Director, Sourcing Product Concept & Innovation - Footwear Physical Foams & Bottom Technologies

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 commercial competitiveness – Focus on FTW physical foams & bottom technologies
• Drive definition, readiness & validation of innovation & commercially ready technology solutions.
• Secure for adidas best in class bottom technologies (Material, process, machinery, tools & suppliers)
• Senior point of contact with industry & academic partners to remain on forefront of technology & FTW evolution

Key Responsibilities

• Drive innovative bottom solutions & validation towards specifications, compliance & integrity.
• Provide commercial tangible guidance throughout the readiness levels, ROI, timelines, and scalability.
• Work closely with supplier innovation teams & centers to ensure performance, competitiveness & advantage for adidas.
• Encourage suppliers to continuously upgrade their expertise, technical applications, new materials innovation, and manufacturing technologies.
• Scouting & Research in 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 the team, stakeholders & suppliers to ensure feasibility, commercial readiness, 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 the 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

• Product Development & Sourcing
• Sourcing Materials team
• HQ Innovation Teams
• Testing & quality
• adiLab, Innovation Management
• Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 Supply Partners Innovation departments, machine & tooling suppliers

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)

Requisite Education and Experience

• University Degree, in Materials/Polymers/Process/Textile/Chemical/ Mechanical Engineering or related areas – Expert in physical foam technologies
• Minimum of 10+ years of relevant experience and 3 years of people management experience
• Fluent in English & ability to communicate with technical teams & SLT
• International experience in both HQ & Sourcing
• Product and material experience is an advantage.