Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:
We’ll never launch a product unless we consider it perfect. Our product development teams create every shirt, every shoe and every piece of equipment for thousands of athletes and fashion lovers as if it was one of a kind. And it truly is, as they weave their passion into every single product. But translating designs, drawings and renderings into real products requires a lot of decision making.
As Senior Technical Engineer Footwear - Tooling you are a key contributor in the footwear product development process by steering the footwear engineering, providing technical consultancy, and pushing highest performance limits for innovative and/or technical advanced products and/or processes. You will work in strong partnership with footwear developers, technicians, digital experts, material experts as well as cross-functional stakeholders.
Key Responsibilities:
- Act as an experienced technical consultant to cross functional product creation teams by analyzing designs for manufacturability, production efficiencies, potential functional or quality and costing issues and offer alternative, economic and efficient solutions.
- Own the tooling creation process by initiating and driving the conversation of design information into a confirmed set of technical data and leading creation of tooling prototyping.
- Organize and supervise the creation of technical information in collaboration with Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 resources and if applicable adidas employees at the operational center.
- Offer enhanced technical solutions to the product team taking into consideration functional requirements of products, adidas quality standards, target costs and manufacturing constraints.
- Guide the innovative manufacturing process to ensure feasibility and proof of concept.
- Lead project review meetings with key stakeholders to ensure that each shoe is engineered and constructed to meet adidas quality standards, functional requirements and potential cost opportunities are identified and executed.
- Put the consumer in the center of everything you do and inspire our product creation teams through technical solutions enhancing product sustainability, concept credibility and consumer experience.
- Consult (digital) and support creator team on design concepts into technical solutions and manufacturable products.
- Support and guide junior team members within own team.
- Mentor new employees in technical product development by teaching them about adidas specific technical standards, processes and systems related to the tech package creation.
- Increase the speed and efficiency of processes within the team by identifying and eliminating nonvalue adding steps.
- Oversee the E2E process and identify improvements considering technical aspects BU related.
- Constantly challenge the status-quo of existing tools and processes and provide solutions meeting the requirements of cross-functional internal parties.
- Continuously refresh your knowledge regarding latest technology trends in the field of footwear, engineering systems, prototyping possibilities, and footwear manufacturing.
- Optional: Embrace state of the art digital tools and drive efficient decision making through the magics of virtual reality.
Key Relationships:
- Product Development
- Design
- Marketing
- Materials Team
- Innovation Team
- Product Testing
- Digital Creator Team
- Liaison Offices and supply partners (Tier 1/2/3)
- Concept Excellence
- Costing
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
- Advanced knowledge in mold making and/or shoe making
- Progressive work experience 2D and 3D CAD application, Rhino preferred
- Knowledge of Adobe Illustrator and/or Adobe Photoshop; Microsoft 365
- English language proficiency required (reading and writing); German is an advantage
- Knowledge of current trends in footwear technology; design is an advantage
- Knowledge of technical analytics, digital 2D engineering and 3D modeling, anatomical knowledge is an advantage
- Enhanced knowledge in Materials, compounds Technologies and manufacturing process
- Well organized team player who feels comfortable communicating in an international and diverse environment and work in a fast-changing footwear world
- Continuous learning/growth mindset
Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications:
1. Degree as a mold maker, mold constructor, shoemaker, or technical/engineering degree (e.g. mechanical engineer) or comparable education
2. At least 4 years of work experience with focus on mold making, sho