Generative Design-to-Manufacture Leader

The mandate

The digital-creation executive departed after a seasonal gate rejected two generatively designed midsole families that looked viable in simulation but could not hold geometry through mould release, material shrinkage and supplier cycle-time limits. Design, engineering and tooling teams had optimised against different constraint files, while manual geometry repair obscured which generated intent survived into samples and drove iteration beyond the commercial calendar.

The interim must start in Milan within fourteen days and lead the seat for eight months. The permanent search will run from week four, once the revised role charter is approved, with six weeks reserved for joint supplier and product-gate decisions; the assignment ends after handover and does not convert if the chosen candidate’s notice period extends beyond the planned window.

Handover is achieved when two named product families move from a versioned generative brief through verified simulation, manufacturability release and pilot production at signed cost, performance, cycle and first-pass-yield ranges. Every manual geometry change must remain traceable to its design intent, one supplier must repeat the digital package without undocumented rework, and the successor must chair the final industrialisation gate and accept the open constraint backlog.

The interim may stop a concept stream, approve constraint libraries, select temporary engineering specialists, alter digital gate criteria and commit up to €9 million from the authorised seasonal recovery budget. Steering Committee approval is required to change brand design direction, product launch dates, material sustainability claims or expenditure beyond that envelope; permanent hiring, factory capital approval and supplier commercial awards remain outside temporary authority.

Retail assortment, consumer marketing, factory network strategy and generative work unrelated to the two named product families are excluded. The leader will demand cost, performance and supplier evidence at their interfaces but will not redesign the corporate PLM, negotiate long-term material contracts or assume creative authorship for the brand’s visual language.

Why this seat is open

The rejected gate exposed a digital process that rewarded novel geometry before testing whether suppliers could reproduce it inside material and tooling limits. Current leaders own design, engineering or production separately, and none can reset cross-functional decision rights without reopening the conflicts that delayed the season. A temporary executive is required to deliver two complete industrialisation proofs while the group recruits a permanent integrator.

What you will own

• Establish one version-controlled constraint set covering biomechanics, material behaviour, draft, minimum feature, tool access, shrinkage, cycle time, cost and supplier capability.
• Decide which generated concepts proceed, return for constrained regeneration or stop, preserving the evidence behind each selection and rejection.
• Connect optimisation objectives to product intent and manufacturing reality, exposing trade-offs hidden by composite scores or visually persuasive simulation.
• Require traceable geometry transformations from generated output through engineer repair, CAD release, tooling compensation and final manufactured part.
• Run supplier proof loops that compare predicted and measured dimensions, performance, cycle time, scrap and first-pass yield against agreed tolerances.
• Resolve ownership across computational design, footwear engineering, PLM and supplier teams so no manual correction enters the product record without rationale.
• Induct the permanent leader through a product gate, supplier deviation and constraint-release decision, transferring budgets, exceptions and the next-season agenda.

Candidate qualifications

• Held director or executive authority connecting computational or generative design to serial manufacture in footwear, sporting goods, automotive or advanced consumer products.
• Industrialised topology-optimised, lattice or similarly complex geometry under real material, tooling, tolerance, cycle-time and yield constraints.
• Recovered a programme where simulation success failed during tooling or pilot production and can evidence the corrected digital-to-physical controls.
• Governed version lineage across parametric design, manual CAD intervention, simulation, PLM release and supplier manufacturing data.
• Negotiated technical closure with external tooling and production partners without masking rework as normal artisanal development.
• Transferred a repaired product-creation operating model to permanent leadership while a live seasonal or customer deadline remained in force.

Non-negotiables

• Available within fourteen days for an exclusive Milan assignment, with weekly Montebelluna presence and monthly travel to Portuguese or German suppliers.
• Will stop a visually strong design when manufacturability, product performance or evidence lineage fails the signed gate.
• Has taken complex generated geometry into repeatable pilot or serial production; concept design and software demonstrations alone do not qualify.
• Must disclose any paid relationship or ownership interest involving the design platform, simulation vendor, additive partner or nominated tooling supplier.

1. 49 words maximum. State your earliest Milan start, notice position and ability to sustain the stated development-centre and supplier travel.
2. 49 words maximum. Describe a generative design that failed industrialisation, the hidden constraint and the production evidence after correction.
3. 49 words maximum. How did you preserve design intent and traceability when engineers or suppliers manually altered generated geometry?