Senior Director, Athlete Future Lab
Nike · Beaverton
The Athlete* Future Lab explores the future edges of sport through radical imagination and rigorous investigation. The team harnesses the evolving forces shaping sport and athletes* to define enterprise-level opportunities and translate them into clear choices, investment pathways, and actionable next steps that help Nike, Inc. win next. Combining strategic foresight, ethnographic research, creative and product leadership, and business intelligence, the A*FL identifies where the future is already emerging and turns that intelligence into advantage. Its work spans Nike, Jordan, and Converse brands and nested sub-brands, with a focus on tangible opportunities for the Innovation, Design, and Product organization.
*If you have a body, you’re an athlete.
WHO YOU WILL WORK WITH
Our Senior Director will report to the VP, Space Kitchen and lead a team of foresight, research, strategy, and creative practitioners. As a player-coach, you will set direction, create the conditions for exceptional work, and remain closely involved in the A*FL’s highest-priority initiatives. You will partner with senior leaders and teams across Innovation, Design, Product, and adjacent enterprise functions to align future opportunities with strategic priorities, portfolios, and decision-making. You will also cultivate an external network of thought leaders, athletes, cultural voices, researchers, creative luminaries, and trusted partners to extend the A*FL’s perspective and impact.
WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR
We are looking for an accomplished creative foresight and innovation leader at the Senior Director level to lead the Athlete* Future Lab. You are an enterprise thinker and inclusive people leader who can navigate uncertainty, establish a compelling point of view, mobilize others around what could be versus what is, and run the business of the team. You combine strategic range with hands-on craft: setting the agenda and operating model for the team while directly shaping research, synthesis, opportunity definition, and executive narratives when the work demands it. This role requires the judgment to balance inspiration with business reality, the influence to align senior stakeholders without relying on formal authority, and the leadership maturity to build a high-performing team through clarity, coaching, accountability, and trust. You bring experience translating future-oriented opportunities into portfolio choices, capability investments, and action across a complex global organization.
WHAT YOU BRING
- Bachelor’s degree in Design, Strategy, Research, Foresight, Business or related field. Will accept any suitable combination of education, experience and training.
- 12+ years of progressive experience in strategic foresight, design strategy, human-centered research, product innovation, or a related discipline, including significant experience leading teams and enterprise-scale work.
- Deep passion for athletes*, sport, culture, and the forces reshaping how people move, compete, connect, and create.
- Demonstrated ability to set a multi-year vision, strategy, operating model, and portfolio for a foresight or innovation capability.
- Proven player-coach leadership: able to direct and develop a multidisciplinary team while personally advancing critical research, synthesis, opportunity framing, and executive storytelling.
- Strong people leadership capabilities, including hiring, coaching, talent development, performance management, succession planning, workload prioritization, and building an inclusive team culture.
- Expert command of horizon scanning, drivers-of-change analysis, ethnographic and cultural research, scenario development, opportunity mapping, and applied backcasting.
- Ability to translate ambiguity and complex signals into differentiated opportunities, strategic choices, investment implications, and actionable roadmaps for Nike.
- Executive presence and exceptional verbal, written, and visual communication skills, with the ability to influence senior leaders and defend recommendations through evidence and clear judgment.
- Experience shaping decisions across complex, matrixed organizations and aligning partners across Innovation, Design, Product, Brand, and business functions.
- Ability to establish governance, define success measures, manage resources and budgets, and maintain accountability across a portfolio of concurrent initiatives.
- Entrepreneurial mindset and sound risk judgment, with the courage to challenge conventions, test new territories, and adjust course as evidence evolves.
- Expertise in synthesizing complexity into compelling, simple, human-centered narratives that move teams from insight to action.
- Ability to build and manage productive relationships with external experts, creative partners, research organizations, and vendors.
- High standards for creative and strategic quality, paired with the pace, focus, and resilience needed to deliver under pressure.
- Strong interpersonal resourcefulness and a record of creating clarity, healthy debate, collaboration, and shared ownership across teams.
- Leadership maturity to manage through change, make difficult tradeoffs, address performance directly, and support teams with clarity and empathy.
WHAT YOU’LL WORK ON
You’ll set the vision and lead the portfolio of foresight initiatives that define future opportunities for Nike, translating intelligence into strategic choices and actionable next steps. As a player-coach, you will lead and develop the Athlete* Future Lab team while remaining directly engaged in the most consequential work. Your portfolio will span brands and influence enterprise strategy, innovation pipelines, future product and experience exploration, capability development, and long-range investment decisions.
Core Responsibilities:
- Set the vision, priorities, and multi-year roadmap for the Athlete* Future Lab, connecting the portfolio to Nike’s enterprise and Innovation, Design, and Product priorities.
- Lead, coach, and develop a multidisciplinary team; establish roles, operating rhythms, quality standards, and clear accountability for outcomes.
- Operate as a player-coach by personally leading or contributing to the A*FL’s most complex and high-impact foresight initiatives.
- Own a balanced portfolio of horizon scanning, cultural forensics, future hunting zones, topical deep dives, opportunity definition, and applied backcasting.
- Translate emerging behaviors, sports, and systems into differentiated product, experience, business, and capability opportunities with clear recommendations and pathways to action.
- Advise senior leadership on future shifts, strategic implications, portfolio choices, risks, and opportunities; create executive narratives that enable timely decisions.
- Build alignment across Innovation, Design, Product, and business teams, establishing clear ownership and handoffs that move foresight from insight to application.
- Define measures of impact and communicate the value of foresight through adoption, decisions influenced, opportunities advanced, and organizational learning.
- Manage team capacity, budgets, external partnerships, and competing priorities to deliver a focused portfolio with excellence and pace.
- Build and steward an external network of athletes, cultural leaders, researchers, technologists, creators, and strategic partners that expands the Lab’s access to emerging signals and expertise.
- Represent the Athlete* Future Lab in senior forums and enterprise moments, strengthening the organization’s fluency in foresight and its ability to act under uncertainty.
- Foster a curious, ambitious, inclusive, and accountable culture that develops talent, rewards constructive challenge, and raises the quality of strategic and creative thinking across the organization.
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.