Director, Innovation - Acceleration

At Deckers Brands, Together, Every Step is a promise kept that every employee can bring their authentic self, is valued and supported, as a whole person, at work and beyond. Together, Every Step is how we continue to deliver exceptional business results, experience an amazing place to work, and have a positive impact on the communities and world around us.

Job Title: Director, Innovation

• Acceleration

Reports to: VP, Innovation

Location: Goleta, CA

The Role

The Director, Innovation Acceleration is an Innovator/Developer/Tinkerer/and Creator. Acceleration is about developing new ideas into products and getting innovation products and technologies to the market launch rapidly. This person partners with the VP of Deckers Innovation and Product leaders across all the brands in the Deckers portfolio, playing a meaningful role in owning the strategy, planning, and operational activities of the Innovation team in service of the end-to-end product creation process. This person should be both creative and detail oriented, with the ability to accelerate new ideas and technologies into products. This role will serve as project director, acting as the Deckers Innovation liaison to coordinate with cross-functional partners across brands and to collaborate and coordinate product and technology handoffs to commercialization and launch. The right candidate will have a passion for communication, collaboration, and a strong bias towards action. We're looking for an extraordinary leader who can create new paradigms to get consumer focused, science backed technologies and products rapidly to market.

We celebrate diversity--of your background, your experiences and your unique identity. We are committed to ensuring an inclusive and equitable workplace where all of our employees can Come as They Are. We believe that when we bring our different perspectives to work, we are truly Better Together.

Your Impact

• Supports the development of product concepts and project concepts to support global innovation initiatives with a focus on building scalable technologies and platforms

• Lead the company in identifying, developing, and commercializing new material, construction, and product innovations for our portfolio of brands.

• Leverages a global team of internal and external resources which identify, utilize, and nurture new concepts, materials, techniques, designs, machinery, processes, intellectual property, partnerships, and/or other exclusive opportunities to advance the level of product innovation.

• Directly manages assigned projects, end-to-end, leveraging internal and external resources including designers, developers, partners, and working closely with other members of Deckers and Brand Innovation teams.

• Ensures timing, quality of work, cost control, and traceability of innovation project via effective project management and organizational skills.

• Helps ensure the most impactful product innovation hand-offs successfully from the Innovation group to inline teams for commercialization through objective prioritization process and regular cadence of integration meetings with product leadership team.

• Ensures best practice methodology and that new products are thoroughly tested before introduction.

• Provide brands with all the needed technical information to take inspiration from a concept / prototype and bring it to market.

• Optimizes resources to execute vision, effective prototypes, and timing, while keeping healthy working relationships strong and intact.

Who You Are

• Persuasive communicator with proven negotiation and influencing skills; easily adapts to needs of different audiences

• Ability to lead by gaining followers

• Experience working effectively in complex global organizations, satisfying the needs of diverse constituents, and often working under the pressure of competing and sometimes conflicting priorities.

• Collaborates and builds relationships across the organization to achieve shared goals.

• Brings cross-functional partners together and supports decisions as if they are their own.

• Bring curiosity, obsession, and focus to product's function, fit, form, feel and serve the "why" from the perspective of the consumer.

We'd love to hear from people with

• Bachelor's or master's degree or equivalent experience; Science- or Engineering-based preferred

• 12+ years consumer product development experience, including some in footwear and apparel

• Experience successfully managing projects and project teams

• 5+ years leading a product development team at varying levels of experience; Experience successfully coaching, developing, and mentoring a team

• Global experience with working with Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 vendors, material suppliers, and research centers

• Experience in effectively and efficiently accelerating innovation projects

• Proven experience analyzing and translating market and athlete needs to optimize and inform product creation.

• Experience with Design for Manufacture, Rapid prototyping, Experimental Design

• Experience with Tech packages, Mold Design, Patterns, Blueprints, Bills of Materials, and PLM software

What We'll Give You

• Competitive Pay and Bonuses

• We've created a variety of competitive compensation programs to foster career development, reward success and to show our employees just how much they're valued.

• Financial Planning and wellbeing

• No matter what financial goals our employees have set, we want to help them get there. Our plans provide powerful ways to protect income, pay for expenses and invest in the future.

• Time away from work

• Sometimes we need time away to be with family, focus on our health or just simply recharge. Our plans support our employees' needs to get out, get healthy and come back stronger than ever.

• Extras, discounts and perks

• Being a valued member of the Deckers Brands team means more than just a paycheck. From generous discounts to community-based programs, we offer a variety of cool extras

• Growth and Development

• Deckers Brands was built on the idea of pursuing passion. That's why we offer extensive opportunities and support for personal and professional development.

• Health and Wellness

• There's nothing basic about our comprehensive health and wellness programs and offerings. While at work and at play, we aim to support a healthy lifestyle.

$200,000 - $215,000

The salary range posted reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for this role in our Goleta, CA location. Individual pay will be determined by location and additional factors, including job related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary for your preferred location during the hiring process.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Diversity and inclusion are key to our success. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer and our employees are people with different strengths, experiences and backgrounds who share a passion for our brands. We welcome qualified applicants regardless of their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, military or veteran status, mental or physical disability, medical condition and all of the other beautiful parts of your identity.

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