Footwear Design Director

Location : Bangalore preferred; London/UK, then Europe considered. Travel (if based outside Bangalore) : Four visits per year, approximately two weeks each. Experience : 8–12 years Compensation and Benefits : Competitive Salary, annual performance bonus, medical insurance and relocation support available.

ABOUT AGILITAS

Agilitas is building India’s first global sports company by bringing together world-class product innovation, manufacturing excellence, iconic brands and an integrated retail ecosystem. We are creating category-defining products and experiences for athletes and consumers while building businesses with global ambition. Our integrated sportswear ecosystem spans: Manufacturing : Through Mochiko, India’s largest sports footwear manufacturer, producing for global brands. Consumer Brands : Reimagining and building Lotto across India, Australia and South Africa, while creating ONE8 — India’s first high-performance sports brand, built to be admired worldwide. Multi-brand Retail : Creating premium sports retail concepts, Sports Yard & The Kit, offering Indian consumers a thoughtfully curated selection and world-class retail experiences. THE ROLE You will shape the creative direction and design development of footwear for an Agilitas brand, helping build a globally competitive sports business from India. This is a formative opportunity within a young, fast-growing organisation. You will combine hands-on design with team leadership, establishing a distinctive visual language, strengthening technical performance-footwear capability and helping build the processes behind the product. It will suit someone excited by the opportunity to create, influence and bring structure—not someone expecting a long-established system to already be in place. Working closely with Product Line Management, Development, Materials, R&D and Sourcing, you will turn consumer needs into commercially relevant footwear. Your initial focus will be setting clear design direction, developing stronger concepts and progressing priority projects. Key Responsibilities Define footwear design direction, concepts and visual language across the collection. Lead and mentor designers, developing their capabilities while setting creative priorities and providing clear feedback. Stay hands-on in concept development and key design decisions. Translate consumer, sport and market insights into relevant product ideas for the Indian and global consumer. Partner with PLM to define collection needs and align design briefs with brand and commercial objectives. Brief and collaborate with external studios and freelancers, welcoming fresh perspectives while protecting a coherent brand identity. Collaborate with technical teams to maintain design intent through development and manufacturing. Build practical design processes and reviews that help the team move quickly, maintain quality and adapt as the business grows. Work effectively across locations and cultures, creating clarity and momentum for colleagues and creative partners. What We Are Looking For 8–12 years of footwear design experience, including hands-on design leadership within performance or sportswear. Strong technical sports-footwear expertise, with a portfolio showing original concepts developed through to commercially relevant product. A clear creative point of view, with the ability to translate consumer, sporting and brand insight into a distinctive product direction and design story. Experience guiding and developing designers or creative partners; able to give clear feedback, build capability and bring structure to a growing team. Comfortable working across design, PLM, development, materials, R&D, sourcing and manufacturing—maintaining design intent while balancing feasibility, cost and speed. Sound knowledge of footwear construction, materials and manufacturing at scale. Strong consumer and commercial awareness, with the judgement to combine global design standards with the needs of the Indian market. A proactive builder: motivated by the opportunity to shape a brand and team, create effective ways of working and move ideas forward in an evolving business. Collaborative, adaptable and comfortable working across locations and cultures, with a practical, low-ego approach to solving problems. Openness to new creative technologies and ways of working. #J-18808-Ljbffr Laceless Design