Manager Business Process Deployment
Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization
The Deployment team plays a critical role in ensuring that the right products are available at the right place and time across the European distribution network. The team is responsible for developing and managing inventory deployment strategies that optimize service, inventory productivity, and supply chain efficiency throughout the season.
As a Deployment Manager, you will be responsible for the end-to-end governance, execution, and continuous improvement of the Stock Transfer Requisition (STR) to Stock Transfer Order (STO) process within the European supply chain network. This includes ownership of the business processes, system capabilities, performance management, and stakeholder alignment required to ensure seamless inventory movement between distribution centers.
You will lead the planning and execution of intra-network inventory deployments, balancing customer demand, inventory availability, capacity constraints, and transportation costs while ensuring alignment with business priorities. Acting as the primary process owner for STR/STO, you will drive operational excellence, identify optimization opportunities, and ensure that deployment decisions support both short-term commercial objectives and long-term supply chain strategies.
Key Responsibilities
STR/STO Process Ownership & Governance
- Own the end-to-end STR to STO process for Europe, ensuring consistent, compliant, and efficient execution across the supply chain network.
- Define and maintain business rules, governance standards, KPIs, escalation pathways, and operating procedures related to deployment and inventory transfers.
- Act as the primary business owner for STR/STO process performance, driving continuous improvement initiatives and operational excellence.
- Ensure deployment decisions support overall business priorities, inventory productivity goals, customer service objectives, and financial targets.
- Lead cross-functional alignment on deployment strategy, network inventory balancing, and stock movement prioritization.
S/4HANA Process Leadership
- Serve as the business process owner for the STR/STO process within S/4HANA.
- Lead business requirements definition, solution design reviews, testing strategy, UAT execution, defect prioritization, and go-live readiness activities.
- Partner with Order Fulfillment, Customer Fulfillment, and DC Ops to drive process harmonization and understanding across Europe.
- Ensure successful stabilization and continuous improvement of S/4 processes following deployment.
- Drive system enhancements, automation opportunities, and process optimization initiatives to improve deployment effectiveness and scalability.
Deployment Planning & Execution
- Oversee and govern the deployment orderbook and inventory transfer pipeline across the European distribution network.
- Lead weekly and daily deployment planning activities, ensuring alignment with supply availability, demand priorities, capacity constraints, and operational objectives.
- Manage and optimize Multi-Node Replenishment processes, including deployment selection logic, execution governance, and performance monitoring.
- Ensure timely execution of STR creation, STO conversion, delivery processing, and fulfillment activities.
- Oversee exception management and coordinate resolution of critical deployment disruptions and inventory imbalances.
Performance & Financial Management
- Establish and monitor deployment KPIs including service level, inventory productivity, fulfillment performance, lead time adherence, and deployment cost efficiency.
- Track STO costs against budget and partner with Finance to manage forecasting, reporting, and variance analysis.
- Identify performance drivers, quantify business impacts, and lead corrective actions to improve network performance.
- Provide regular reporting and business insights to senior leadership and key stakeholders.
Stakeholder Leadership & Collaboration
- Act as the primary point of contact for STR-related topics across Demand Planning, Product Supply, Distribution Centers, Omni Channel, Digital, and Finance.
- Influence cross-functional teams to drive alignment on deployment priorities, process improvements, and system capabilities.
- Lead deployment governance forums and facilitate decision-making across multiple stakeholder groups.
- Coach and support analysts and other deployment team members, fostering capability development and best practice adoption.
Strategic Planning & Continuous Improvement
- Support long-term network inventory and deployment strategy development.
- Analyze historical performance, market trends, and business requirements to identify improvement opportunities.
- Lead projects focused on process simplification, automation, cost optimization, and service improvement.
- Drive innovation in deployment planning through enhanced analytics, reporting, and system capabilities.
Key Relationships
- Deployment
- Product Supply
- Demand Planning
- Distribution Center Operations
- Inbound Planning
- Order Fulfillment
- Customer Fulfillment
- Finance
- Digital / IT S/4HANA Teams
- SCM Leadership Team
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Strong knowledge of end-to-end supply chain management and inventory deployment processes.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making capabilities.
- Experience leading cross-functional initiatives and driving organizational alignment.
- Ability to influence stakeholders and manage competing business priorities.
- Strong communication and presentation skills with the ability to engage audiences at all organizational levels.
- Project management and change management experience.
- Proven capability to translate business requirements into scalable process and system solutions.
- Advanced proficiency in SAP, Microsoft Excel, Power BI, and supply chain analytics tools.
- Fluent in English, both written and spoken.
Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications
- University degree in Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Business Administration, Engineering, or related field.
- Equivalent combination of education and relevant experience may be considered.
- Minimum 5-7 years of experience in Supply Chain, Deployment, Inventory Management, Planning, or Logistics.
- Demonstrated experience owning or leading cross-functional business processes.
- Proven track record of managing complex stakeholder environments and driving process improvements.
- Experience working with SAP and S/4HANA preferred.
- Experience in project leadership, change management, and system implementations preferred.
adidas celebrates diversity, supports inclusiveness and encourages individual expression in our workplace. We do not tolerate the harassment or discrimination toward any of our applicants or employees. We are an equal opportunity employer.
adidas celebrates diversity, supports inclusiveness and encourages individual expression in our workplace. We do not tolerate the harassment or discrimination toward any of our applicants or employees. We are an equal opportunity employer.