Materials Developer ll, Kids Footwear

Nike; Beaverton (OR); On-site; USD 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Nike is seeking a Materials Developer for its Kids Footwear Materials Development team. The role collaborates with footwear teams, vendors, and cross-functional partners to define material direction, ensure on-time delivery, and deliver products that balance athlete needs with business goals.

Responsibilities include turning design briefs into tangible 3D samples, supporting material selection across products, and driving sustainable material solutions while meeting project milestones and cost

Qualifications

• Excellent communication and influencing skills to interact with leadership and cross-functional teams.
• Strong data analysis capabilities to support material decisions and outcomes.
• Understanding of footwear materials such as fibers, yarns, textiles, leathers, and trims is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Drive material creation, sourcing, costing, quality, and sustainable implementation for Kids Footwear.
• Convert briefs from 2D design renderings into 3D samples balancing athlete and business needs.
• Coordinate with cross-functional teams to ensure projects meet critical dates, design intent, and performance goals.
• Prepare projects for commercialization and scalability for manufacturing.

Skills

Communication

Influencing

Data analysis

Education

Bachelors degree

Job description

WHO YOU'LL WORK WITH

As a Materials Developer, you will collaborate with cross-functional footwear teams, material vendors, and other key functions to establish seasonal material direction, attain on-time delivery, and ensure product excellence for athletes & consumers. You'll serve as the primary contact for material vendors as it relates to category specific issues (price, technical specs, performance standards, material lead time, etc.). You will also collaborate with the innovation team to scale and deliver relevant ideas to market.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We are seeking a Materials Developer with strong technical expertise to help deliver product excellence across Nike Kids Footwear. In this role, you will provide tools, guidance, and data analysis across multiple material types to support effective material selection across a wide range of Kids products. You will clearly present facts and solutions-balancing athlete's needs and business priorities-to help cross-functional teams make informed decisions.

Bachelor's Degree in Materials, Chemistry, Product Development or Product Engineering, Manufacturing, Industrial Design or equivalent combination of education, experience or training

Minimum of 2 years directly applicable work experience

High communication and influencing skills, including the ability to interact with leadership and cross-functional product creation team members

Knowledge of footwear material types including fibers, yarns, textiles, leathers, synthetic leathers, components or trims, manufacturing technologies and equipment, tooling, and materials is highly preferred

Ability to interpret design intent and offer alternative solutions

WHAT YOU'LL WORK ON

As a member of the Kids Footwear Materials Development team, you are responsible for driving functional excellence with a sharp focus on materials creation, sourcing, costing, quality, and implementation of sustainable solutions.

You will work on complex footwear projects and be responsible for converting project briefs from a 2D design rendering into a 3D sample that balances the needs of the athlete and the needs of the business.

You will engage in all phases of the product creation process to ensure projects are managed according to critical dates and completed on time, while meeting design intent, quality & performance standards, margin targets, and sustainability goals.

You will ensure that your projects are ready for commercialization and can ultimately be scaled for manufacturing.

You will build toolkits and material palettes to help optimize material choice.

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 .