Senior Director, Design - Advanced Concept

Arc'teryx Equipment

North Vancouver

On-site

CAD 181,000 - 249,000

Full time

14 days+

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Job summary

Join a forward-thinking company as a Senior Director of Advanced Concepts Design, where your leadership will shape innovative solutions for mountain athletes. You will guide a talented team in developing breakthrough designs and technologies, ensuring that Arc'teryx remains a leader in the outdoor industry. This role emphasizes collaboration, creativity, and a passion for outdoor activities, making it a perfect fit for those who thrive in dynamic environments. With a focus on sustainability and performance, you will play a key role in crafting the future of outdoor apparel and equipment. Embrace this opportunity to make a significant impact in a vibrant and challenging field.

Qualifications

12+ years in technical apparel design and R&D, with 7+ years in leadership.
Proven experience in mentoring teams and fostering innovation.

Responsibilities

Drive strategic vision for design and lead a technical team.
Oversee advanced concepts in footwear, apparel, and materials.

Skills

Leadership

Technical Apparel Knowledge

Communication Skills

Problem Solving

Innovation Mindset

Education

Degree in Apparel Design

Degree in Industrial Design

Degree in Textile Engineering

Job description

Senior Director, Design - Advanced Concept

3 days ago Be among the first 25 applicants

This range is provided by Arc'teryx Equipment. Your actual pay will be based on your skills and experience — talk with your recruiter to learn more.

Base pay range

CA$181,000.00/yr - CA$249,000.00/yr

Your opportunity at ARC’TERYX:

As the Senior Director, Advanced Concepts Design, you drive the strategic vision for the Design group and lead a highly technical interdisciplinary group of forward-thinking designers, developers and experts who deliver tangible solutions for the mountain athlete everywhere. Under your leadership, your team identifies and develops advanced product concepts and technologies, across all product categories, with a focus on a range of projects from two years out from launch to highly conceptual projects well into the future. Your deep understanding of design, engineering, materials and production drives focused and relevant technical problem solving through a consistent flow of projects. You are a business leader with a passion for delivering industry-shaping solutions to establish and maintain Arc’teryx’ position as a disruptive, bold and relevant design brand.

This role is based out of our North Vancouver office and is expected to be performed on-site.

Meet Your Future Team:

The Advanced Concepts team drives breakthrough innovation in snow, trail and climb for the mountain athlete everywhere. Fueled by curiosity, we take a holistic approach to identifying future needs and tangible solutions across advanced materials, products, technologies, and experiences. We are a team of builders, problem solvers and outdoor enthusiasts. Our in-house, end-to-end capabilities in research, engineering, design, development, digital experience and product validation allow us to innovate head-to-toe solutions that bring the coast mountain experience to the world. Our unique methodology, mindset of sustainability, and fanatic passion for product are at the heart of what we do.

If you were in the Senior Director of Advanced Concepts role now, here are some of the core activities you would be doing:

Building, coaching, and guiding a high-performing Design team, enabling them to deliver advanced Research & Development (R&D) concepts and solutions in alignment with our future vision
Overseeing Advanced Concepts Design and the design activities in footwear, apparel, technology innovation, materials, future vision and our professional line
Building the Advanced Concepts roadmap to ensure that design has a pipeline of proven innovation concepts to feed into the line, across all product categories
Overseeing design for professional category (including search & rescue, guides, special forces, etc.) driving pinnacle product solutions while applying learnings to the inline product offering
Driving key projects to support the future of Arc’teryx, with a focus on product circularity
Managing and sharing updates to key stakeholders on a portfolio of complexes; short, mid and long-term projects across categories
Driving innovation proof-of-concepts through partnership with internal and external materials, engineering, tooling and testing teams
Collaborating with inline Design and Merchandising leadership to drive and align innovation solutions that deliver against our vision
Creating strategic R&D research partnerships with companies, individuals and academics to evolve product innovation
Collaborating with the Supply Chain and factory production Engineering teams to ensure all production partners can support and execute advanced construction technology, tooling and workflow
Ensuring that all R&D concepts achieve a state of risk-reduced readiness prior to go-to-launch style development
Ensuring your team maintains current industry technology and equipment knowledge through education and hands-on experience
Acting as a key member of the Arc’teryx design leadership team and participate in broader organizational strategy and planning
Staying at the forefront of trends and insights for the activities and categories we build for, ensuring we are creating relevant products and solutions
Partnering with AC Leadership to maintain a robust IP portfolio, proprietary solutions and exclusivity on various materials and technologies
Supporting in compilation of project scope, activities, and expenditures of projects deemed eligible for submission to funding programs (SR&ED, IRAP, NRC, MITACS, and so forth)

Here are some of the things you could be working on in the future:

Partnering with Creative leadership teams to build out a 5-year roadmap of advanced concepts materials strategy, special projects and partnerships
Expanding the scope and depth of exploration across new categories and strategic areas of investment for the business

Are you our next Senior Director, Advanced Concepts?

You have a Degree in Apparel Design, Industrial Design or Textile Engineering, or the equivalent experience
You have 12+ years’ experience in a technical apparel and/or performance hardgoods design, production, and/or R&D environment, with 7+ years’ experience leading a team
You have proven experience in leading and mentoring a team, with a strong ability to build a mindset and culture of innovation within your team and beyond
You have excellent knowledge of outdoor technical apparel, footwear and equipment, including materials, construction techniques, performance characteristics, manufacturing and tooling
You have exceptional communication skills, including a proven ability to communicate findings to both scientists and nonscientists with strong presentation skills
You have a keen interest in technical product and its application to a variety of outdoor activities
You have the ability to travel internationally as required
You are proactive in identifying the root cause of issues, seeking the best (sometimes not the easiest) solutions with an unwavering commitment to do what is right
You remain highly flexible and adaptable when faced with ambiguity
You effectively balance autonomy and collaboration
You inspire breakthrough thinking and continuous improvement
Your passion for your work is paralleled by your passion for getting outside and living it

A reasonable estimate of the pay range is CAD $181,000 - CAD $249,000 at the time of this posting. Within the range, individual pay is determined by factors such as job-related skills, relevant experience, education and/or training.

Please note that the range details above reflect the base pay only and does not include our competitive bonus program and benefits that we offer

Seniority level