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Senior Manager, Tooling Footwear

  • Shanghai, China
  • Full time
  • Competitive
  • 25th September 2026
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Full Description

PURPOSE 

  • Key player in Sourcing in driving Sourcing’s vision to be the Most Agile, Most Competitive, Most Digitalized & Cleanest Supply Base in the industry.  
  • Drive and manage tooling team members to drive tooling efficiency and quality in T1 factories, mold shops, and/or component suppliers, and support PCT in future technology, policy development and update.
  • Manage the tooling creation & tooling manufacturing process within the assigned factory / factory groups with focus on lead time and quality. Ensure adidas innovation technologies and processes are implemented in all factory / factory groups that he / she is responsible for. 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES  
Tooling Management 

  • Lead one or more tooling team in the assigned factory / factory groups for tooling related processes in tooling development, commercialization and production and ensure quality, lead times, rejection rate, productivity and price conformity.
  • Consult and participate in LO Costing team in tooling costing process. Liable for submitting theoretical weight and verifying cycle time for outsole.  
  • Contribute to the adidas lean manufacturing program for mold suppliers from tooling side and implement forecasting & planning tools within local mold suppliers to cut tooling creation & manufacturing lead times.
  • Ensure T1 tooling data is available and up-to-date in the regional tooling data management system and aiding the further development of the system.
  • Manage issues related to cross-country mold transfers in terms of transfer times, quality, taxation and further concerns, and support LO, T1 and T2 teams on technical and tooling related issues.

Product Creation Technologies 

  • Assist manufacturing excellence initiatives from a country level.
  • Lead factories and mold shops to build strong capabilities in the area of CAD creation, rapid prototyping, and mold creation.
  • In collaboration with PCT team to lead assigned T1 factory / factory groups to publish, establish and evaluate PCT policies, best practices and procedures and identifying improvement opportunities.
  • Manage biyearly production mold audit, product security, mold shop performance tracking (RFT, OTD) to maintain and enhance tooling data security and mold quality.
  • Support Regional PCT & Tooling, Asia on creation of PCT documentations, implement and provide operations feedback to enhance existing best practices, policies, guidelines and other process standards.
  • Provide input and update needed to support tooling allocation among adidas released mold shops.

Training and Administration 

  • Participate in the PCT Technical Training throughout the LO organization to ensure Brand, T1 & T2 staff meet adidas group technical competencies.
  • Establish well-structured tooling trainings for development/commercialization staffs for technical skills enhancement and for other functional staffs within LO to get a general understanding of technical points.  
  • Creation, administration and facilitation of visitor schedules, managing the timelines and relationships with both visitors and T1s / component suppliers. 

Management and General Responsibilities 

  • DPC / DSO during the management of the seasonal tooling allocation to ensure consistent workload and project complexity for adidas released mold suppliers.
  • Act as an intermediary for escalation of mold cost template complexity issues, tooling transfer issues.
  • 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.
  • Role model leadership to foster a culture of Diversity Equity & Inclusion that strives for an inclusive workplace. 

Key Relationships:  

  • Global Sourcing: PCT, E&MI
  • Headquarter Technical Teams (Tooling), HQ PJMs
  • Product Operations  
  • Sourcing suppliers   


Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:  

  • Strong technical knowledge of tooling design, engineering, mold making and manufacturing, CAD, CAM and RP
  • Excellent technical footwear knowledge of product construction and manufacturing methods
  • Good knowledge in Lean manufacturing and process automation
  • Strong presentation, negotiation, influencing, interpersonal and communication skills
  • Fluent in English (written and spoken)
  • Strong MS Office Skills, CAD software (eg Rhino or similar CAD software)
  • Strong leadership skills and ability to work with multidimensional teams


Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications:   

  • University degree in engineering/ materials or related areas
  • Minimum 7+ years of relevant business experience including Product Development, Engineering, Technical Service and Production

The organisation

Adidas
  • Sporting Goods & Apparel
  • Herzogenaurach, Germany
  • 2000+ employees
  • Website

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