Senior Manager Go To Market / Category Lead

adidas AG; Warszawa; Hybrid; PLN 280,000 - 360,000; Full time

Job summary

adidas is seeking a Senior Manager Go To Market / Category Lead for Football to drive the category GTM plan across East Europe, including Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia and the Baltics. You will own end-to-end GTM plans, develop local assortments, and coordinate activation across channels.

The role requires deep category knowledge, strong analytical skills, and the ability to lead cross-functional teams in a fast-paced, international environment.

Qualifications

• University degree in business, ideally with marketing and sales focus or equivalent professional experience.
• 6-8 years of Merchandising Experience, cross-functional marketing and/or sales experience.
• Fluency in English (written and spoken).
• IT skills: MsOffice (Excel and PowerPoint - advanced)

Responsibilities

• Deliver a complete Category GTM proposition, local assortments per account, local category growth plan (GTM plan) in line with overall company objectives for dedicated product division.
• Coordinate, set up, execute and review the GTM Category plan for East Europe on an ongoing base.
• Represent the brand and the respective Business Unit internally and externally.
• Develop Category consumer profiles and input into forecasting topics.
• Steer the Marketplace conversations for growth in the category (incl. Own retail, ecom and key accounts).
• Act as captain of driving growth of the category in the local Marketplace.
• Steer and handover the category direction and seasonal plans to Sales and Marketing teams during seasonal milestones.

Skills

Fluent English

Merchandising

Product knowledge

Analytical skills

Education

University degree in business/marketing or equivalent

Tools

MS Office (Excel, PowerPoint)

Job description

Senior Manager Go To Market / Category Lead - Football

Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:

Drive and ensure business success for dedicated Category (Football) through the development and execution of a robust Category Go-To- (GTM) Market plan for East Europe, within the strategic framework set by the European and global Business Units. Act as Category expert and key contact for Category in East Europe (Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia, Baltics) and own Category GTM plans end to end.

Key Responsibilities:

GTM (Go-to-market):

Deliver a complete Category GTM proposition, local assortments per account, local category growth plan (GTM plan) in line with overall company objectives for dedicated product division; Category GTM plan contains product, distribution across all countries and commercial channels, communication, activation tools and sports marketing from a hyperlocal perspective.

• Coordinate, set up, execute and review the GTM Category plan for East Europe on an ongoing base
• Represent the brand and the respective Business Unit internally and externally
• Strategically support and input into Europe Business Unit on local ranging and forecasting topics (such as data, mark-up, pricing maintenance, segmentation, allocation, etc.)
• Develop Category consumer profiles
• Provide input into SMU of local key accounts
• Steer the Marketplace conversations for growth in the category (incl. Own retail, ecom and AKA accounts like Zalando or Decathlon)
• Acts as key contact person for Sales and cross functional marketing teams regarding Category product, activation and other GTM topics
• Act as captain of driving growth of the category in the local Marketplace
• Develop Category plans and drive handover to Sales
• Steer and handover the category direction and seasonal plans to Sales and Marketing teams during seasonal milestones
• Create and present specific promo ranges and product offers in alignment with Europe Business Unit together with Sports Marketing
• Ensures an efficient execution of the given sample order process & on target/budget
• Engage with a x-functional group of Category experts from different marketing & sales teams (“category/master-groups”) to drive the review and steering of the zone GTM plan and process for the Category
• Be a Pro-active ambassador for the Category and expert of the Category drivers in the marketplace

Commercial & Analytics:

• Demonstrate a “full marketplace” attitude (ALL countries & channels: DTC, WHS, X-border accounts) and stays in close exchange with the relevant Alliance Key Accounts teams
• Drive the successful sell-in process (from Category input, over pre-lines to sell-in meetings of identified strategic accounts)
• Develop relevant distribution and segmentation strategies to successfully manage key franchises in the zone (MRA tiering, Allocation)
• Use available market data to build dedicated product division plans (e.g. NPD data, Share of Search, market insights, sales data)
• Maintain regular analytics on the sell-in and sell-through performance of respective category (analytical support from Finance team)
• Give input to European Business Units on country price-grouping and submit requests exception throughout the pricing process

Leadership:

• Ability to lead and develop direct reports, from a functional and horizontal perspective
• Ability to create a positive workplace culture that leads to collective success as a team and organization, beyond the area of responsibility in GTM
• Living and representing the leadership behaviors that are expected at adidas
• Incorporating leadership framework elements into daily actions

Key Relationships:

• Cluster Central Europe SLT & the 1st lines
• Brand activation & Sports Marketing teams
• European BU
• Business & Sales Development
• Finance teams

KPIs:

• Net Margin
• Go In Margin
• Sell out
• Share of search

Knowledge, skills and abilities:

• Consumer focus with deep product and range knowledge
• Strong product, assortment knowledge and experience how to drive growth in a product category
• Excellent understanding of the balanced relationship between brand and commercial aspects to develop distribution-channel-specific GTM solutions
• Strong organizational and convincing presentation skills
• Passionate about sports, preferably Football specific with knowledge of the sport
• Pro- active (engaging & impact-oriented) mindset, ability to think end-to-end
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with different international cultures
• Business mindset: Very good numerical and analytical skills, experience in finance
• Good experience to manage projects on cross-functional level
• Ability to travel, domestic or international, as required
• Manager with advanced cross functional marketing knowledge and market experience in sport and/or fashion/lifestyle categories
• Passionate about sports & fashion

Requisite Education and Experience/Minimum Qualifications

• University degree in business, ideally with marketing and sales focus or equivalent professional experience
• 6-8 years of Merchandising Experience, cross-functional marketing and/or sales experience
• Fluency in English (written and spoken)
• IT skills: MsOffice (Excel and PowerPoint - advanced)
• Competencies also for hybrid teams (remote teams)
• People Connector – inclusive mindset and team player
• People leadership experience ideal

AT ADIDAS WE HAVE A WINNING CULTURE. BUT TO WIN, PHYSICAL POWER IS NOT ENOUGH. JUST LIKE ATHLETES OUR EMPLOYEES NEED MENTAL STRENGTH IN THEIR GAME. WE FOSTER THE ATHLETE’S MINDSET THROUGH A SET OF BEHAVIORS THAT WE WANT TO ENABLE AND DEVELOP IN OUR PEOPLE AND THAT ARE AT THE CORE OF OUR UNIQUE COMPANY CULTURE: THIS IS HOW WE WIN WHILE PLAYING FAIR.

• COURAGE:Speak up when you see an opportunity; step up when you see a need..
• OWNERSHIP:Pick up the ball. Be proactive, take responsibility and follow-through.
• INNOVATION: Elevate to win. Be curious, test and learn new and better ways of doing things.
• TEAMPLAY: Win together. Work collaboratively and cultivate a shared mindset.
• INTEGRITY: Play by the rules. Hold yourself and others accountable to our company’s standards.
• RESPECT: Value all players. Display empathy, be inclusive and show dignity to all.

At adidas, we strongly believe that embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into our culture and talent processes gives our employees a sense of belonging and our brand a real competitive advantage.
– Culture Starts With People, It Starts With You –
By recruiting talent and developing our people to reflect the rich diversity of our consumers and communities, we foster a culture of inclusion that engages our employees and authentically connects our brand with our consumers.