Senior Manager, Footwear Product Line Management

Job Requirements

As the Senior Manager, Footwear Product Line Management at Brooks, you will lead the PLM team in defining, driving, and delivering the future of Brooks Footwear in our performance running product. You will work with the Vice President of Product Strategy and your co- Sr Mgr, Footwear PLM, to bring strategic clarity and understanding to the wider PLM team.

You will play a key role in helping to shape the footwear vision, seasonal execution and longer-term strategy to meet the needs and wants of the consumer and the marketplace. Brand strategy, enterprise business goals and key markets globally halo this footwear vision, which you will co-lead with a Senior Manager, PLM counterpart. You will help ensure product line architecture reflects a thoughtful product strategy and a empower product teams in delivering a distinct Brooks point of view to runners.

You will oversee and elevate PLM capability, building trust and confidence in the function as the voice of the consumer, finding creative ways to build connection and understanding in running culture, globally.

Strategic Planning and Execution

• You will contribute to and execute against the 5-year footwear strategy to achieve business goals and win with runners
• Drive long-term planning with Footwear Leadership to build teams, frameworks and systems that best support key initiatives, programs, and projects.
• Develop Product Line Management strategy that aligns with organizational priorities, facilitating the organization's business objectives, and ensuring senior stakeholder buy-in.
• Understand the company business strategy and work to translate into a 1 to 3 year strategy for Product Line Management into functional plans; guide and manage this execution.
  
  

Product Line Leadership

• Lead your teams in representing the voice and face of our products internally and externally, providing thought leadership and clear messaging to the market.
• Oversee and manage the teams’ execution of seasonal product briefs. Ensure briefs provide Design and Development/R&D with aspirational and visionary consumer truths and marketplace cues that generate product goals.
• Lead a team that fosters conviction, trust and story-telling that motivates, inspires and drives design and development in the product creation process.
• Ensure your teams partner closely with Footwear Operations & Costing to establish line costing hygiene and deliver each season within the aligned margin targets.
• Monitor sell-in, sell-through, market acceptance and postmortem learnings to guide the transition of technology into in-line programs and inform next-generation technology needs.
  
  

Cross-Functional Influence and Alignment

• Partner with co-leaders in Merchandising and Product Marketing to be upstream on the vision, strategy, and impactful GTM mechanisms around the world.
• Partner with cross-functional leaders in the pre-season process to ensure seasonal design language, material toolkits and advanced industrial vision will transition to inline work with thoughtful line strategy and clear briefs.
• Act as a proactive business partner, build trusted relationships with other leaders at Product Creation, and lead or support cross-functional projects as needed.
• Lead key milestone gates and product reviews to achieve global alignment on direction.
• Work closely with Footwear Merchandising leadership to evaluate market readiness and ensure that product direction accounts for key consumer and market feedback.
• Work to interpret S/T data to receive feedback and give confidence in the line direction.
• Work closely with marketing partners to ensure that the product vision is properly supported by messaging and product marketing strategies to the consumer
  
  

Consumer Insights & Strategic Problem Solving

• Champion a consumer-first approach, deeply understanding runner unmet needs across performance levels to envision the future of running.
• Lead and synthesize consumer research, athlete insights, and marketplace intelligence into action opportunities.
• Find meaningful ways to bring the triad into this understanding and the culture of running.
  
  

Accountability

• Lead the development and management of the annual department budget with the support of the VP, Footwear Product Strategy
• Demonstrate extreme enterprise accountability in managing Footwear Product Line Management across the globe.
• Apply Brooks requirements around budget planning and capex documentation to garner resources necessary to evolve the team to meet business objectives.
  
  

People Leadership

• Promote Brooks’ Core Cultural Values: Responsible for team culture and keep a pulse on morale to
• proactively address any concerns.
• Partner with the co-Senior Manager, Product Line Management and the VP of Product Strategy to shape organizational design that aligns with business strategy and evolving conditions.
• Foster an inclusive environment that empowers every individual to contribute fully.
• Provide career-development planning, coaching, training, and support teams to create and foster a culture of learning, personal development, curiosity, and innovation.
  
  

Work Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Industrial Design, or related field; equivalent combination of education and years of experience can be considered in lieu of degree(s)
• 10+ years of experience leading the creation of cutting-edge, high-performance footwear, innovation technology projects. High-level Project Line Management preferred
• Proven success of building action plans and leading teams to execute against them across complex projects & multiple functions
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, with an advanced ability to communicate new ideas, concepts and functional expertise within project teams and to external stakeholders
• Excellent interpersonal skills that inspire and build trust resulting in effective working relationships across the company.
• Keen attention to detail in planning, organization and execution of tasks (self and others), while still seeing the big picture and understanding how all the pieces fit together and affect one another.
• Ability to anticipate how a decision made can affect our customers, our partners, our products or
• other departments’ operations and/or morale; “connecting the dots.”
• Demonstrates strong presentation skills. Able to captivate an audience, simplify complexity, and inspire internal and external audiences to embrace the future.
• Demonstration of innovation and initiative – Curious and open minded: always open for a challenge. Ability to challenge the status quo – always looking at improving our products and processes while also displaying a willingness to dive into the details.
• Proven ability to lead and influence in collaborative, team-oriented, and complex global environment. International and domestic travel as required to achieve a high level of product and technology development, including visits to manufacturing facilities, R&D partners, retail stores and consumers to assist in the creation, development, commercialization and integration of our products.
• Must be able to work virtually across multiple time zones
• Passionate participation in Brooks’ sports activities a plus, overridden by the ability to understand and empathize with the runner to develop loyal, engaging relationships with our customers and the Brooks community.
• Unwavering demonstration of Brooks’ corporate values: Serve People; Lead Thought; Compete as a
• Team; Have Integrity; Be Active; Have Fun!
• Embraces and lives the Brooks values
  
  

Benefits

Brooks is proud to offer a robust benefits package to our employees and their families!

• Benefits- including medical, dental, vision, life and AD&D insurance, disability insurance, HSA and employer contribution, FSA, family & fertility assistance, 401K Savings Plan and match, employee assistance program, and transportation assistance.
• Paid Time Off- Brooks offers generous time off including five weeks of paid time off, eleven paid holidays, paid sick and parental leave.
• Bonus- in addition to base pay, Brooks employees may also be offered an annual bonus based on company performance.
• Perks- including product discounts, employee recognition, fitness discounts, volunteer and donation benefits.
• Location- You will spend 4 days per week in our Seattle offices, as we believe our organization flourishes when connections, collaboration, creativity, problem-solving, and celebrations happen in person.
  
  

Compensation: The pay range for this position, based out of the Brooks Seattle HQ, is $156,749 - $250,798 per year. Base pay offered will vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.