Director, Sourcing Product Concept & Innovation

PURPOSE

• A key player in Global Sourcing in driving Sourcing’s vision to be the Most Agile, Most Competitive, Most Digitalized & Cleanest Supply Base in the industry.

• Manage relations and drive innovation centers effectiveness on projects & resources allocation.

• Research & develop sourcing solutions for new product concepts and commerical competitiveness.

• Drive definition, readiness & validation of innovation & commercial ready projects.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Drive innovative product concept development & validation towards specifications, compliance & integrity.

• Provide commercial tangible guidance throughout the readiness levels, ROI, timelines, and scalability.

• Work closely with supplier innovation centers to ensure performance, competitiveness & advantage for adidas.

• Encourage suppliers to continuously upgrade their expertise, technical applications, new materials innovation, and manufacturing technologies.

• Research sporting goods and other industries to benchmark and identify potential opportunities for application of innovative technology, processes, and materials.

• Provide regular update and valuable input to project teams, key stakeholders & escalation to leadership team when needed.

• Challenge team, stakeholder, suppliers to ensure feasibility, commerciality, impact & progress of projects.

• Project base allocation of resources

• Ensure project deliverables on time, in full & within budget.

• Lead & staff a cross divisional team

• Ensure all sourcing operations and practices fully comply with adidas’ Responsible Sourcing & Purchasing Policy, adidas standards and legal requirements, while managing the relevant processes internally and externally.

• Develop and coach team to ensure the best standards of performance, appropriate skill set, and strong succession plans are in place.

• Role model leadership to foster a culture of Diversity Equity & Inclusion that strives for an inclusive workplace.

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

• Global Sourcing

• HQ Innovation Teams, adi Lab, Innovation Management

• HQ Sustainability Materials

• Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 Supply Partners Innovation departments

• Global Functions Teams

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• Innovative & Visionary

• Strong people management skills and proven ability in leading multidimensional teams

• Have depth and breadth of experience in Materials and Methods of Make, but also sports product creation and engineering.

• Strong influencing, people, presentation, communication, and articulation skills

• Fluent in English (written and spoken)

• Strong Microsoft Office skills

REQUISITE EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

• University Degree, in Materials/Process/Textile/Chemical/ Mechanical Engineering or related areas

• Minimum of 10+ years of relevant experience and 3 years of people management experience

• Specific product, material & technology expertise is an advantage.