Senior Lead - Brand Environment Design

On seeks a Senior Lead for Brand Environment Design in Zürich. The role focuses on translating the brand's identity into premium physical experiences across global non-retail touchpoints, overseeing spatial design direction and team leadership.

This position drives the physical manifestation of On’s brand outside of standard retail spaces. The Senior Lead will set the spatial design strategy, ensuring all non-retail environments reflect a cohesive, high-end aesthetic while aligning creative visions across global teams.

Responsibilities

• Define the creative trajectory for non-retail spaces to ensure visual consistency and premium quality.
• Convert brand strategies into immersive physical concepts and compelling experience narratives.
• Create detailed creative briefs to guide internal and external teams from initial concepts through to final execution.
• Act as the primary steward of brand design standards, ensuring all physical touchpoints maintain coherence and premium quality.
• Establish the first official Brand Environment Design Guidelines aligned with updated retail standards.
• Develop scalable physical brand systems and toolkits that allow for globally unified yet locally relevant expressions.
• Collaborate with brand, retail, and regional teams to align physical executions with an omnichannel strategy.
• Infuse activations with innovative thinking and elevated aesthetics to redefine premium standards for a performance brand.
• Support LightSpray technology showcases and ensure athlete-centric spaces reflect On's performance identity.

Requirements

• 5–7 years of experience in spatial or environmental design, with a strong background in leading design teams.
• Experience in top-tier creative or experiential agencies, preferably alongside in-house roles at premium global brands.
• Proven track record managing large-scale physical design projects with budgets between $250k and $1M+.
• A portfolio demonstrating high-impact physical spaces like brand activations, events, pop-ups, or athlete environments.
• Extensive experience creating global design toolkits, principles, and frameworks for consistent brand expression.
• Ability to translate complex creative themes into premium physical environments with meticulous attention to detail.
• Strong leadership skills to guide internal teams and external agencies, aligning cross-functional stakeholders.
• Exceptional English communication skills, both verbal and written.

Nice to have

• Proficiency in additional languages to support global collaboration.

About the company

On has revolutionized the sportswear industry through continuous exploration and a commitment to innovation. The company’s mission is to ignite the human spirit through movement, built on the pillars of Performance, Design, and Impact. On approaches its craft obsessively, remains unconventional, and fearslessly shapes a premium future, ensuring every real-world brand interaction feels unmistakably On.

• Driven by relentless exploration and innovation in sportswear.
• Mission centered on igniting the human spirit through movement.
• Core values: Performance, Design, and Impact.
• Culture defined by being obsessive about craft, unconventional in approach, and fearless in shaping a premium future.
• Commitment to delivering premium, coherent, and innovative brand experiences wherever the brand meets people.

How to apply

Documents to submit:

• Portfolio