As a Lead Footwear Developer for Performance Trail, you will own the technical realization and process management of On’s most rugged off-road products. You will manage the entire development lifecycle—from initial concept to on-time production and commercialization—serving as a thought leader who ensures every innovation is grounded in technical reality. This role is for a developer who embodies the athlete spirit, possessing a deep curiosity to engineer industry-leading products for the most demanding environments.

Your Mission

• Process & Timeline Ownership: Own and represent the product development process for the Performance Trail category, ensuring all critical dates and calendar milestones are met through on-time production.
• Technical Stewardship: Act as the technical advisor during briefing and design phases to ensure complex trail concepts are aligned with performance metrics and global manufacturing capabilities.
• Communication Hub: Facilitate technical alignment between Zurich-based teams and Asia-based sourcing partners, acting as a "technical translator" to preserve the performance integrity of the trail category.
• Material & Tooling Expertise: Provide expert recommendations on specialized trail materials, high-traction compounds, and technical tooling to balance functional requirements with pricing targets.
• Validation & Insight: Work hand-in-hand with the testing team and biomechanics experts to validate prototypes, utilizing an athlete and consumer insight mindset to solve complex off-road hurdles.
• Cost & Efficiency Management: Monitor product costs and identify opportunities for construction efficiencies without compromising the technical "soul" of the trail product.

Innovation Commercialization: Partner closely with the innovation team to successfully bring new trail-specific technologies and "Swiss Engineering" breakthroughs to market.

Your Story

• Experience: 6+ years of experience in the footwear industry, with a background rooted in high-performance running/trail and technical outdoor complexity.
• Trail Thought Leadership: Recognized for your extensive knowledge of the trail running industry and your ability to translate athlete needs into industry-leading technical solutions.
• Advanced Development Expertise: Proven knowledge in the end-to-end product development process; including prototyping and sampling management.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Strong ability to connect, lead and influence diverse teams—including design, product marketing, and innovation—across different geographical locations.
• Strategic Judgment: Highly skilled at evaluating technical trade-offs to balance cutting-edge innovation with commercial scalability.
• The Athlete Spirit: You possess a genuine passion for the trails and a relentless drive to build the best fitting, performing, and desirable trail products in the market.

Your Team

You will join the Zurich-based Footwear Development team, a high-performance collective of engineers, developers, and makers who serve as the technical heart of the brand. In Zurich, our team acts as the primary link between the Consumer, Athlete, Biomechanical Research, Material Science, Design, and Sourcing, ensuring that every innovation is grounded in technical reality before it reaches the athlete.

Our mission is to relentlessly elevate the performance and technical attributes of our running footwear. We don't just facilitate product creation; we engineer the "ride." As part of the Performance Run vertical, you will be surrounded by specialists who are obsessed with creating the best fitting, performing and desirable running product in the market. We pride ourselves on a culture of technical rigor and "Swiss Engineering," where we challenge the status quo to create the highest performing and desirable product in the industry. Your role within this team is to ensure that as our category expands, our technical standards and the performance "soul" of our run footwear remain uncompromised.

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Lead, LS Footwear Developer (VN)

At a Glance:

As a Lead Innovation Footwear Developer, you will be a driving force at the forefront of On's product evolution from the Vietnam side. You will operate with a high degree of autonomy to lead complex projects, challenge conventions, and champion innovative approaches that define the future of footwear. This role requires you to master technical complexity, manage key stakeholder relationships, and translate visionary concepts into scalable, performance-driven products.

Your Team:

On's Lightspray Innovation team is an agile, interdisciplinary group of footwear creation, advanced manufacturing, and future of sport experts, driving On's future innovations and athlete-informed technologies that set On footwear apart.

We challenge the status quo and push boundaries to pioneer footwear innovation. As a member of the On Innovation Team, you will think outside the box and bring new, innovative ideas to life.

Your Mission:

• Lead and own the end-to-end creation of high-impact, innovative product concepts. You will manage multiple projects independently, from initial strategy and conception through to commercialization, ensuring alignment with overarching company goals.
• Leverage your expert knowledge of manufacturing processes, material properties, and product construction to troubleshoot significant and unique issues. With a strong root-cause analysis mindset, you will tackle challenges in tooling, molding, and assembly, and develop new material applications, process ideas and specifications.
• Act as a key influencer and central communication hub between diverse internal teams and major external T1/T2 partners. You will manage expectations, negotiate effectively, and confidently communicate with stakeholders at all levels, including senior management.
• Critically assess and validate last shapes with last engineers to perfect the intended fit and performance. You will collaborate with computational designers, footwear developers and commercialisation engineers to pioneer upper and construction adjustments that enhance fit, durability, and ensure scalable manufacturing.
• Own the documentation of complex tooling and upper-related issues, defining and communicating clear correction actions to all stakeholders. You will create and manage comprehensive tech packs, specification sheets, and BOMs, while driving development timelines to meet critical calendar milestones.
• Act as a leader within the team, determining methods and procedures for new assignments and potentially supervising the activities of other team members.

Your Story:

• 8+ years of progressive experience in footwear development, with a significant focus on innovation and bringing new technologies to market.
• Expert-level knowledge of advanced footwear manufacturing processes, including tooling, molding, injecting, welding, lasting, and assembly. You understand factory capabilities, tolerances, and limitations and know how to design for scalable replication.
• A natural technical curiosity and a robust, root-cause analysis approach to problem-solving.
• In-depth, demonstrated knowledge of advanced footwear materials, their properties, and performance characteristics, including experience with advanced testing and analysis.
• Proven ability to not only lead the scaling of new technologies but also to assess their commercial viability and factory readiness.
• Exceptional communication, negotiation, and influencing skills, with the ability to confidently present and defend concepts to senior management and external partners.
• A demonstrated ability to work with a high degree of autonomy, navigating ambiguity and making independent judgments on complex and significant issues.
• Experience in mentoring junior team members or supervising project activities is a strong plus.
• Comfortable and proficient with industrial machinery and hands-on prototyping.
• High level of English language proficiency is highly regarded..
• Ability to travel up to 10-15% of the time.