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.

In short

As Footwear Tooling Engineer you will create groundbreaking concepts and products for high-performance athletes while advancing On’s sustainability goals. Working in a collaborative environment, you’ll shape the future direction of our pinnacle performance product and technologies through Innovation and Design.

You will act as the owner of the bottom unit development for our pinnacle performance product and technologies. You will work in close collaboration with designers and developers here at On Labs in Zurich and our Tooling team in Vietnam to create the highest quality products. From concept creation through prototyping, you will guide the team on bottom unit materials, geometries, and construction from a critical manufacturing, biomechanical performance, and durability viewpoint. You will also be a key player in identifying and creating process improvements for all bottom unit development across the company.

Your mission

- Lead the bottom unit development for On’s performance products

- Provide solutions to design and construction constraints by using your demonstrated knowledge of materials, mold construction and manufacturing

- Evaluate and improve product designs for manufacturability and durability by reviewing 2D/3D CADs, prototypes, and feedback from the testing teams

- Ensure alignment with product specifications and manufacturing capabilities

- Use your understanding of plastics injection molding to advise cost, design, and molding capabilities of injected components in the bottom unit

- Collaborate with our Asian counterparts and support mold shop teams on tooling revisions and manufacturing concerns

- Assist the development, product management, and design teams with any tooling related questions or issues

- Evaluate current workflows and create process improvements to maximize efficiencies and advance testing

Your story

- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Industrial Design, or a related field

- Minimum of 5 years experience within a footwear engineering role working closely with development and production, ideally in a footwear tooling development

- Technical knowledge of various materials, mold construction, and manufacturing processes relevant to footwear; In-depth knowledge of plastics injection molding principles, including advising on cost, design, and molding capabilities of injected components

- Experience working with 2D and 3D CADs (Rhino a bonus); proficiency in reviewing and evaluating 2D/3D CADs for manufacturability, durability, and alignment with product specifications

- Experience in 3D modelling and rapid prototyping tools

- Demonstrated experience in project management, costing, and the ability to provide solutions within complex constraints

- Experience working with biomechanical performance principles as they relate to footwear bottom unit design

- Experience working cross-functionally across designers, developers, product management, and testing teams

- Experience collaborating with international manufacturing partners on tooling revisions and manufacturing concerns

- Strong communication skills to provide clear guidance and technical support to various stakeholders.

- Excellent time management skills and ability to work with multiple deadlines

- Available to travel to Asia at least 2 times a year

The team

Our mission is to define and create the future of sportswear bringing to life groundbreaking innovations. Acting at the forefront of material science, sport science and engineering we develop products that push the boundaries of performance and sustainability, blending in unique aesthetic appeal that embodies On’s design DNA.