Senior footwear designer

About the Role

JSW Sports is looking for a Senior Design Consultant – Footwea r to provide strategic design leadership in building a world-class performance footwear business to join their team in Mumbai.

This is a senior consulting role for an accomplished footwear design expert who will define the long-term design vision, drive product innovation, and help create footwear purpose-built for Indian athletes and consumers.

The ideal candidate will bring global experience in performance footwear design and innovation, along with the ability to mentor emerging talent and establish best-in-class design capabilities.

This can be a consulting, fractional, full-time role.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Design Leadership

Provide strategic leadership and guidance for the overall footwear design function. Define the footwear design architecture across key categories, including running, training, and sneakers. Shape the long-term design vision, product philosophy, and innovation roadmap for the footwear portfolio. Advise leadership on global footwear trends, emerging technologies, and consumer preferences.

Product Innovation

Lead the conceptualization of innovative footwear solutions that meet the performance needs of Indian athletes and consumers. Collaborate with elite athletes and leverage insights from the Athlete Innovation Lab to develop athlete-centric products. Drive innovation in comfort, performance, durability, and aesthetics across the footwear range. Ensure products combine technical excellence with compelling design and commercial relevance.

Technical Design Excellence

Provide expert guidance on footwear construction, including tooling, last development, outsole engineering, upper construction, and material selection. Advise product development teams throughout the design and prototyping process to ensure design intent and technical feasibility. Review prototypes and provide recommendations to enhance product performance, fit, and quality.

Cross-functional Collaboration

Partner with Product Development, Sourcing, Manufacturing, Marketing, and Brand teams to bring innovative products to market. Work closely with manufacturing partners to ensure high-quality execution from concept through production.

Qualifications & Experience

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Footwear Design, Industrial Design, Product Design, Fashion Design, or a related discipline. 15–25 years of global experience in footwear design, preferably with leading sports or performance footwear brands. Proven experience designing and developing innovative performance footwear. Prior experience in a consulting, advisory, or leadership capacity is highly desirable. Demonstrated success in mentoring design teams and building organizational capability.