Columbia Sportswear Company · 6 hours ago
Principal Product Engineer - Columbia & Sorel Footwear
Portland, Oregon, United States of America
Full-time
Hybrid
Lead/Staff
8+ years expColumbia Sportswear Company is a leading outdoor apparel and footwear brand, and they are seeking a Principal Product Engineer for Columbia and Sorel. This role is responsible for driving product performance, fit, comfort, durability, and quality, while collaborating with various teams to ensure product integrity and manufacturing efficiency.
ApparelInnovation ManagementManufacturingOutdoorsRetailSporting GoodsSports
Responsibilities
Provides footwear technical design solutions, material choices, and product construction input
Ensures products meet consumer fit, function, and performance expectations from technical and engineering perspectives
Partners with other engineers, developers, and project managers to perform technical footwear engineering duties, including patterning, tooling, 3D-prototyping, and manufacturing
Develops new methods of testing, identifying and analyzing results to resolve engineering problems
Engages with and supports all factions of the Product Integrity Group
Acts as an intermediary between new technology/innovation, material development, and product creation. Reviews tech packages, dev samples, and production samples to ensure quality and consistent manufacturability
Works with offshore development, engineering, QA, and factory teams to proactively identify potential product-manufacturing concerns and to provide solutions
Collaborates with cross-functional teams to troubleshoot and improve existing development, engineering, and manufacturing processes
Educates employees on product engineering processes, best practices, footwear testing, and manufacturing procedures
Liaises between external manufacturing facilities and internal design and development teams to ensure product quality and to establish standardized product testing and construction techniques
Analyzes and implements manufacturing processes, defines engineering protocols, and establishes best practices. Identifies opportunities for cost savings through creation of material or manufacturing efficiencies and reduction of waste
Maintains a positive collaborative working environment within the product creation and LO teams. Partners with the costing function to provide suggestions and alternatives to best meet Target FOB. Partners and helps drive semi-annual Engineering Summit initiatives
Supports and provides assistance with the seasonal new product commercialization process
Qualification
Required
Bachelor's degree, applicable certification or equivalent experience
8+ years of footwear engineering experience
Understanding of footwear manufacturing processes and materials
Knowledge of chemical engineering, tooling engineering, and pattern making
Expertise in foams and injection molding components
In-depth knowledge of footwear product constructions
Excellent written and oral communication skills
Ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and in writing, with management, staff
Experience managing and prioritizing multiple projects
Proven influencing skills
Preferred
Experience with product engineering, footwear testing, biomechanical testing highly preferred
Creating outdoor performance and lifestyle footwear processes for engineering, manufacturing, and testing
Developing and analyzing technical performance standards
Establishing requirements for manufacturing, testing technologies and techniques
Working with U.S. based teams and foreign manufacturing facilities to drive engineering and testing recommendations for seasonal projects
Working with Costing, Development, Innovation, Engineering and Manufacturing teams to identify and leverage potential manufacturing efficiencies to reduce costs
Implementing new manufacturing technologies from creation to mass production and overseeing execution and documentation of trial runs
Reading, interpreting and implementing technical documentation, including 2-D and 3-D CAD drawings, and manufacturing best practices
Mentoring and training employees on product engineering and testing processes
College degree with course work in manufacturing engineering, industrial engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, Biomechanics or related fields, preferred
Benefits
401k plan plus a generous company match
Medical, dental, vision, life Insurance
Disability
Flexible spending accounts
Health savings account
Assortment of voluntary benefit offerings (accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity, and legal services)
EAP + which is free and confidential 24/7/365 counseling services
Extensive wellness benefits
Employee discounts
Generous time off program
Company
Columbia Sportswear Company
Based in Portland, Oregon, Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ: COLM) is a global outdoor brand that crafts active lifestyle gear fortified with industry-leading technologies and tested in our backyard.
5001-10000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Columbia Sportswear Company has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (9)
2024 (13)
2023 (10)
2022 (10)
2021 (7)
2020 (6)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
unknown1998-03-27IPO
Leadership Team
Jim Swanson
EVP Chief Financial Officer
Matthew Sutton
Senior Vice President, Head of Marketing
Recent News
Seattle TechFlash
2026-01-03
2025-12-03
Company data provided by crunchbase