Director Athlete Performance - Football FTW, CD&I

Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization

Lead the development and implementation of a strategy on athlete interaction and product research and validation to drive innovation.

Provide leadership to a team that owns the definition of research-informed athlete problem statements, drives athlete engagement requirements to address these statements, and conducts research, non-standardized testing, and validation to solve against identified problems.

Act as a key driver of innovation for development teams in Innovation and the brand.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead programs and teams which deliver sports science insights to increase the understanding of the athlete and athlete-product interactions
• Identify relevant opportunities and trends, to enable team resources to be focused on evaluating and documenting relevant performance insights 
• Align the team's research and development objectives with the brand and team innovation direction
• Lead and develop strategic partnerships, to constantly increase the team’s capabilities
• Lead new validation strategies, including both perception and performance testing, to efficiently evaluate and document the benefit of product and experience for athletes
• Develop and manage processes which enable the testing of prototypes and innovative product concepts, prior to commercialization, in close cooperation with other members of the Athlete Performance team
• Collaborate with the cross-functional Innovation team to bring new concepts to life, via sports science insights, which enable an increased performance
• Ensure appropriate leadership skills are present through creating a motivational and supportive work environment in which employees are coached, trained, and provided with career opportunities
• Set clear objectives for team members and provide deep or broad expertise in supervised area

Key Relationships

• Innovation teams
• Brand Strategy
• Athlete Servicing and Testing & Quality
• Corporate functions (e.g. Legal & Compliance, Human Resources, Finance, IT, Logistics)
• Business Units
• Research institutions and industrial and academic partners

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Curiosity for science and technology with a passion for making insights in the field of sport
• Ability to understand scientific and complex information, and communicate this to technical and non-technical audiences
• Educate and train colleagues by sharing knowledge on an on-going basis
• Demonstrate the ability to work independently and within a team atmosphere
• Fluent English (required), German (advantageous)
• Communicate and negotiate effectively
• Cooperate well, develop and maintain relationships
• Work independently as well as part of a team
• Plan working time efficiently, balancing short term tasks with long term goals
• Strong analytical skills, solution driven and result oriented
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally

Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications

• PhD or Master's degree in Biomechanics, Bio based Science, or Engineering
• Minimum 10 years industry relevant experience in research, engineering, or similar position (PhD or relevant experiences will be considered)
• 5 years leadership of diverse and global teams in a matrix organization