KEY RELATIONSHIPS:

SVP Finance Europe & Commercial and Europe Finance Senior Leadership Team
Finance VPs/ Directors and OPEX FP&A teams across Europe, Corporate Controlling (Global Sales & Market FI, Brand FI, Group Functions FI)
Corporate Finance (eg GOPS FI, Treasury, Accounting, Taxes)
Global Business Services
Organizational Workforce Management

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• A solid understanding of Finance and Accounting principles; Financial statement analysis ability
• Comprehensive business understanding of processes and structures
• Strong analytical skills, managing large data quantities from multiple sources
• Ability to think and act strategically, synthesize dynamic inputs, and develop innovative solutions within an entrepreneurial, fast changing environment.
• Ability to think & operate cross-functionally and understanding of external business drivers.
• Ability to execute with excellence in environments that require a detail-oriented approach and the ability to manage multiple stakeholders and priorities simultaneously under tight timelines
• Strong communication skills - written, oral, and presentation
• Ability to build strong relationships across functions and throughout the business
• High degree of customer orientation
• Ability and attitude to persuade and challenge business partners
• Business fluency in English (written and spoken)
• Learning and innovation mindset; insights into Analytics and technological development paired with an authentic interest & will to innovate ways of working
• Excellent MS-Office skills, particularly Excel and PowerPoint; Access knowledge a plus
• Solid experience with SAP (FI/CO), SAP PS4, SAP Analytic Cloud, Power BI, Analytics Portal is a must

REQUISITE EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE / MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• University degree in business administration or finance
• 4+ years of operational finance experience within Retail and/or brand driven environment
• Language skills: English spoken and written
• Inclusive
• Growth mindset

PURPOSE & OVERALL RELEVANCE FOR THE ORGANIZATION

This is a key development opportunity for an organized, goal-oriented, committed & passionate finance professional with an entrepreneurial mind-set and well-developed business acumen.
This role will be a key player in identifying and implementing harmonized, efficient, state of the art Financial Planning & Analysis processes, procedures, and tools for the Market set-up of Europe with focus on OOH (Operating Overheads). The position holder will furthermore support the purposeful, controlled, and efficient use of financial resources by providing transparency and dedicated financial analysis, planning, and reporting to ensure value adding financial services to the management of Market Europe, its country clusters and to adidas Group.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Enable fact-based decision making by creating transparency on European financial statements and forecasts. Provide correct, timely and in-depth standard and ad hoc analysis & reporting. Pro-actively identify risks and opportunities and address to Europe FP&A leadership team.
• Identify improvement potential through variance analysis, derive solutions and facilitate related decisions.
• Support the development and implementation of harmonized & standardized financial target setting, planning, reporting, and controlling processes, procedures & tools with a focus for improvement & simplification as well as cross- and inter-functional (finance-to-finance) efficiency.
• Execute strategic planning, target setting, budgeting, forecasting, variance analyses and benchmarking of P&L, Balance sheet and Cashflow statements as well as ad hoc analyses for Market Europe.
• Ensure business continuity management in Europe Cluster OOH Teams in case of vacancies or other shortfalls.
• Harmonize, standardize, and automate ways of working in OOH planning and management, incl. accounting principles across Europe. Closely partner with the GBS Team to implement & execute.
• Develop and implement adequate and aligned communication packages to present results, recommendations, and solutions.
• Support the preparation of Senior Leadership meeting presentations & commentaries.
• Significantly enhance and improve working methods for day-to-day processes and systems.
• Develop and implement state of the art analytic tools.
• Act as a change agent and accelerator of innovation within Europe Financial Planning and Analysis processes, procedures, tools, and ways of working by exploring and leveraging the power of analytics and technologies. Pro-actively support the Digital Finance transformation and support the change to an Extended Planning & Analysis mindset within the European FP&A community.
• Work towards the achievement of department targets.
• Provide expertise for assigned functional areas/systems and processes towards team and business partners.
• Ensure smooth operation of the day today business by taking on ownership for related actions.
• Manage medium sized projects and/or actively participate in projects; implement findings and ensure sustainability of achievements.