Principal Materials Innovator, Apparel Innovation

Become a Part of the NIKE, Inc. Team

NIKE, Inc. does more than outfit the world’s best athletes. It is a place to explore potential, obliterate boundaries and push out the edges of what can be. The company looks for people who can grow, think, dream and create. Its culture thrives by embracing diversity and rewarding imagination. The brand seeks achievers, leaders and visionaries. At NIKE, Inc. it’s about each person bringing skills and passion to a challenging and constantly evolving game.

WHO YOU’LL WORK WITH

This role is part of the Apparel Materials Innovation team and operates as an individual-contributor technical leader. You will collaborate across Apparel Innovation, Design, Global Apparel Materials, Digital Product, Product Development, and Advanced Manufacturing, while building external relationships with suppliers, manufacturers, equipment providers, research institutes, laboratories, academia, and emerging technology companies.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

We are looking for a Principal Materials Innovator with deep expertise in performance textile engineering, material science, and advanced manufacturing. The successful candidate combines hands-on technical knowledge with the ability to set direction, influence multidisciplinary teams, and transform emerging science and technology into differentiated apparel material solutions.

You understand the relationships among yarn properties, textile structures, manufacturing processes, finishing technologies, test methods, and product performance. You can translate athlete and product needs into technical hypotheses, development strategies, and scalable material systems across knit, woven, and additive applications. You are comfortable operating through ambiguity, evaluating technical and economic feasibility, and determining which opportunities should advance from research to prototyping, validation, and commercial production.

As an individual-contributor leader, you establish technical standards, guide complex programs, and influence decisions without relying on direct reporting authority. You communicate clearly with technical and nontechnical audiences, build productive external partnerships, and use data, modeling, machine learning, and AI-enabled approaches where they strengthen material discovery and decision-making.

What you bring:

• Bachelor’s degree in textile engineering, textile science, materials science, textile design, industrial engineering, industrial design, or a related field. Will accept any suitable combination of education, experience and training
• Demonstrated experience leading textile or apparel-material research and development from technical concept through prototype, validation, and commercial-scale manufacturing.
• Advanced expertise in at least one textile-creation discipline, such as knitting, weaving, or additive manufacturing, supported by working knowledge of yarns, dyeing, finishing, performance testing, and large-scale textile production.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex, multidisciplinary technical programs and influence internal and external partners without direct reporting authority.
• Strong communication, project leadership, data analysis, and evidence-based decision-making skills.
• Experience applying statistical methods, computational tools, machine learning, or AI to material design, experimentation, modeling, testing, or decision-making preferred.
• Experience conducting technical and economic feasibility assessments for research, development, equipment, or manufacturing investments preferred.
• Experience developing intellectual property related to materials, products, manufacturing methods, or processes preferred.
• Established relationships with textile mills, yarn suppliers, machinery manufacturers, testing laboratories, research institutes, universities, startups, or industry consortia preferred.

WHAT YOU’LL WORK ON

You will set technical direction and lead the discovery, engineering, evaluation, and scale-up of advanced textile materials for sport-performance apparel. You will connect consumer and athlete needs with material science, manufacturing capabilities, and data-informed development methods to create differentiated solutions that are technically credible, commercially viable, and ready for product application.

• You will translate performance opportunities into clear material strategies, technical briefs, experimental plans, and decision criteria.
• You will engineer and evaluate yarn, structure, process, and finishing combinations across knit, woven, additive, and emerging textile platforms.
• You will lead development from early research through prototyping, application trials, testing, data analysis, pilot production, and manufacturing integration.
• You will assess technical feasibility, performance potential, scalability, cost drivers, manufacturing readiness, and development risk.
• You will build and lead multidisciplinary project teams, influencing decisions across materials, design, product development, manufacturing, digital, and sustainability functions.
• You will establish external partnerships with suppliers, mills, equipment manufacturers, laboratories, research institutions, universities, startups, and other technology organizations.
• You will strengthen organizational capability by developing technical methods, identifying intellectual-property opportunities, communicating research findings, and sharing knowledge with technical and product-creation teams.

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 Candidate Accommodation Request Form.

NIKE, Inc. is a growth company that looks for team members to grow with it. Nike offers a generous total rewards package, casual work environment, a diverse and inclusive culture, and an electric atmosphere for professional development. No matter the location, or the role, every Nike employee shares one galvanizing mission: To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world.

NIKE, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, or disability.