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Innovation Director
VFC
Costa Mesa, CA, United States
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VF Corporation: Innovation Director, Vans
Vans: Be a Part of the Original
“It was never about waving the brand like a flag, it was always about the people” – Paul Van Doren
Vans is the original action sports footwear company rooted in authenticity and creativity. Founded in 1966, Vans has thrived on a legacy of impacting our greater community through Vans’ four pillars: action sports, music, art and street culture. We are constantly inspired by the expressive creators within our company and community as they bring new and innovative perspectives to help shape and transform the future of our business.
At Vans our culture sets us apart and it influences everything we do. Everything we do supports creativity and we are driven by our five values. We are determined. We are connected to our consumers and to each other. We are inclusive. We are expressive and Fun. And most of all, we are a family.
Vans is a subsidiary of VF, the world’s largest apparel and footwear company comprised of over 30 brands. We are the leading drivers of retail as our global footwear, apparel and accessory brand is available in 170 countries worldwide. As we continue to expand, we take great measures in developing and growing our people.
Vans is founded on a culture of learning. We take great pride in our ability to facilitate learning opportunities by providing the resources and tools necessary to support each individual’s pursuit of growth to achieve future goals. In order to prioritize career growth within our company, Vans offers courses on topics such as leadership, communication, collaboration and technical skills to ensure our employees are self-motivated and developing to the pace of our rapidly growing business.
By joining the Vans family, you will be immersed into an environment of incredibly supportive and collaborative people. We work very hard across a multitude of large initiatives to bring the Van Doren spirit to life. We live for what we do.
Vans, Off the Wall Since 1966, is an iconic, Southern California-based, youth culture brand and the original action sports footwear company. Today, Vans is a leading global footwear, apparel and accessory brand available in more than 80 countries worldwide. The Vans brand is driven by creative self-expression, brought to life through the worlds of art, music, action sports and street culture. Our extended family of snowboarding, surfing, skateboarding and BMX athletes, artists, musicians, designers, and photographers provide inspiration and innovation to our products every day. Vans is part of VF Corp, an $12 billion apparel and footwear powerhouse, with an incredibly diverse, international portfolio of brands and products that reach consumers wherever they choose to shop.
The VF Global Innovation Centers
VF’s goal is to shape the future of apparel and footwear – and product innovation is one of the 4 key growth drivers for our long-term growth vision. VF has embarked on building Global Innovation Centers (GIC) to develop game-changing advancements in apparel, footwear and accessories for its 30-plus brands. We are now assembling teams of designers, developers, materials innovators, engineers, and chemists for our Performance Apparel and Footwear Innovation Centers.
Director, Innovation
We are looking for an individual to join the Global Innovation team (GIC), as the Vans Innovation Lead, to help shape the world’s action sports lifestyle and youth culture through jaw-dropping innovation for our athletes on boards and bikes.
Reporting to the VP of the VF Global Innovation Center (GIC), this role will work closely with the Brand President, product, design, marketing and supply chain leads, to define the 3-5 Year Product Innovation strategy, pipeline and roadmap for Vans. Success for this role will be gaining a strong understanding of what the brand requires for future success and then translating that into an innovation strategy and project roadmap. Deep embedding into the Vans global product engine, across design and development, and then engaging functional constituents, including creative, strategy, merchandising and marketing to commercialize these innovations will be critical.
You will create and manage an innovation portfolio of products and concepts from original idea through to seasonal category(s) integration. Working with the Vans leadership team and GIC team, you will create briefs for Vans innovation projects, reflecting Brand growth opportunities, market / commercial opportunities, unmet consumer needs and new technological opportunities. Then, working with the GIC’s Design, Development and Materials innovation leads, you will assemble and coordinate teams of innovation designers, developers, and materials experts against these innovation projects.
You will develop, align and drive Innovation project plans within targeted budget & timeline parameters, and create and own the Vans Innovation Project Tracking Reports and budget. Most importantly, you will be responsible for successfully transitioning innovation projects to seasonal inline category teams at Vans. Project management and the ability to influence category product teams within Vans, combined with an ability to challenge and re-think the future is critical.
How You Will Make a Difference:
We are building a high energy, learn fast, non-hierarchical innovation culture. Collaboration, curiosity, tinkering, passion, rapid prototyping, and boldness with humility are traits we are actively seeking and encouraging within the new GIC team.
Being a successful leader in this creative culture, juxtaposed between Innovation teams and Inline product teams and between global teams and supply chain partners, will need specific traits. We are looking for five essential qualities in this leader:
• Drives effective project communications and stakeholder alignment — Jedi-level mastery of identifying and establishing alignment with critical stakeholders and partners of a project, and driving timely, precise and ambiguity-clearing project communication.
• Builds focused energy: as a leader, gets people motivated and excited about a very clear set of priorities and what it means to achieve them; builds a team absolutely committed to achieve the main goal.
• Negotiates clear expectations: able to align multiple stakeholders, inside and outside, behind a crystal clear goal and a plan to get there — and keep them aligned; when there’s ambiguity on key issues, as there often will be, able to put boundaries and context around the ambiguity so that it doesn’t erode the broader sense of clarity and focus.
• Identifies and proactively works around roadblocks: able to understand motivations, concerns and cultural barriers of key stakeholders for a project and then influence and creatively address conflicts of priorities, beliefs or interests.
• Sees the forest, tends the trees: able to understand the ins and outs of the many moving parts of the product creation, manufacturing and merchandising process, how they interrelate and why they matter, what larger organizational priorities and dependencies for a project are, and constantly moving back and forth between guiding action at this level and navigating the big picture of where the innovation program stands against the goal.
Skills for Success & Experience Requirements:
• 7 years’ experience at Product Management, merchandising, retail or innovation project management including 5 years of team leadership.
• Demonstrated success creating & managing product briefs, & project budgets.
• Awareness of consumer trends, competition & process for evaluating project ROI.
• Awareness of global development & commercial processes (Asian experience preferred).
• Global product experience in managing key product lines / categories at >$500 M Brand.
• Strong, confident, compelling presenter with developed communication skills.
• Engaged collaborator, negotiator. Presentation skills a plus.
• Strong project management and budgeting skills.
• Team Management experience with diverse teams >5 people. Global experience, especially communicating with Asia and Europe-based teams is a plus.
• Travel by air and overnight, as required 25-30% amount of time.