Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:

At adidas, every role counts in driving our purpose forward. The Credit Team Lead ensures the effective execution of credit and collection activities within the Order to Cash (O2C) process. This role is responsible for supervising a team of credit analysts/collectors, driving adherence to global credit policies, and supporting the achievement of key performance indicators such as Gross Overdue, DSO, and Bad Debt. Acting as the operational link between the team and senior O2C leadership, the Credit Team Lead balances customer relationship management with risk mitigation, ensuring reliable cash flow and compliance with corporate standards.

Key Responsibilities and General Accountabilities:

• Manage small/medium size markets within GBS.
• Guide and develop GBS O2C team, fostering a high-performance culture, and ensuring optimal workload distribution.
• Coach, mentor, and develop team members to build capability and engagement.
• Enforce global credit and collection standards, mitigating risk, and ensuring alignment with corporate governance.
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives, implementing new tools and processes, and supporting transformation projects.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to internal teams and external customers, resolving escalations, and strengthening relationships.
• Oversee credit assessments, approvals, and monitoring to minimize financial exposure.
• Monitor and control overdue receivables, ensuring timely follow-up and resolution of outstanding balances.
• Implement proactive collection strategies to reduce overdue accounts and improve cash flow.
• Drive reduction of Gross Overdue by implementing proactive collection strategies and monitoring performance.
• Establish and maintain credit limits in line with global policies.
• Drive timely collection of receivables, ensuring adherence to KPIs and cash flow targets.
• Act as escalation point for customer disputes, coordinating resolution with sales, finance, and operations.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with customers to encourage timely payments and resolve disputes constructively.
• Negotiate payment plans or settlements with customers when necessary, protecting both the relationship and the company’s financial interests.
• Implement and maintain standardized O2C processes across the region.
• Identify opportunities for automation and continuous improvement.
• Partner with Sales, Finance, and Customer Service to align credit and collection strategies with business objectives.
• Provide regular updates and transparent communication to senior leadership on performance, risks, and opportunities.
• Lead O2C transformation initiatives, including new tool implementation and process optimization projects.
• Influence stakeholders to adopt best practices in order-to-cash processes, driving consistency and compliance.
• Deliver accurate reporting and analysis of credit and collection performance.
• Ensure effective communication and collaboration across Hubs and regional teams.
• Collaborate cross-functionally to streamline order-to-cash processes, minimizing delays in invoicing and payment.
• Drive initiatives to reduce DSO by improving collection efficiency and accelerating cash application.
• Minimize Bad Debt exposure through effective credit risk management, early identification of doubtful accounts, and recovery actions.

Key Relationships:

• Finance Teams
• Local Credit Management
• Cash Application Teams
• Customer Service Teams
• Record to Report Teams
• Sales Teams
• Supply chain, DCs & transportation teams.
• Tech

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Strong Finance Acumen.
• Solid experience with SAP.
• Experience in a Shared Service environment or similar.
• Ability to read, write and communicate in English, Spanish & Portuguese (if required) in a business setting.
• Ability to pay close attention to detail and high degree of customer orientation.
• Strong problem solving and analytical skills.
• Good communication and people management skills.
• Self-motivated and self-directed individual.
• Ability to adapt to a fast-paced environment.
• Highly results driven and self-motivated team player
• Curious and growth mindset; keen to learn and eager to find solutions outside of the comfort zone.

Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications:

• BA degree in Accounting, Finance or Economics
• Minimum of 5 years of relevant experience in End-to-End processes specifically for O2C activities
• Advanced English (B2/C1)
• Experience with process improvement and root cause analysis.
• Experience in an O2C Management role.
• Proven work experience in people management/ demonstrated ability to manage a medium-sized team.
• Experience in project management.
• Experience in Shared Service environment is considered a plus