Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization

As Manager Category, Brand Projects, you will drive the execution of cross-category initiatives and nearshoring programs that improve speed, agility, and commercial responsiveness across Southeast Asia.

With a particular focus on nearshoring and local production initiatives, this role will help scale fast-response capabilities, improve cross-functional ways of working, and support healthier inventory and go-to-market outcomes across SEA.

Key Responsibilities

Horizontal Category Strategy & Concept Development

• Own and rollout of horizontal category concepts that apply across multiple categories (e.g. franchise segments, Kids, product types).
• Identify operational opportunities to improve responsiveness, flexibility, and local market relevance.
• Ensure horizontal concepts support both brand ambition and commercial performance.
• Build frameworks, playbooks, and reporting routines to scale nearshoring initiatives across the region.
• Track KPIs linked to speed-to-market, service, inventory health, and commercial outcomes.

Project Management & Cross Functional Coordination

• Drive alignment around consumer‑led thinking, enabling consistent application across categories and markets.
• Partner with Category teams to help define clear roles of product within the broader adidas portfolio.
• Contribute to cleaner assortments by supporting horizontal guardrails for breadth, depth, and differentiation.
• Support key marketplace moments by ensuring horizontal concepts are reflected in seasonal line‑ups.
• Help balance global consistency with local relevance, enabling markets to flex within agreed frameworks.

• Own project plans, governance routines, action trackers, and follow-up mechanisms.
• Ensure alignment across stakeholders, proactively flagging risks, dependencies, and bottlenecks.
• Support workshop preparation, steering meetings, and executive updates for priority initiatives.
• Support disciplined execution and follow-through across multiple workstreams.

Cross‑Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Category Management, Brand Analytics ,GTM, MOPS, Product, Brand, Demand Planning, Supply Chain and Finance teams.
• Act as a connector between Emerging Markets strategy and SEA regional / market needs, translating priorities both ways.
• Support SEA countries and GTM teams with frameworks, tools, and materials to enable consistent execution.
• Act as project owner for cross‑functional brand or category projects, ensuring timelines and outputs are aligned.

Commercial & Marketplace Impact

• Contribute to improved assortment productivity, clarity, and scalability across channels and markets.
• Support key marketplace moments by ensuring horizontal concepts are reflected in seasonal assortments.
• Assist in analysing cross‑category performance to identify structural opportunities and risks.
• Use insights and learnings to support continuous improvement of future concepts and plans.

Nearshoring & Speed Enablement

• Drive the connection between sourcing, supply chain, category planning, and go‑to‑market to develop responsive supply solutions tailored to SEA.
• Assist in the development and execution of the Southeast Asia nearshoring strategy, aligned with Global speed and agility priorities, in collaboration with Emerging Markets.
• Help identify categories, franchises, and price points best suited for nearshored or fast‑response production models.
• Work with stakeholders to translate strategic intent into concrete nearshoring use cases.
• Own tracking of nearshoring initiatives against speed, service, cost, and inventory KPIs.
• Contribute to the development of playbooks, frameworks, and tools to standardize nearshoring execution.

Behaviors & Capabilities

• Structured, systems‑oriented thinker with strong attention to detail.
• Confident communicator able to manage multiple stakeholders.
• Curious, learning‑oriented, and comfortable operating in ambiguity.

Key Relationships

• Internal: SEA Brand, Supply Chain & Operations, Country Teams, Emerging Markets Teams, Local Creation Centres, Factories / LO partners

Professional Experience & Profile

• 5-8 years of experience in category, planning, merchandising, supply chain, or related roles.
• Exposure to product creation, sourcing, or local production is a strong plus.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and stakeholder management skills.
• Passion for learning, speed, and end‑to‑end business understanding.