As Lead Footwear Product Developer, you act as the bridge between performance innovation and cultural relevance. You ensure that every product combines cutting-edge technologies with authentic lifestyle appeal — translating consumer-driven insights and design vision into market-ready footwear that defines the future of Dolomite. At the same time, you play a key role in building and empowering a world-class development team, fostering expertise, creativity, and collaboration across the organization.

What you’ll do:

• Drive the end-to-end development process from concept to final product, ensuring technical excellence, quality, and brand DNA alignment.
• Contribute ideas for product design, construction, materials, and components to enhance functionality, aesthetics, compliance, fit and product margin.
• Act as the hub between design, product management, operations, and factory partners, ensuring clear alignment on goals and deliverables.
• Source and validate advanced materials, constructions, and sustainable solutions that meet performance and aesthetic needs.
• Manage sampling and prototyping across all development phases (e.g. T1, T2, T3, T4, CFM samples) including wear-testing, and refinement cycles to guarantee comfort, performance, and consumer appeal.
• Review and confirm all bottom tooling blueprints prior to opening sample and production molds.
• Ensure timelines, cost targets, and quality standards are consistently achieved across multiple projects.
• Actively communicate with the product creation team during all phases of the development process, co-determining and executing the decision-making process that leads to on-time product sample delivery.
• Visit the production line on a regular basis with a focus on product quality and process improvement.
• Be responsible for ensuring that correct information is fed into the PLM system.
• Support team members with clear guidance, feedback, and opportunities for growth while driving accountability and excellence.

What you bring:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Product Development, Pattern Making, Manufacturing, or a related field.
• 7+ years of experience in footwear product development within performance, lifestyle, or sportstyle segments.
• Proven ability to work across both high-performance and lifestyle-focused projects.
• Deep understanding of lasts, tooling, cushioning systems, and upper constructions and outsoles.
• Knowledge of industry tooling processes, including 2D/3D CAD, proficient in Adobe Illustrator, strong knowledge of pattern engineering & mold making.
• Strong sense of market trends, consumer expectations, and cultural drivers shaping footwear today.
• Track record of managing cross-functional projects from concept to commercialization.
• Experience collaborating with factories and material suppliers across Asia and Europe.
• Strong organizational skills with proven ability to manage multiple seasonal projects.
• Consumer-centric mindset, with passion for innovation, performance, and lifestyle-driven products.
• Fluent in English; additional languages are an advantage.
• Willingness to travel internationally (up to 30%).