Lead - Commercialization Engineer

In short:

As a Lead, Innovation commercialization engineer, you will be a driving force at the forefront of On's scale of product evolution. You will operate with a high degree of autonomy to lead complex projects, challenge conventions, and champion innovative approaches that define the future of footwear. This role requires you to master technical complexity, manage key stakeholder relationships, and translate visionary concepts into scalable, performance-driven products.

Your Mission:

• As a leader within the team, you will independently manage multiple high-impact footwear development projects from confirmation to production, defining methods and procedures for new assignments and potentially supervising other team members. As a senior contributor, you will leverage your expertise to guide and influence both management and your team.

• You will spearhead the end-to-end commercialization process, leveraging your expert knowledge of manufacturing processes, fit, material properties, mold and process manufacturing. Your strong root-cause analysis mindset will be crucial in troubleshooting significant and unique issues related to tooling, molding, assembly, fit, and wear.

• As the central hub for On’s key manufacturing regions, you will act as a critical liaison between On inline development and production teams, working closely with strategic vendors to ensure product intent is maintained while meeting commercial and operational requirements. You will engineer products for efficient manufacturability, lowest cost, and highest quality and performance.

• You will serve as a key influencer and central communication hub, managing expectations and negotiating effectively with diverse internal teams and major external T1/T2 partners and sourcing teams across regions.

• Collaborating with computational designers, you will work with upper patterns and tooling construction adjustments to enhance fit, durability, and ensure scalable manufacturing. You will be responsible for full size run grading, technical manufacturing operation manuals, initial production trial, ERP system update, scalability sign off, among others.

• You will own the documentation of complex tooling and upper-related issues, defining and communicating clear correction actions to all stakeholders for manufacturing guidelines.

Your Story:

• 8+ years of progressive experience in the footwear industry, with a significant focus on innovation and bringing new technologies to market.

• Bachelor’s or Master's Degree in Engineering, Material Science, or another relevant technical field.

• 2D and 3D, computational design and algorithmic capabilities are a plus.

• Proven ability to not only lead the scaling of new technologies but also to assess their commercial viability and factory readiness.

• Expert-level knowledge of advanced footwear manufacturing processes, including robotics, automation, tooling, molding, injecting, welding, lasting, and assembly. You understand factory capabilities, tolerances, and limitations and know how to engineer for scalable replication.

• A natural technical curiosity and a robust, root-cause analysis approach to problem-solving.

• Exceptional communication, negotiation, and influencing skills, with the ability to confidently present to senior management and external partners.

• A demonstrated ability to work with a high degree of autonomy, navigating ambiguity and making independent judgments on complex and significant issues.

• Experience in mentoring junior team members or supervising project activities is a strong plus.

• Ability to travel up to 15-20% of the time.

Your Team:

On's Innovation team is an agile, interdisciplinary group of footwear creation, advanced manufacturing, and future of sport experts, driving On's future innovations and athlete-informed technologies that set On footwear apart.

We challenge the status quo and push boundaries to pioneer footwear innovation. As a member of the On Innovation Team, you will think outside the box and bring new, innovative ideas to life.