PURPOSE

A key player in Global Sourcing in driving Sourcing’s vision to be the Most Agile, Most Competitive, Most Digitalized & Cleanest Supply Base in the industry.  Drive overall costing performance of the Liaison Office (LO) through implementation of Sourcing Costing process and standards, assuring company go-in margin targets are met by assisting Supplier, Merchandising teams, and optimizing landed costs through a clear understanding of economic trends and trade opportunities.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Provide costing leadership within the LO to ensure Creation Centers Costing/Brands receive accurate information according to the costing calendar timelines.
• Provide guidance and assistance to the Sourcing Operations Costing in improving the costing performance, efficiency and effectiveness of the Tier 1 (T1) and ensure factory specific costing strategies are implemented as planned.
• Assist Sourcing Operations and LO Manufacturing Excellence teams in achieving brand margin targets and process improvement initiatives by focusing on all cost drivers to improve understanding of costs, efficiency and overheads which positively impact margins.
• Lead and drive costing audits and propose improvement areas with supplier partners.
• Drive compliance and improvement of global costing policies, procedures, and new systems by providing feedback to Sourcing Costing and Sourcing Operations.
• Build, manage and roll out Costing Standards within regions to achieve a fact-based, transparent and sustainable costing.
• Provide economic trend information, including labor rates, inflation, exchange rates and government policy change, necessary to formulate sourcing strategies, global costing policies, and costing tools.
• Train and assist Sourcing Operations teams and T1s in the understanding and application of cost drivers (e.g. Yield, Print, Labour & Overhead, etc) costing frameworks, policies and process, including application of consistent, accurate and transparent cost sheets.
• Strong understanding of all components affecting landed cost calculation including relevant duty rates by selling region and awareness of trade agreements relevant to production region.
• Lead and manage communication of LO costing reports at key development milestones.
• Ensure all sourcing operations and practices fully comply with adidas’ Responsible Sourcing & Purchasing Policy, adidas standards and legal requirements, while managing the relevant processes internally and externally.Role model leadership to foster a culture of Diversity Equity & Inclusion that strives for an inclusive workplace.

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

• Global Sourcing: Sourcing Operations, Costing
• Global Operations: Business Unit Costing Operations
• External stakeholder: Tier 1 Costing

KNOWLEDGE SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• Strong knowledge and understanding of both product construction, manufacturing operations
• Strong understanding of country, regional and global cost drivers, end-to-end costing/sourcing process
• Strong analytical skills, managing large data quantities from multiple sources
• Strong presentation, negotiation, influencing, people and communication skills
• Fluent in English (written and spoken)
• Strong Microsoft office skills

REQUISITE EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

• University degree, or technical degree in apparel, footwear or manufacturing
• Minimum 7+ years of experience in the apparel or footwear industry with costing responsibility