Senior Lead - Footwear Development & Engineering

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In short You will work in a fast-paced environment that offers autonomy and opportunities for growth. As the Senior Lead – Laboratory for the Asia region, you will be instrumental in delivering world‑class laboratory operations aligned to global standards while driving localized execution, governance, and collaboration. You will act as the primary bridge between regional labs and the Zurich global lab leadership, ensuring consistency, data reliability, governance, and continuous improvement across all lab practices. You will champion standardization of processes, support local lab teams with training and operational excellence, and provide strategic input to enhance lab systems and reporting globally.   Your Mission * Global Guidelines & Local Roll‑Out: Lead implementation and roll‑out of global lab guidelines, procedures, and standards across all labs in the Asia region. Translate global requirements into clear, actionable local practices, ensuring alignment with both global expectations and local realities. * Collaboration & Leadership: Act as a strong partner to the Zurich Global Lab Lead offering timely feedback, actionable insights, and strategic input into the development and refinement of global lab frameworks. Drive cross‑functional collaboration product development, sourcing, quality, and compliance stakeholders to ensure integrated lab processes. Leading central lab team members to work collaboratively with operation lab specialists on driving to the same business direction. * Supplier Representation & Transparency: Serve as the regional point of transparency for laboratory expectations and requirements across Tier 1 and Tier 2 business partners. Ensure structured escalation of operational issues, capability gaps, and compliance risks to Zurich labs, while actively gathering and representing supplier feedback to drive continuous improvement and expansion of the global laboratory framework. * Governance & Standardization: Establish and maintain local governance structures aligned with global lab policies, ensuring consistent execution and adherence to standardized practices. Lead initiatives to eliminate regional variability and ensure reliable, repeatable methodology across labs. * Audits & Quality Assurance: Coordinate and conduct internal audits, capability assessments, and compliance checks to validate alignment to global guidelines and local governance expectations. Partner with global and regional quality teams to remediate findings, embed corrective actions, and drive compliance consistency. * Data Reliability & Reporting: Ensure integrity, accuracy, and traceability of lab data across regional facilities. Provide strategic recommendations and oversight for lab reporting systems, metrics tracking, and data governance frameworks, ensuring robust and trustworthy results. * Training & Local Support: Design and deliver training programs, workshops, and onboarding to upskill local lab teams — fostering adoption of global methods and improved efficiency. Serve as the primary regional resource for troubleshooting, best practice adoption, and capability building. * Systems Development & Continuous Improvement: Contribute to evolution of lab systems (PLM, data platforms), tools, and reporting dashboards with a focus on usability, accuracy, and operational efficiency. Identify process gaps and lead projects that improve automation, standardization, and lab output value. * Team Hiring & Leadership. You will build, grow, and lead a high‑performing lab team in Asia. This includes: Recruiting top talent and scaling the lab organization, Coaching, inspiring, and developing direct reports to deliver excellence, Setting team goals, fostering accountability, and driving a culture of learning and collaboration.   What success looks like:  * High level of efficiency and consistency across Asia labs in compliance, data quality, and execution of test methods. * Regional lab operations that are fully aligned with global guidelines, local governance obligations, and audit expectations. * Strong strategic partnership with the Zurich team, reflected in shared initiatives, process improvements, and operational efficiency gains. * Continuous uplift in regional lab capability, knowledge sharing, and adoption of standardized practices.   Your story * Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Science, Engineering, Materials, Chemistry, or related field (advanced degree preferred). * 10+ years of experience in laboratory leadership, quality systems, or testing operations within the textile/apparel/consumer product industries. * Proven experience in developing and implementing guidelines, governance frameworks, and standardized operating procedures. * Strong collaboration skills and experience working with global cross‑functional teams. * Demonstrated ability to drive improvement projects, audits, and compliance across complex environments. * Experience in lab data systems, reporting tools development and implementation. * Exceptional communication skills — capable of translating technical requirements into operational practices. * Strong analytical thinking, project management, and training delivery expertise. * Previous experience in global roll‑out of standards and lab governance highly desirable.   Meet the Team This role offers the opportunity to be at the forefront of harmonizing global lab excellence with regional execution — shaping consistent, high‑quality lab practices that support innovation, compliance, and product performance around the world.

