Senior Manager, Explore - Innovation

Who We Are:

At Brooks, we believe movement is the key to feeling more alive. That’s why we’re driven to create gear and experiences that take people to the place that makes them feel more alive — whether it’s a headspace, a feeling, or a finish line. 

Everyone who works at Brooks is propelled by a company culture that sparks excitement, fuels collaboration, inspires creativity, and ignites innovation.

Our brand values help bond us together and drive our success:  

• Runner First 
  • We act in the best interest of the runner
• Word is Bond 
  • We do what we say we’ll do 
• Champion Heart  
  • We give our all in everything we do  
• There is no “I” in Run 
  • We stay generous with our humanity 
• Keep Moving 
  • We find ways to move every day, because joy is kinetic!

We welcome everyone from every walk of life looking to inspire others through the power of movement - because we’re all moving towards something. Let’s run there.   

Your Responsibilities:

Explore Innovation Team Leadership

Lead an autonomous and cross-functional innovation team and a portfolio of innovation projects.

Work alongside the team’s functional line managers to support the development of each team member with opportunities relevant to the individual and business.

Accountable for the project portfolio, project handoffs, and communication with the Explore Steering Group and Executive Committee.

Act as a visible champion for long-term innovation at Brooks, building understanding of Horizon 3 and its different success metrics.

Provide support, coaching, consultation, career pathing and training for the team to foster a culture of collaboration, excellence, learning and personal development to build a pipeline of talent. 

Act as a steward of Brooks culture and change management agent across the Footwear Innovation team. 

As a leader on the Footwear management team, be proactive in maintaining and improving team culture by identifying gaps and delivering solutions to address opportunities for improvement. 

Foresight and Autonomous Exploration

Guide strategic foresight work to identify forces shaping the future of running and performance footwear (e.g., new biomechanics insights, materials, data, service models).

Proactively investigate (internally and externally) unknown needs, megatrends, foresight signals and performance-shaping opportunities.

Translate these signals into defined opportunity areas for exploration projects and new product concepts to fuel the innovation pipeline and inform executive decisions.

Lead the Explore team to proactively identify and explore new opportunities and define potential Explore projects for review with the Steering Group.

Explore Projects

Design exploration paths for Explore projects depending on the project uncertainties and allocate work to team members to deliver upon the decided approach.

Design and run real-world experiments and pilots with athletes, communities and partners to validate performance and feasibility.

Craft compelling narratives, artefacts and demos that make future concepts tangible for athletes, consumers, colleagues and executives.

Provide regular updates to the Explore Steering Group, framing decisions around learning progress, option value and strategic fit rather than short-term ROI.

Explore Innovation Portfolio 

Working with the Explore team and the Explore Steering Group, build and manage a portfolio of Explore innovation projects each with clear learning objectives, hypotheses and success criteria.

Make disciplined recommendations to the Steering Group on when to end, change, or continue projects.

Ensure insights feed into idea submissions and learnings flow into the core innovation process, systems and teams.

Ensure successful handover of selected projects to the H2 Innovation, Advanced Research Development and Inline teams.

Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in design, engineering, marketing or a related field.
Minimum of 10 years’ experience in innovation, product creation or venture building in performance footwear, sports equipment, wearable tech or adjacent high-performance categories.
5+ years of experience in directing, managing and developing high performance teams.
Proven track record leading breakthrough or advanced concepts from fuzzy front-end through to commercial pilots or scaled launches.
Experience operating in or with a separate innovation unit, advanced concepts lab, or corporate venture/incubator environment.
Experience leading and developing high-performance teams, with proven ability to lead functions not in your direct area of expertise.
Deep understanding of consumer behavior, emerging technologies and disruptive approaches to innovation and product development.
Exceptional communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to influence and persuade stakeholders at all levels of the organization.
Proven ability to collaborate effectively with senior leadership and cross-functional teams, building strong relationships.
Strong independent and analytical mindset with the ability to challenge established assumptions and untangle complex problems.
Demonstrated innovation and initiative. Consistently seeking to step-change innovations /deliver category-defining concepts by exploring critical uncertainties, building prototypes and experiments and validating new platforms/capabilities.
Ability to anticipate how decisions affect customers, partners, products, or other departments' operations and morale (connecting the dots’). 
A passion for Brooks’ vision, the running enthusiast and active lifestyle, with an ability to empathize with the runner.

At Brooks, we celebrate diversity & equity. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment, and encourage people of all backgrounds, perspectives, experiences, and skills to apply. Brooks is proud to be an equal employment opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made without regard to race, religion, creed, color, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, two-spirit identity, sexual orientation, genetic information, the presence of a physical, mental, or sensory disability, marital status, pregnancy (including childbirth and related conditions), caste, citizenship or immigration status, honorably discharged veteran or military status, actual or perceived victims of domestic violence, harassment, sexual assault or stalking, HIV or Hepatitis C infection, political ideology, use of a trained service animal by a person with a disability, or on any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law, or any other non-merit based factors.