Job Description
Distinguished I, Running – Sport Innovation Studio
Innovation is oxygen for NIKE, Inc., and the company depends on its talented, global workforce to breathe originality and curiosity into everything they do. Nike’s Advanced Innovation team strives for lighter, faster, bigger, smarter, smaller, more efficient, more sustainable and more personal. They imagine, research, analyze and invent the next industry-changing technology to advance athletic performance. In roles that span research, design, materials and manufacturing, the Advanced Innovation team looks to the future and focuses on making the seemingly impossible, possible.
The Sport Innovation Studio (SIS) is a centralized team of sport innovation experts that connects future‑focused ideas to real business impact. We bring deep sport expertise and athlete insight together to identify what’s next, clarify strategic direction, and align teams across sports, brands, and functions. By creating shared understanding and focus, with the athlete at the center, SIS ensures that sport‑led opportunities are relevant, scalable, and positioned to come to life through products and experiences.
WHO YOU’LL WORK WITH
Our Distinguished I, Running – Sport Innovation Studio will report to the VP of Sport Innovation Studio and be part of a broader team of experts working across sports, brands, and sustainability. You will operate at the center of a connected ecosystem, partnering closely with innovation, product, design, sport marketing, and business leaders to align around a shared vision for Running. You will engage athletes as co‑creators and connect internal teams, partners, and ideas.
As part of the Sport Innovation Studio, you will serve as an orchestrator, bringing strategy, creation, and activation together into one continuous system.
WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR
We’re looking for a sport led innovator who sees around corners and moves organizations forward. You are deeply grounded in Running, including its athletes, culture, and performance demands, while constantly scanning what’s next. You operate as a connector across worlds and teams, able to translate ideas into direction and direction into momentum. You don’t wait for alignment; you create it. You bring clarity where there is ambiguity and energy where there is inertia.
You will help shape and align the strategic vision of the Sport Innovation Studio with the broader innovation priorities of Nike Innovation. You will champion the role of sport as a driver of progress, working across teams and functions to turn ideas into impact for the business and Nike.
You bring a rare combination of sport instinct, strategic clarity, and the ability to drive action. You understand Running deeply—how athletes move, train, compete, and evolve—and you translate that understanding into meaningful innovation. You are a systems thinker and a doer, able to move from ambiguity to direction to execution. You lead through influence, build belief, and elevate the work of others, navigating a highly matrixed organization to deliver complex solutions across multiple teams. Most importantly, you bring a relentless commitment to advancing sport through innovation that matters.
Key Qualifications:
- 10+ years of leadership experience in product, innovation, or sport leadership, preferably within Running or performance‑driven categories
- Bachelor’s degree in Product Development, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Engineering, Sport & Exercise Science, Business Administration or related field. Will accept any suitable combination of education, experience, and training.
- Deep understanding of Running athlete needs, product ecosystems, and performance‑led innovation
- Demonstrated ability to lead across cross‑functional teams and influence without formal authority
- Experience defining and delivering strategic roadmaps and innovation pipelines
- Exceptional storytelling and communication skills, with the ability to translate complexity into clarity
- Proven track record of driving innovation from concept through commercialization
- Ability to travel up to 25% domestically and internationally
WHAT YOU’LL WORK ON
You will help define what’s next in Running by advancing both emerging opportunities and the innovations already in motion. Drawing from sport inputs, athlete insight, and real performance needs, you will shape opportunity spaces that strengthen near‑term product while informing longer‑term direction. You will build the bridge between innovation and inline by translating insight into clear focus, concepts, and priorities that teams can act on today. Your work ensures innovation is tangible and impactful, landing at scale with our inline partners and showing up meaningfully in the sport.
We offer a number of accommodations to complete our interview process including screen readers, sign language interpreters, accessible and single location for in-person interviews, closed captioning, and other reasonable modifications as needed. If you discover, as you navigate our application process, that you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please complete the .
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