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. The position holder will support in enabling a purposeful, controlled and efficient use of financial resources by providing transparency and financial analysis to ensure value adding financial services to the management of Market Europe, its country clusters and to the adidas Group. 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 Market Europe with focus on MaEx (Marketing Expenses). 

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and monitor KPIs for ad hoc, short- and long-term planning and bring responsibility into the business.
• Maintain integrity of dynamic planning processes (forecast, budget, SBP) and the monthly closing along with adidas Group processes & targets.
• Create transparency about business performance by analyzing and comparing data from different sources of information.
• Provide Senior and Group Management with correct, timely and in-depth financial analysis and other ad-hoc reporting.
• Establish a valued business partnership with Marketing teams to enable efficient usage of the financial resources and assist in making business decisions to achieve sustainable growth, profitability and targets.
• Ensure efficient communication with all key interfaces within a broad range of stakeholders.
• Develop and implement state of the art analytic tools by showing initiative to creatively approach new subjects, pro-actively drive and analyze related business processes.
• 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.
• Ensure business continuity management in Europe Cluster MaEx teams in case of vacancies or other shortfalls.
• Significantly enhance and improve working methods for day-to-day processes and systems and ensure smooth operation by taking ownership for related actions.
• Manage medium sized projects and/or actively participate in projects; implement findings and ensure sustainability of achievements.

Key Relationships

• Finance Directors and OPEX FP&A teams across Europe
• Europe Brand & Marketing teams
• FP&A Europe & Europe Finance SLT
• Corporate Controlling (Global Brand & Market Finance)
• Global Business Services

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-functional 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.
• 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
• Solid experience with SAP (FI/CO), BI / MSTR is a must.
• Knowledge of R or other statistical computing languages / tools is a plus.
• Fluent in English (written and spoken).

Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications

• University degree in business administration or finance
• 3+ years working experience in the respective area
• Language skills: English spoken and written
• Inclusive
• Growth mindset