Senior Manager Go To Market / Category Lead - Football

Drives business success for the Football category in East Europe by developing and executing a robust Category Go-To-Market plan within the strategic framework set by the European and global Business Units. It acts as Category expert and key contact for East Europe across Poland, Czechia, Hungary, Slovakia and the Baltics, owning Category GTM plans end to end. The role sits within Merchandising & Planning and works with Sales, Marketing, Sports Marketing, Finance, DTC, AKA and European Business Unit stakeholders.

• Coordinate, set up, execute and review the East Europe Category GTM plan on an ongoing basis, covering product, distribution across countries and commercial channels, communication, activation tools and hyperlocal sports marketing.
• Represent the brand and Business Unit internally and externally, acting as Category expert and key contact for Sales and cross-functional marketing teams on product, activation and other GTM topics.
• Provide strategic input to the Europe Business Unit on local ranging and forecasting topics such as data, mark-up, pricing maintenance, segmentation and allocation.
• Develop Category consumer profiles, provide input into SMUs of local key accounts, and steer Marketplace conversations for category growth across all countries and channels, including DTC, WHS, cross-border accounts, own retail, ecommerce and AKA accounts such as Zalando or Decathlon
• While staying in close exchange with Alliance Key Accounts teams.
• Develop Category plans and drive handover to Sales, steering category direction and seasonal plans to Sales and Marketing teams during seasonal milestones.
• Create and present specific promo ranges and product offers with Sports Marketing in alignment with the Europe Business Unit, and ensure efficient execution of the sample order process on target and budget.
• Engage with cross-functional category/master groups to review and steer the zone GTM plan and process, and act as a proactive ambassador for the Category and expert in Category drivers in the marketplace.
• Drive the sell-in process from Category input through pre-lines to sell-in meetings for identified strategic accounts, and develop distribution and segmentation strategies such as MRA tiering and allocation to manage key franchises in the zone.
• Use market data such as NPD, Share of Search, market insights and sales data to build product division plans, maintain regular sell-in and sell-through analytics, and give input on country price-grouping and pricing exceptions.
• Lead and develop direct reports from a functional and horizontal perspective, create a positive workplace culture, and live and represent expected leadership behaviours and leadership framework elements in daily actions.

• University degree in business or equivalent professional experience.
• 6-8 years of merchandising experience and/or cross-functional marketing and/or sales experience.
• Fluency in English, written and spoken.
• Advanced IT skills in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel and PowerPoint.
• Consumer focus with deep product and range knowledge.
• Strong product and assortment knowledge and experience in driving growth in a product category.
• Excellent understanding of the balanced relationship between brand and commercial aspects to develop distribution-channel-specific GTM solutions.
• Strong organisational and convincing presentation skills.
• Proactive, engaging and impact-oriented mindset with the ability to think end-to-end.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with different international cultures.
• Business mindset with very good numerical and analytical skills and experience in finance.
• Experience managing projects on a cross-functional level.
• Ability to travel domestically or internationally as required.
• Advanced cross-functional marketing knowledge and market experience in sport and/or fashion/lifestyle categories.
• Passionate about sports and fashion.

• People leadership experience is ideal.
• University degree with a marketing and sales focus.
• Football-specific passion and knowledge of the sport.

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