The Director, Running Athlete Development is a people leader within Nike’s Global Sports Marketing organization. This role is responsible for delivering integrated, holistic athlete roadmaps across the sport, geographies and cities. The role manages and support the growth of individuals dedicated to identifying insights and integrating running athletes across the organization. The role partners closely with leadership teams cross-functionally within Running to identify needs and opportunities across the portfolio.
Sports Marketing is a critical connective function at Nike—known for setting standards, developing talent, and enabling teams to translate athlete insight into meaningful brand and business impact. This role collaborates closely with Sports Marketing leadership, Running General Managers, Brand, Product Creation, Marketplace, and Geo teams, while being able to foster strong relationships with key external partners.
WHO WE ARE LOOKING FORWe are looking for an authentic and experienced leader who delivers with passion, empathy, and high standards when building teams and strategy. The ideal candidate has deep experience in managing relationships and delivering results. They lead with honesty and integrity, fostering healthy and effective teamwork across functions. They are comfortable operating at altitude—shaping strategy, guiding priorities, and assisting leaders—while enabling strong execution through their team. They embrace dynamic and fast-paced environments with optimism and enjoy proactive partnership.
This leader must be highly collaborative, focused on making work happen. They must be comfortable being a delegator. They must also be willing to lean in immediately to keep the pace of progress.
- 10+ years of experience in Brand Marketing, Sports Marketing, Athlete Management, Brand Strategy, or related fields.
- Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Communications, or related field. Will accept any suitable combination of education, experience, and training
- Experienced strategic thinker that has the skillset to build a vision and translate into actionable execution.
- Demonstrated ability to integrate into and influence cross functional workstreams focused on making impactful work happen.
- Knowledge of or appetite to grow within Running - signaling a confidence in the ability to create trust within the running team, as well as athletes and agents.
- Comfortable working in a constantly evolving environment with energy-giving accuracy, speed and agility
- Proven ability to operate within a complex matrix of partners and/or in a global environment.
You will lead and deliver integrated athlete roadmaps across Nike’s Running portfolio to serve the athlete, the brand and the business. You will partner closely with the Running Sports Marketing team and relevant brand/business partners to drive alignment, consistency, and impact across the development and utilization of athletes in Running. You will work directly with agents and athletes, supporting the team to maximize their experience and value within Nike.
- Foster a culture of collaboration, growth, and accountability within the Running Athlete Development team and your fellow peers.
- Set the vision, strategy, and operating model for Running Athlete Development to ensure consistent collaboration and clarity of execution with cross functional efforts.
- Lead and guide your team in creating holistic running athlete roadmaps that integrate insights, services, key moments, brand plans, and business objectives.
- Ensure athlete insight is consistently integrated into Brand, Product Creation, and Marketplace conversations.
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 Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Nike and has not been reviewed or approved by Nike.
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Retirement Support — A 401(k) with a company match is complemented by options such as a Mega Backdoor Roth and deferred compensation for eligible earners. Financial coaching and structured savings programs support long-term financial security.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — An Employee Stock Purchase Plan with a stock discount sits alongside broad-based equity vehicles like RSUs and non-qualified stock options. These avenues expand wealth-building opportunities beyond base pay.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave includes maternity and paternity time, recently expanded in the U.S. to 16 weeks and extended to part-time retail teammates. Additional supports include childcare assistance at select locations and family-building benefits such as fertility, surrogacy, and adoption.
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