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In short Based at our Zurich HQ, you will be the driving force behind delivering the most premium sports products in the industry, championing groundbreaking creation and fearlessly challenging traditional processes to achieve it. In this role, you will seamlessly connect the granular with the strategic—acting as a hands-on technical master of the details while serving as the high-level strategic consultant for On’s most critical category. By ensuring perfect alignment between design vision and manufacturing feasibility, you will set the standard for footwear creation. You will provide the technical governance, cross-functional leadership, and visionary support necessary to implement elite performance standards and protect product integrity. The Senior Lead Development role will report to the Head of Innovation Footwear, supporting the wider global footwear department. Please Read Before Applying: To ensure a smooth and efficient recruitment process, we kindly ask all applicants to submit their CV in English, as this is the working language of our company.   Your Mission * Technical Stewardship: Act as the primary technical advisor during the briefing and design phases to ensure performance running concepts are aligned with global manufacturing capabilities. * Strategic Synchronization: Facilitate technical alignment between Zurich-based Design/Product Management and the Asia-based execution teams, ensuring that the "performance soul" of the category is preserved across all franchises. * Process Enablement: Support the evolution of development standards by identifying technical bottlenecks and advising on best practices that improve category-wide efficiency. * Advisory & Escalation Support: Serve as the senior technical point of contact for Asia-based development partners, providing guidance on complex technical hurdles and supporting the resolution of high-level production escalations. * Performance Quality Assurance: Support the validation of fit, feel, and durability standards, ensuring that category-wide technical benchmarks are consistently met across different factory partners. * Knowledge Facilitation: Foster a culture of technical excellence by mentoring the broader development team and translating complex innovation breakthroughs into actionable development frameworks.   Your Story * Experience: 8–12+ years in footwear development. A background rooted in high-performance footwear and technical complexity is preferred.  * Passionate product builder: You love to build product that makes athletes better, obsessing over the details and the athlete. * Influential Leadership: Proven ability to influence product direction and technical outcomes through partnership and advisory, rather than direct line management or project ownership. * Systemic Thinking: A deep understanding of how performance tooling, materials, and construction impact the global supply chain and product lifecycle. * Collaborative Bridge: Exceptional at navigating HQ and regional dynamics, acting as a "technical translator" between creative vision and factory execution. * Strategic Judgment: Highly skilled at evaluating technical trade-offs and providing recommendations that balance innovation with commercial scalability. * Consultative Communication: A trusted voice capable of guiding stakeholders toward technically sound decisions while maintaining strong cross-functional relationships. Attributes of a successful candidate: * The Technical Advisor: You don't need to hold the pen on every tech pack, but you are the person everyone consults when a design pushes the boundaries of physics. * The Strategic Partner: You focus on the "how" and "why," ensuring the category’s technical roadmap is robust and scalable. * The Alignment Specialist: You thrive in the space between teams, ensuring that no technical detail is "lost in translation" between Zurich and our global manufacturing partners. * A clear communicator in English, both verbal and written.   Your Team   You will join the Zurich-based Footwear Development team, serving as a senior pillar of expertise. A high-performance collective of engineers, developers, and makers who serve as the technical heart of the brand. In Zurich, our team acts as the primary link between Biomechanical Research, Material Science, Design, and Sourcing, ensuring that every innovation is grounded in technical reality before it reaches the athlete. Our mission is to relentlessly elevate the performance and technical attributes of our footwear. We don't just facilitate product creation; we engineer the "ride." As part of the vertical, you will be surrounded by specialists who are obsessed with creating the best fitting, performing and desirable products in the market. We pride ourselves on a culture of technical rigor and "Swiss Engineering," where we challenge the status quo to solve the most complex biomechanical hurdles in the industry. Your role within this team is to ensure that as our category expands, our technical standards and the performance "soul" of our footwear remain uncompromised.

