VF: Senior Program Manager, Product Creation & Innovation

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What will you do?

A day in the life of a Senior Program Manager, Product Creation & Innovation at VF looks a little like this.

The Senior Program Manager, Product Creation & Innovation leads high-impact, cross-functional initiatives that accelerate VF Corp’s next wave of growth. Reporting to the VP, Enterprise Innovation, this role drives end-to-end delivery across complex, ambiguous workstreams that may include product special projects (footwear, apparel, and equipment), new product platforms, AI-enabled business solutions, digital capabilities, and emerging innovation bets. This role has a strong connection to product creation, consumer experience, commercialization, and the way apparel, footwear, equipment, and accessories move from idea to in-market impact.

This role partners closely with teams across Brand, Product, Design, Merchandising, Development Digital, Technology, Supply Chain, Finance, Legal, and regional teams to move concepts from validation to scaling and commercialization. The Senior Program Manager shapes decisions through clear recommendations, investment inputs, and tradeoff framing, and ensures teams have the plans, governance, and operating cadence required to deliver results.

This is not a traditional PMO role; it is a highly cross-functional product innovation role for someone who can bring order to ambiguity, build trust quickly, and connect enterprise-level priorities to the realities of the product creation lifecycle.

Let’s break down that day-in-the-life a bit more.

• Lead a set of enterprise innovation special projects, setting priorities, sequencing work, and ensuring measurable outcomes across product creation, product special projects, digital capabilities, emerging technology initiatives, and consumer experience opportunities.
• Establish program-level governance (cadence, forums, decision rights, escalation paths) and ensure alignment to strategy and business priorities.
• Translate ambiguity into delivery plans with clear objectives, milestones, dependencies, and success metrics, including decision points and operational handoffs that support scale and commercialization readiness.
• Drive cross-functional alignment across brands, regions, and functions; influence without authority to drive decisions and accountability while connecting enterprise priorities to product creation timelines and cross-functional ways of working.
• Drive execution across initiatives spanning product special projects (footwear, apparel, and equipment), new product development, AI-enabled tools/services, and new business models, ensuring readiness to scale from concept validation through pilot, commercialization readiness, and broader adoption where appropriate.
• Drive execution across initiatives spanning new product development (footwear, apparel, and equipment), AI-enabled tools/services, and new business models, ensuring readiness to scale
• Manage risks, issues, and interdependencies; lead mitigation strategies and scenario planning.
• Create and deliver leadership-ready status updates, recommendations, and decision materials for key stakeholders and governance forums.
• Manage external partners (vendors, startups, agencies, consultants) to accelerate discovery and delivery as needed.
• Contribute to innovation best practices by creating playbooks, templates, and lessons learned; mentor project/program leads and peers to improve speed, consistency, and accountability across innovation delivery.

What do you need to succeed?

• We all have unique skills that we bring to work and celebrate every day. For this role, there are foundation skills you’ll need to succeed and excel. Additionally, while formal education in a related field is great to have, we are most interested in your 6-10+ years of experience and professional achievements and experience leading complex, cross-functional programs, product innovation initiatives, product development operations, merchandising operations, or transformation work within a matrixed organization.

​The foundation skills you will need in this position are:

• Demonstrated success driving strategic initiatives from concept through launch and scale enablement, ideally across product innovation, new product development, commercialization, or consumer-products environments.
• Proven ability to influence and align Manager/Sr. Manager-level stakeholders and cross-functional teams, including facilitating trade-offs and decision-making in ambiguous environments (with exposure to VP-level audiences as needed).
• Experience developing business case inputs, defining value creation, and managing delivery against outcomes.
• Familiarity with innovation and commercialization across new product development, digital platforms, and emerging technology initiatives (including AI/data-enabled solutions); strong understanding of how cross-functional product creation teams work across apparel, footwear, accessories, outdoor, active, sporting goods, or consumer products is highly preferred.
• Track record of establishing strong delivery practices (plans, operating rhythms, reporting) across multi-workstream efforts.
• Strong communication skills, including the ability to synthesize complexity into clear narratives and recommendations.
• Experience leading work through influence across cross-functional teams; ability to support and enable contributors on project teams.
• Experience working with global teams across multiple time zones and cultures
• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• PMP, Agile, Lean, or equivalent certifications a plus; design thinking, innovation, change management, PLM/product lifecycle workflow, go-to-market, or seasonal product calendar experience is also valued.

What Success Looks Like

• Special projects deliver against defined objectives with clear governance, milestones, and stakeholder alignment across product, digital, emerging technology, and consumer-product innovation initiatives.
• Leaders have consistent visibility into progress, dependencies, risks, and decisions—enabling timely course correction.
• Programs progress beyond pilots and proofs of concept, with clear scale requirements and operational handoffs defined and a clear connection to product creation, consumer needs, and business impact across VF’s brands.
• Business case inputs and success measures are well-defined, and initiatives track measurable value (growth, margin, productivity, customer experience).
• Teams adopt repeatable practices (playbooks, templates, lessons learned) that increase speed and consistency across innovation delivery.

Now WE have a question for YOU.

Are you in?

Hiring Range:

$112,320.00 USD - $140,400.00 USD annually

Incentive Potential: This position is eligible for additional compensation awards that may include an annual incentive plan, sales incentive, or commission potential. Specific details of the additional compensation eligibility for this position will be provided during the recruiting and interview process.

Benefits at VF Corporation: You can review a general overview of each benefit program offered, including this year's medical plan rates on www.MyVFbenefits.com and by clicking Looking to Join VF? Detailed information on your benefits will be provided during the hiring process.

Please note, our hiring ranges are determined and built from market pay data. In determining the specific compensation for this position, we comply with all local, state, and federal laws.

At VF, we value a diverse, inclusive workforce and we provide equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees. All qualified applicants for employment will be considered without regard to an individual’s race, color, sex, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, physical or mental disability, medical condition, family care status, marital status, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, genetic information, military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by federal, state or local laws. If you require accommodations during the application process, please contact us at [email protected]. VF will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals to the extent required by applicable law.

Pursuant to all applicable local Fair Chance Ordinance requirements, including but not limited to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, VF will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.