Senior Manager, Category Management, Originals Apparel

This role drives the BU Originals Apparel business within guidelines set by the Global BUs, through product strategy that reflects an understanding of consumers, market trends and business needs. It sits within the Brand Management & Communications team and leads category management and merchandising for Originals women's apparel, covering seasonal strategy, product creation input and go-to-market execution. The role works closely with the Global BU and GTM teams, the GCA product team (including the Creation Centre Shanghai), brand marketing, offline channels, demand planning and finance, and other markets' Originals BUs.

• Obtain and deliver consumer insights to inform product and marketplace management decisions, deepening consumer connection and market trend understanding.
• Develop the Originals women's apparel seasonal business and product strategy, including range architecture, segmentation, distribution, pricing and forecasting.
• Deliver the seasonal merchandising plan and provide direction for both global and local creation of the assortment.
• Plan ranges for local SMU creation needs, brief and download business needs to internal stakeholders, and support product creation and the operational process.
• Lead the execution of the women's apparel product strategy category interface with the Global BU, covering business opportunities, regular touchbases and input, performance results, market trends and insights, and category plans.
• Manage go-to-market execution, including seasonal sell-in with the product range plan and sell-in margin, to achieve sell-out and other critical product financial targets.
• Land seasonal key initiatives with consideration of the end-to-end consumer journey.
• Drive smooth and effective cross-functional communication with marketing, channels and other relevant internal stakeholders to land the seasonal strategy and assortment across both the GCA and global organisation.
• Monitor business performance against KPIs including category net sales, net margin and contribution across GCA, sell-out, forecast and data accuracy, market share, and achievement of key SBP initiatives.
• Carry out routine tasks including business performance analysis, system and file management, and sample management.

• 8+ years of experience in category management/product.
• University degree in Business or equivalent professional experience.
• Expert understanding of the China market, consumers and commercial needs, especially from an apparel perspective, with the ability to interpret insights against strategy.
• Presentation, communication, negotiation and influencing skills.
• Strong data analysis skills and the ability to translate and articulate data results into clear business actions.
• Distinct track record of success and high-level category management and merchandising knowledge in apparel.
• Strong cross-functional and stakeholder management experience across commercial functions (e.g. marketing, sales, buying) and support functions.
• Positive and organised work ethic, with the ability to organise teams and work process cross-functionally.
• Solution-oriented and agile mindset, with the ability to adapt to a fast-paced working environment.
• Team player with a high level of integrity and attention to detail.
• Fluent in English.
• Strong computer skills including Outlook, Word, Excel (Pivot) and PowerPoint.
• Passion for sports and fashion lifestyle and belief that through sports we have the power to change lives.
• Willingness to travel up to 15-20% of the time.

• Sporting goods or fashion industry experience.
• Experience working with finance functions.

Adidas believes that embedding diversity, equity and inclusion into its culture and talent processes gives its employees a sense of belonging and its brand a real competitive advantage. Through sport, adidas believes it has the power to change lives.