Senior Manager - Brand Marketing Finance (m/f/d)

at  Adidas

Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:
The Brand Finance Team partners with the adidas Brand to set and achieve tactical and strategic financial targets, while driving financial analysis to support fact-based decision making.
The objective of the adidas Brand Marketing Finance team is to provide financial transparency and insights for the Global Brands organization, which includes all aspects of financial planning, budgeting, controlling, performance management as well as Management reporting for Marketing Investments and the Licensing business.
The Senior Manager Brand Marketing Finance creates transparency about the Marketing Expenses development and acts as a financial advisor to the business partners of the Global Marketing/Brand organization, by giving recommendations to enable and drive fact-based decision-making to support the achievement of the financial/brand targets as well as the brand’s strategy. The Senior Manager is main contact for strategic processes around Marketing Expenses and is in the lead for reporting and bottom-up planning of Royalties within the assigned area of responsibility.

Key Responsibilities:

• Partner with global marketing/brand/licensing teams, providing comprehensive expertise to ensure smooth operation of the business
• Planning, forecasting and tracking of Marketing Expenses and Royalties for assigned area of responsibility
• Enable fact-based decision making by creating transparency on all relevant financial KPI’s, risks and opportunities and business potential of new initiatives
• Drive communication and alignment on finance topics with Markets and HQ Marketing functions, as well as other relevant parties within the Marketing Expenses Controlling context, e.g. Legal, Accounting, etc.
• Drive alignment on Licensing finance and process topics with global Licensing team, Markets, Product Teams and other functions, e.g. Accounting, Taxes and Legal
• Develop and implement state of the art analytical tools (or challenge and improve the existing ones)
• Develop and implement and further improve adequate communication packages to present derived results, recommendations, and solutions
• Support during medium to large sized project, implementing findings and ensure sustainability of achievements
• Enhance processes or operational plans and deliver results with direct impact on the department targets
• Ensure accounting compliance of month-, quarter, and year-end close

Key Relationships:

• Global Brand/Marketing Teams & Global Licensing
• BU Finance teams & Corporate Controlling Teams
• Marketing Expenses & Royalty controlling Teams in all markets/HQ
• Corporate Finance Teams (GBS, Taxes, Accounting, Legal, Treasury)
• External Partners / external Business Consultants

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Ability to think and act strategically and develop operational plans
• Strong analytical mindset, facility with numbers and problem-solving skills
• Very strong communication, influencing & negotiation skills to appropriately serve business partners and senior stakeholders
• Ability to maneuver in a consistently changing environment
• Ability to operate cross-functionally and understanding of external business drivers
• Thorough understanding of the complexity, interactions and dynamics within an international company
• Business fluency in English (written and spoken)
• Comprehensive understanding of system landscape (MS Office esp. Excel and PowerPoint, good knowledge of SAP/SAC)

Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications:

• University degree in Business Administration/Finance/Controlling
• 5+ years of work experience in Finance, preferably within the retail, sporting goods industry or comparable industries

• Partner with global marketing/brand/licensing teams, providing comprehensive expertise to ensure smooth operation of the business
• Planning, forecasting and tracking of Marketing Expenses and Royalties for assigned area of responsibility
• Enable fact-based decision making by creating transparency on all relevant financial KPI’s, risks and opportunities and business potential of new initiatives
• Drive communication and alignment on finance topics with Markets and HQ Marketing functions, as well as other relevant parties within the Marketing Expenses Controlling context, e.g. Legal, Accounting, etc.
• Drive alignment on Licensing finance and process topics with global Licensing team, Markets, Product Teams and other functions, e.g. Accounting, Taxes and Legal
• Develop and implement state of the art analytical tools (or challenge and improve the existing ones)
• Develop and implement and further improve adequate communication packages to present derived results, recommendations, and solutions
• Support during medium to large sized project, implementing findings and ensure sustainability of achievements
• Enhance processes or operational plans and deliver results with direct impact on the department targets
• Ensure accounting compliance of month-, quarter, and year-end clos