Senior Director, Concept Excellence Design

Become a Part of the NIKE, Inc. Team

NIKE, Inc. does more than outfit the world's best athletes. It is a place to explore potential, obliterate boundaries and push out the edges of what can be. The company looks for people who can grow, think, dream and create. Its culture thrives by embracing diversity and rewarding imagination. The brand seeks achievers, leaders and visionaries. At NIKE, Inc. it's about each person bringing skills and passion to a challenging and constantly evolving game.

NIKE, Inc. designs the future. At NIKE, Inc. designers chase their curiosities and build what's next, shaping the culture and advancing human potential. The Design teams include artists, inventors and specialists, all with different focuses, including color and material experts, and apparel, footwear and graphic designers. Nike designers look to the future, aggressively pursuing materials, ideas and forms that further elevate the athlete experience, raise the bar for modern style and reduce environmental impact.

Who we are looking for

We are looking for a Senior Director to join our Concept Excellence team in Nike Global Design. Concept Design is groundbreaking in defining the future of Nike, bridging the worlds of emerging innovation, athlete insights, product design, and brand storytelling to develop the ideas that will define the brand! Concept Excellence is the creative function that ideates, illustrates, and shepherds Nike's key initiatives to athletes around the world. This Senior Director leads this process, across all consumers and all functions. Candidates for this role must be collaborative, imaginative, and tactical, as they will turn creative strategy and big ideas into visual art direction and storytelling to influence the Nike organization. They should have creative leadership experience that will not only unite multiple design teams but also bring in brand, product and marketplace teams together to bring the creative vision into life as intended.

This Senior Director is both an outstanding leader and a collaborative teammate, focused on both creating concepts and building the materials and experiences to bring them to life, alongside their cross-functional teammates. They are experienced creative leaders and can work across mediums including strategy, art direction, moving image, graphic and spatial design. They have a passion for creativity and are committed to staying on top of current and future trends in design, creative culture and technology!

As a candidate for this role, you have passion for creative leadership, collaborative energy, and the ability to assimilate a range of cultural, athlete, and business insights into creative strategy, brand identity, and world-building that activate the Nike organization around your idea. You are truly a multi-faceted creative who loves both the blue sky thinking and crafting all the materials that will bring that idea to life, from creative strategy art direction to graphic design to styling and marketing storytelling.

What you will work on

As Senior Director your job is build Nike worlds. You'll be working directly with the Concept Excellence Team, Field of play concept teams as well as product design leaders, consumer insights and brand business leaders to see opportunities, build ideas, visual identities and craft how those ideas can connect with athletes around the world. You will be working closely with the innovation and brand teams to shepherd a concept from creation to delivery, building the world around the product(s) and making sure it is delivered to the consumer as planned. Your primary focus will be Brand Concepts which are the highest-level concepts that define the Nike creatively, strategically and financially. Your vision will have a huge impact on the future of the brand.

A given day can consist of big brainstorms, photoshoots, inspiration travel, meeting with agency partners, gathering athlete insights, or pitching your big idea to Nike leadership. Along with your team, you will concept the ideas themselves and deploy your combination of strategy, creative direction, art direction and world building to illustrate those ideas for the organization.

Who you will work with

The Senior Director reports to the VP, Concept, leads Concept Designers and works with the Creative Concept Stylists. In day-to-day, the Senior Director collaborates with Product Innovation, Product Design, Product Merchandising, the GMs of all categories, and Brand Marketing counterparts. As this is a cross-consumer role, you will get to work with all teams in all fields of plays at different times. This is easily one the most social roles at Nike.

What you will bring

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Design or related field or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• At least 12 years professional experience in design, within product or marketing, brand or agency.
• A passion for the Athlete*, Sport* and Culture.
• Expertise in all aspects of visual design
• Experience in creative strategy and narrative.
• Experience managing other creatives as direct reports.
• Solid portfolio of relevant work, displaying a passion for inspirational storytelling, photo art direction, brand identity, and world building.
• Excellent verbal and visual communication skills; adept at presenting and defending creative ideas.
• Ability to take calculated risks to lead the brand into new territories
• Ability to work on multiple projects at all times
• Ability to envision concepts that will define the future of Nike
• Ability to communicate this vision to all partners, fuel their energy and realize the vision.
• Ability to lead and manage external/internal creative partners.
• Ability to manage expectations within different functions, become a central point of contact in concept delivery.
• Ability to orchestrate creative collaboration across a network of creative studios.
• A positive mentality with proven ability to flex and adapt to changing business needs while maintaining creative quality.
• Laser-sharp focus to work quickly and efficiently under pressure.
• Strong interpersonal resourcefulness with the ability to cultivate cross-functional partnerships and an open, positive and collaborative environment.
• Highly developed curiosity and in-depth understanding of design culture and youth culture, current and past.

NIKE, Inc. is a growth company that looks for team members to grow with it. Nike offers a generous total rewards package, casual work environment, a diverse and inclusive culture, and an electric atmosphere for professional development. No matter the location, or the role, every Nike employee shares one galvanizing mission: To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world.

NIKE, Inc. is committed to employing a diverse workforce. Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, or disability.

Benefits

Whether it's transportation or financial health, we continually invest in our employees to help them achieve greatness - inside and outside of work. All who work here should be able to realize their full potential.