Senior Manager Europe Finance, Future Capabilities (m/f/d)

at  Adidas

Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:
This is a key development opportunity for an organized, goal-oriented & passionate finance leader with an entrepreneurial, innovative mind-set, strong business acumen and excellent communication skills.
This role will be a key player in innovating Europe Financial Planning and Analysis processes, procedures, tools, and ways of working by exploring and leveraging the power of modern digital tools. The position holder will act as a change agent and accelerator of innovation by driving our Digital Finance transformation and leading the change to a modern Planning & Analysis mindset within the Europe FP&A community.

Key Responsibilities:

• Closely collaborate with Global Data & Analytics and Corporate FP&A in the development and roll-out of improved reporting and analysis tools.
• Innovate Europe Financial Planning and Analysis processes, procedures, tools, and ways of working by pro-actively identifying opportunities to leverage analytics and technologies.
• Define innovation roadmap, align with Senior Europe Finance Leadership, and drive on-time implementation by closely monitoring progress, results and milestones, proposing solutions in case of delays or deviations from plan; drive decision making.
• Identify significant improvement potential through variance analysis, derive solutions and facilitate related decisions.
• Provide comprehensive expertise for assigned functional areas/systems and processes towards team and business partners. Ensure smooth operation of the business by taking on ownership for related actions.
• Orchestrate and align cross-functional tasks and activities with the rest of Europe Finance / Global Finance / Data & Analytics, etc. and drive insights exchange and best practice / knowledge sharing.
• Identify risks to achieve set targets and define/maintain mitigation plan.
• Support the Europe Finance Senior Leadership Team in establishing an entrepreneurial growth and learning mindset within the Europe Finance community with a strong bias for finance & technical innovation and agile ways of working.
• Act as a change agent and accelerator for innovative tools / technologies / methods by providing training sessions for the Europe Finance community, organizing workshops / learning days, identifying & sharing relevant learning opportunities, etc.
• Identify, closely collaborate, and leverage insights / findings from adidas Learning groups (e.g., Finance Academy, Tech Academy, etc. and pro-actively share relevant information with the Europe Finance community.

Key Relationships:

Work effectively and collaboratively across multiple functions/businesses and hierarchies, esp.:

• Finance Directors, FP&A and Commercial Finance teams across Europe
• Corporate FP&A (Corporate Reporting, Financial Planning, etc.)
• Data & Analytics

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Passion for bringing adidas / Europe Finance to the next level.
• Authentic belief in the power of analytics and technological development; a strong will to innovate ways of working combined with the proven execution ability & stamina to effect lasting change. Experience in Digital Finance transformation a strong plus.
• Comprehensive understanding of Finance and Accounting principles, processes & structures. Strong financial statement analysis capability paired with a well-developed business acumen and multiple years of hands-on experience in commercial finance in an operational Finance environment.
• In depth understanding of the underlying internal and external commercial driver model for forecasting within a Retail and/or brand driven environment, esp. for distribution channels Wholesale, e-com and / or Retail.
• Broad and deep project management skills and experience in larger scale projects and/or change programs/initiatives; Experience in managing difficult and conflictual situations and meetings.
• Ability to coach, guide, manage and develop a multinational team.
• Ability to interact effectively across hierarchies, functions/businesses, and cultures.
• Compelling storyteller who can balance information requests from senior executives, stakeholders, and cross functional business leaders.
• Ability to think strategically, independently structure, analyze, and synthesize findings / dynamic inputs and develop innovative solutions within an entrepreneurial, fast changing environment.
• Proven track record of executing with excellence in environments that require a detail-oriented approach and the ability to manage multiple stakeholders and priorities simultaneously under tight timelines.
• Proven creativity and curiosity to identify and solve a wide range of Function/Business challenges.
• Strong analytical skills, managing large data quantities from multiple sources.
• Solid understanding of descriptive statistics and experience in statistical modelling combined with strong visualization capabilities is a strong plus.
• Excellent MS Office skills with expertise in MS Excel advanced tools (Power Pivot / Power Query / VBA) and Power BI.
• Solid experience using SAP (SAC/Analysis for Office) for reporting and analysis.
• Knowledge of Python, SQL, and Databricks for automation and analysis a strong plus.
• Fluent in English (spoken and written).

Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications:

• University degree in business administration or finance or related field
• 5-10 years of operational finance experience within Retail/Fashion and/or brand-driven environment with a focus on FP&A
• Experience in project management and in facilitating workshops

• Inclusive growth mindsetGeographical mobility

• Closely collaborate with Global Data & Analytics and Corporate FP&A in the development and roll-out of improved reporting and analysis tools.
• Innovate Europe Financial Planning and Analysis processes, procedures, tools, and ways of working by pro-actively identifying opportunities to leverage analytics and technologies.
• Define innovation roadmap, align with Senior Europe Finance Leadership, and drive on-time implementation by closely monitoring progress, results and milestones, proposing solutions in case of delays or deviations from plan; drive decision making.
• Identify significant improvement potential through variance analysis, derive solutions and facilitate related decisions.
• Provide comprehensive expertise for assigned functional areas/systems and processes towards team and business partners. Ensure smooth operation of the business by taking on ownership for related actions.
• Orchestrate and align cross-functional tasks and activities with the rest of Europe Finance / Global Finance / Data & Analytics, etc. and drive insights exchange and best practice / knowledge sharing.
• Identify risks to achieve set targets and define/maintain mitigation plan.
• Support the Europe Finance Senior Leadership Team in establishing an entrepreneurial growth and learning mindset within the Europe Finance community with a strong bias for finance & technical innovation and agile ways of working.
• Act as a change agent and accelerator for innovative tools / technologies / methods by providing training sessions for the Europe Finance community, organizing workshops / learning days, identifying & sharing relevant learning opportunities, etc.
• Identify, closely collaborate, and leverage insights / findings from adidas Learning groups (e.g., Finance Academy, Tech Academy, etc. and pro-actively share relevant information with the Europe Finance community