of vendor partners worldwide.
• Utilise athlete insights and collaborate with design to create category concepts.
• Work closely with Mochiko and our factories to drive concept generation and prototyping.
• Effectively communicate with inline partners, factory and vendor personnel, marketing, Innovation design, engineering, materials, testing partners and Pro/Consumer Athletes. Understand footwear creation and manufacturing process and use this knowledge to iterate new design concepts.
• Responsible for all aspects of projects in footwear prototyping phase, coordinating and following up on development of prototype product with project designers, material vendors, and mould shops
• Manage and coordinate the testing process across all partners to ensure best in class performance testing validates the concept and athlete benefit.
• Maintain an open line of communication with all partners to resolve performance construction issues.
• Consistently lead in implementing new innovations and having overall responsibility for continued development team building, growth and leadership.
• You lead with courage and manage a diverse and experienced team of innovators for growth and learning
• You scout and identify new capabilities and technologies that will bring consumer benefits
• Have the capability to lead the innovation team in working across a portfolio of world- renowned licensed brands within the Agilitas portfolio. Working across a multitude of different categories including lifestyle, performance, run, tennis, gym etc.
• Have historic relationships with T2 chemical/technical platforms solutions providers IE Continental, BASF, Vibram, Gore-Tex etc.
• Chemistry / materials (primary focus) / biomechanics (keep to one side)
• Mention outside of India factories across HCMC/China etc.
• T2 supplier management of existing technical platforms

• Driven for Excellence: Pursue excellence in every aspect of your work, setting high standards for yourself and our product creation structure.
• Self-Starter : Take initiative and demonstrate a proactive approach to working in a start-up business environment. You must have a passion for pushing the boundaries and building up what will arguably be one of the most important operational teams in our current structure.
• Excellent Problem-Solving Abilities : Tackle challenges head-on, offering innovative solutions and adapting seamlessly to the ever-changing landscape that is product development, R&D, and Engineering in the performance footwear space.
• Innovative Mindset: Approach product innovation & development with a keen eye for consumer trends, new product innovations, sustainability, and making awesome silhouettes for a multitude of engaged consumers.
• Team Player: Thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced team environment, contributing to a culture of collaboration & passion. You will ooze technicality and innovation, whilst having the soft-skills to lead and build a thriving team in a start-up business environment.
• New Age Thinker: Bring an autonomous, new-age, and entrepreneurial attitude to our hungry team. Bring the perfect blend of science and business acumen to ensure that Agilitas bring the best products to market driving consumer engagement, sell-thru, and retention across all brands.
• Go-Getter: Act with pace and consistency ensuring that you are taking our teams on the journey to bring an innovation-first mindset to every area of our business. You will be a superb relationship builder, but also somebody that is constantly “in the know” when it comes to what our competitors product landscape.

• Bachelor's degree in Footwear/Textile Design, Technology, Merchandising, Engineering, Industrial Engineering, or a related field with typically 10 years of relevant experience or Master's degree with typically 8 years of relevant experience or typically 14 years of relevant experience without degree
• At least 8 years of footwear or athletic equipment industry experience.
• Extensive knowledge of Performance Footwear Development including all aspects that bring together class leading projects to market that meet/exceed consumer expectations while maintaining company profitability and delivery targets.
• 15+ years' industry experience managing complex sports product innovation projects, with an athletic performance, craft and construction focus. Proven experience working for iconic brands that have created disruption in their respective industries.
• 7+ years minimum of product creation team leadership experience, with the ability to delegate and distribute work to meet team roadmap goals.
• Demonstrated portfolio of bringing innovative sports performance footwear products to market.
• In-depth knowledge of materials, manufacturing processes, and technologies in the footwear industry.
• Strong, multi-faceted project management experience with demonstrated ability to manage conflicts, proactively anticipate challenges, and identify potential solutions.
• Thrives in a time-sensitive, demanding, and dynamic environment, and can self-start, organise, prioritise, multi-task, and balance competing priorities with a keen sense of urgency.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with high attention to detail and storytelling.
• Excellent interpersonal skills including collaborative problem-solving, negotiating, issue resolution, and relationship management.
• Can influence across the Footwear Innovation organization, particularly project/communication deliverables, and deadlines with inter-team dependencies.
• Manages effectively with ambiguity, complexity, and change, with high emotional intelligence.
• Competency of enterprise Microsoft 365 applications (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Teams, Planner, etc.).
• Can travel internationally with demonstrated experience traveling to overseas manufacturing vendors and nationally throughout our India based factories to develop and commercialise innovative products