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, adiLab, 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.