Lead Designer, Speed Apparel Color Design, Global Jordan

Nike; Beaverton (OR); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Nike's Jordan division seeks a Lead Apparel Color Designer to craft color direction across focused opportunities, from mood boards to product specifications. You will partner with cross-functional teams—design, product management, merchandising, and development—to translate consumer, cultural, and sport insights into distinctive color stories for apparel.

You are a hands-on, collaborative designer who thrives in ambiguity, champions craft, and communicates clearly with senior stakeholders while

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Design or related field.
• Minimum 4–6 years of technically challenging color design experience in apparel, sport, footwear, or consumer product.
• Advanced understanding of color theory, palette building, color mixing, compatibility, placement, and application across apparel collections.
• Strong knowledge of apparel design and development processes, including materials, trims, graphics, print, and product construction.
• Ability to translate consumer, cultural, sport, competitive, and marketplace insights into original color concepts and product stories.
• Experience creating high-quality color mood boards, seasonal narratives, presentation tools, and detailed color specifications.
• Strong visual, verbal, and written communication skills, with the ability to present creative direction to diverse and senior audiences.

Responsibilities

• Develop original color palettes, color narratives, and product-specific color solutions that connect to the Jordan consumer and strengthen the overall product expression.
• Apply color across apparel line art and product concepts with precision, balancing storytelling, commercial relevance, and design intent.
• Research and synthesize consumer behavior, cultural signals, sport insights, market trends, competitive products, materials, and color direction.
• Partner with designers across disciplines to explore, make, test, learn, and refine ideas quickly while protecting product quality and craft.
• Translate broad or ambiguous opportunities into clear creative briefs, visual direction, and actionable product recommendations.
• Build compelling presentations, mood boards, prototypes, and storytelling tools that help teams evaluate possibilities and make informed decisions.
• Collaborate with Product Management, Merchandising, Development, and Innovation partners to ensure creative solutions are relevant, feasible, and executable.
• Contribute color expertise beyond a single category or project, sharing learning and helping strengthen future ways of working.
• Manage multiple workstreams and communicate progress, decisions, risks, and required inputs with clarity.
• Deliver exceptional product at pace. The speed of the process should never lower the standard of the outcome.

Skills

Color theory

Palette building

Color mixing

Color placement

Cross-functional collaboration

Storytelling

Education

Bachelor's degree in Design

Job description

This role brings color design, creative problem-solving, and exceptional product craft to focused, high-priority opportunities across Jordan apparel.

WHO YOU'LL WORK WITH

You will report to the Senior Director, Speed Design, Global Jordan and collaborate closely with a multidisciplinary design team across apparel, footwear, color, materials, graphics, print, and digital design. You will also partner with Product Management, Merchandising, Color/Material/Trim Development, Technical Development, Innovation, and other cross-functional teams to turn opportunities into compelling product solutions.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We are looking for a Lead Apparel Color Designer who combines strong color expertise with curiosity, adaptability, and a highly collaborative approach. You can move confidently through ambiguity, frame the creative challenge, and translate consumer, cultural, sport, and marketplace insights into clear color direction and exceptional product.

You are a hands-on designer and strategic thinker who can shift between exploration and execution. You build strong narratives, invite diverse perspectives early, challenge ideas constructively, and align teams around a focused creative direction. You bring urgency without compromising craft, quality, or the integrity of the final product.

WHAT YOU BRING

• Bachelor's degree in Design or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education, experience, and training.
• Minimum 4-6 years of technically challenging color design experience, preferably within apparel, sport, footwear, or consumer product.
• Advanced understanding of color theory, palette building, color mixing, compatibility, placement, and application across apparel collections.
• Strong knowledge of apparel design and development processes, including materials, trims, graphics, print, and product construction.
• Ability to translate consumer, cultural, sport, competitive, and marketplace insights into original color concepts and product stories.
• Experience creating high-quality color mood boards, seasonal narratives, presentation tools, and detailed color specifications.
• Strong visual, verbal, and written communication skills, with the ability to present creative direction to diverse and senior audiences.
• Ability to identify the core creative problem, develop focused responses, work independently, and know when to engage or elevate partners.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate across disciplines, influence without authority, and use internal and external resources effectively.
• Comfort working across changing priorities, accelerated timelines, and new or undefined spaces while maintaining attention to detail.
• A deep passion for sport, culture, design, and the Jordan consumer.

**TO BE CONSIDERED FOR THIS ROLE, PLEASE SUBMIT A COLOR FOCUSED PORTFOLIO (PDF OR URL WITH PASSWORD PROVIDED IF APPLICABLE)**

WHAT YOU'LL WORK ON

As the Lead Designer for Speed Apparel Color Design, you will create and execute color direction for focused opportunities that benefit from concentrated, cross-functional collaboration. The work may range from unlocking a high-impact product opportunity to exploring an emerging consumer or cultural signal, translating innovation into product, or testing a new creative approach.

• Develop original color palettes, color narratives, and product-specific color solutions that connect to the Jordan consumer and strengthen the overall product expression.
• Apply color across apparel line art and product concepts with precision, balancing storytelling, commercial relevance, and design intent.
• Research and synthesize consumer behavior, cultural signals, sport insights, market trends, competitive products, materials, and color direction.
• Partner with designers across disciplines to explore, make, test, learn, and refine ideas quickly while protecting product quality and craft.
• Translate broad or ambiguous opportunities into clear creative briefs, visual direction, and actionable product recommendations.
• Build compelling presentations, mood boards, prototypes, and storytelling tools that help teams evaluate possibilities and make informed decisions.
• Collaborate with Product Management, Merchandising, Development, and Innovation partners to ensure creative solutions are relevant, feasible, and executable.
• Contribute color expertise beyond a single category or project, sharing learning and helping strengthen future ways of working.
• Manage multiple workstreams and communicate progress, decisions, risks, and required inputs with clarity.
• Deliver exceptional product at pace. The speed of the process should never lower the standard of the outcome.

HOW YOU WILL SHOW UP

• Collaborate first: seek diverse perspectives, understand what others bring, and prioritize the strongest collective outcome.
• Lead with curiosity: ask questions, learn before judging, and remain open to new tools, methods, and points of view.
• Debate constructively: challenge ideas directly and respectfully, surface concerns early, and help the team move toward clarity.
• Commit together: once a direction is chosen, align behind it, support teammates, learn from outcomes, and keep moving.
• Obsess craft: move with urgency while holding a high bar for detail, storytelling, and product excellence.

SUCCESS IN THIS ROLE

Success means delivering distinctive, consumer-relevant color solutions; helping multidisciplinary teams reach clarity faster; turning insights and emerging possibilities into tangible product direction; and leaving behind useful learning that strengthens future work.

We offer a number of accommodations to complete our interview process including screen readers, sign language interpreters, accessible and single location for in-person interviews, closed captioning, and other reasonable modifications as needed. If you discover, as you navigate our application process, that you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please complete the Candidate Accommodation Request Form.