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SENIOR LEAD FOOTWEAR DEVELOPER  IN SHORT: As the Senior Lead Footwear Developer for Performance Running, you serve as the strategic technical consultant for our most critical product category. Based in our Zurich HQ, your role is to ensure high-level alignment between design intent and manufacturing feasibility. Rather than managing the granular execution of every product, you provide the technical governance and cross-functional support necessary to maintain performance integrity as the category scales. The Senior Lead Development role will report to the Senior Lead Run Footwear Development on the Performance Run team supporting global footwear.  YOUR MISSION: * Technical Stewardship: Act as the primary technical advisor during the briefing and design phases to ensure performance running concepts are aligned with global manufacturing capabilities. * Strategic Synchronization: Facilitate technical alignment between Zurich-based Design/Product Management and the Asia-based execution teams, ensuring that the "performance soul" of the category is preserved across all franchises. * Process Enablement: Support the evolution of development standards by identifying technical bottlenecks and advising on best practices that improve category-wide efficiency. * Advisory & Escalation Support: Serve as the senior technical point of contact for Asia-based development partners, providing guidance on complex technical hurdles and supporting the resolution of high-level production escalations. * Performance Quality Assurance: Support the validation of fit, feel, and durability standards, ensuring that category-wide technical benchmarks are consistently met across different factory partners. * Knowledge Facilitation: Foster a culture of technical excellence by mentoring the broader development team and translating complex innovation breakthroughs into actionable development frameworks.   YOUR STORY: * Experience: 8–12 years in footwear development, with a background rooted in high-performance running and technical complexity. * Influential Leadership: Proven ability to influence product direction and technical outcomes through partnership and advisory, rather than direct line management or project ownership. * Systemic Thinking: A deep understanding of how performance tooling, materials, and construction impact the global supply chain and product lifecycle. * Collaborative Bridge: Exceptional at navigating HQ and regional dynamics, acting as a "technical translator" between creative vision and factory execution. * Strategic Judgment: Highly skilled at evaluating technical trade-offs and providing recommendations that balance innovation with commercial scalability. * Consultative Communication: A trusted voice capable of guiding stakeholders toward technically sound decisions while maintaining strong cross-functional relationships.   ATTRIBUTES OF A SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATE:  * The Technical Advisor: You don't need to hold the pen on every tech pack, but you are the person everyone consults when a design pushes the boundaries of physics. * The Strategic Partner: You focus on the "how" and "why," ensuring the category’s technical roadmap is robust and scalable. * The Alignment Specialist: You thrive in the space between teams, ensuring that no technical detail is "lost in translation" between Zurich and our global manufacturing partners.   YOUR TEAM: You will join the Zurich-based Footwear Development team, serving as a senior pillar of expertise for the Performance Running category. A high-performance collective of engineers, developers, and makers who serve as the technical heart of the brand. In Zurich, our team acts as the primary link between Biomechanical Research, Material Science, Design, and Sourcing, ensuring that every innovation is grounded in technical reality before it reaches the athlete. Our mission is to relentlessly elevate the performance and technical attributes of our running footwear. We don't just facilitate product creation; we engineer the "ride." As part of the Performance Run vertical, you will be surrounded by specialists who are obsessed with creating the best fitting, performing and desirable running product in the market. We pride ourselves on a culture of technical rigor and "Swiss Engineering," where we challenge the status quo to solve the most complex biomechanical hurdles in the industry. Your role within this team is to ensure that as our category expands, our technical standards and the performance "soul" of our run footwear remain uncompromised. On is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to creating a work environment that is fair and inclusive, where all decisions related to recruitment, advancement, and retention are free of discrimination.