Job Summary
The Senior Director, Product Development provides global leadership for KEEN’s footwear product development organization and is accountable for translating product strategy, design intent, consumer needs, and commercial objectives into innovative, manufacturable, profitable footwear. This role leads the global footwear development function from product concept through commercialization, establishing the development standards, technical capabilities, operating disciplines, talent structure, and factory partnerships required to deliver the global product portfolio. The Senior Director serves as the senior technical and commercialization leader within Global Product & Innovation, partnering closely with Product Management, Design, Color & Materials, Fit & Wear, Innovation, Merchandising, Product Operations, Sourcing, Costing, Engineering, Quality, and owned and partner factories. The role is accountable for protecting product integrity while improving speed, margin, quality, fit, manufacturability, and execution across the portfolio. The Senior Director builds and develops a high-performing footwear development organization capable of supporting KEEN’s current business while creating the technical capabilities required for future growth.
Essential Functions
Description
Global Product Development Leadership
- Leads the global footwear product development function, establishing functional direction, organizational capabilities, operating standards, talent priorities, and development plans in support of KEEN’s long-term product and business strategy.
- Translates Global Product & Innovation strategy into development priorities and capabilities that deliver differentiated, consumer-relevant, technically excellent, and commercially viable product.
- Establishes clear accountability, role clarity, and effective deployment of development expertise across product categories, strategic initiatives, and innovation priorities.
- Builds organizational capability and succession depth through leadership development, coaching, performance management, talent development, and organizational planning.
Product Creation & Technical Excellence
- Leads development excellence from concept through commercialization, ensuring product achieves design intent, consumer benefit, fit, performance, quality, cost, sustainability, manufacturability, and delivery objectives.
- Establishes and governs development standards, technical requirements, and critical milestones necessary for product readiness and successful commercialization.
- Serves as a senior footwear technical authority, providing leadership across construction, pattern engineering, materials, tooling, fit, manufacturing methods, testing, and commercialization.
- Partners with Product Management, Design, and Innovation leadership to identify technical opportunities, address development risks, and guide trade-offs among innovation, consumer value, complexity, cost, margin, quality, and speed.
Manufacturing, Cost, & Commercialization
- Provides senior Development leadership in partnership with Engineering, Sourcing, Costing, Quality, owned factories, and external manufacturing partners to improve development effectiveness and commercialization outcomes.
- Drives early collaboration between product creation and manufacturing to improve quality, speed, cost, manufacturability, and commercialization readiness while reducing late-stage redesign and unnecessary complexity.
- Leads Development’s contribution to product cost and gross-margin objectives, partnering cross-functionally to improve product economics through engineering, construction, materials, tooling, platforming, and complexity reduction.
- Ensures technical, manufacturing, and cost implications are understood early enough in product creation to support informed product and business decisions.
Fit, Validation, & Innovation
- Provides senior leadership for fit, wear testing, and product validation, ensuring consumer experience, product integrity, and performance standards are embedded throughout product creation.
- Ensures learnings from testing, quality, returns, consumer feedback, and previous seasons are incorporated into future product and development decisions.
- Partners with Innovation leadership to transition new concepts, technologies, materials, constructions, and manufacturing processes from prototype through validation, commercialization, and scale.
- Anticipates future development capability needs and recommends investments in talent, technology, systems, processes, equipment, and external partnerships.
Product Creation Operations & Continuous Improvement
- Partners with Product Operations to continuously improve the global product creation operating model, including seasonal calendars, decision gates, workflows, accountability, and communication.
- Establishes development KPIs and drives performance across product readiness, sample efficiency, cost and margin achievement, fit, testing, quality, commercialization, and organizational capacity.
- Uses data, business results, and post-season learning to identify systemic opportunities and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the global development organization.
- Ensures development teams maintain accurate, timely product and technical information in Centric and effectively use digital product creation tools to support decision-making and execution.
Cross-functional & Global Leadership
- Serves as a senior leader within the Global Product & Innovation organization, representing Development in key product, seasonal, strategic planning, and leadership discussions and contributing Development expertise to broader organizational priorities.
- Builds strong partnerships across Product Management, Design, Innovation, Color & Materials, Merchandising, Fan Insights, Product Operations, Sourcing, Costing, Engineering, Quality, regional teams, and manufacturing to align priorities, resolve complex issues, and deliver strong consumer, product, marketplace, and business outcomes.
Please note this job description is not designed to contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without cause.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's Degree in Product Development, Footwear Design, Engineering, Manufacturing, or related field required.
- Minimum ten (10) years of progressive footwear product development experience, including significant leadership responsibility across complex footwear programs and multiple product categories.
Any equivalent combination of experience and education which clearly indicates the ability to perform the essential functions of the position may substitute on a year for year basis.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
- Demonstrated experience leading and developing footwear development teams and other senior-level footwear professionals.
- Expert-level understanding of footwear construction, commercialization, pattern engineering, fit, materials, tooling, costing, testing, quality, and manufacturing.
- Deep understanding of the end-to-end footwear creation process from concept through commercialization and production.
- Demonstrated ability to partner effectively with global factories, sourcing organizations, engineers, designers, product managers, merchants, and business leaders.
- Strong commercial acumen with demonstrated understanding of product cost, margin, complexity, capacity, and development trade-offs.
- Proven ability to lead organizational and process change in a global, matrixed product organization.
- Demonstrated strategic planning, organizational leadership, and talent-development capabilities.
- Advanced written, verbal, facilitation, and presentation skills with the ability to communicate complex technical and business issues to all levels of the organization.
- Strong working knowledge of PLM systems and product creation data.
- Proficiency in Excel, PowerPoint, and Adobe Acrobat required. Adobe Illustrator and digital product-creation experience preferred.
- Ability to operate effectively in a fluid, fast-paced, highly collaborative global environment.
Travel Required: Yes, up to 30% of the time
Base Salary: $226,000 - $250,000
The salary range posted for this position represents the anticipated hiring range for this role. Offers are made within this range based on factors such as relevant experience, skills, education, internal equity, and market considerations. This is the hiring range for the position; compensation above the posted maximum is not typically available at the time of hire.
Work Location: Hybrid
This role is based in the Portland, OR area and follows a hybrid work model. Employees are expected to reside within a reasonable commuting distance of our Portland office and generally work on-site four days per week, with flexibility based on business and team needs.
Why Work at KEEN: Driven by a passion for life outside, KEEN is a values-led, independently owned brand from Portland, Oregon, that’s on a mission to create original and versatile products, improve lives, and inspire outside adventure. Founded in 2003, KEEN launched a revolution in the footwear industry with the introduction of the Newport adventure sandal and has donated more than $18 million to non-profit organizations and causes around the world to promote responsible outdoor recreation, including conservation efforts to protect open spaces. KEEN strives to show the world through its products and its actions that a business for good can actually be good for business. By giving back, reducing impact, and activating communities and individuals to protect the places where we work and play, KEEN puts its values in motion and takes action to leave the world a better place.
Fuerst Group, KEEN, and Chrome are equal opportunity employers. We value an inclusive and diverse community. Qualified candidates of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply and will be considered without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, or disability.
