Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization
Lead the development and implementation of a strategy on athlete interaction and product research and validation to drive innovation.
Provide leadership to a team that owns the definition of research-informed athlete problem statements, drives athlete engagement requirements to address these statements, and conducts research, non-standardized testing, and validation to solve against identified problems.
Act as a key driver of innovation for development teams in Innovation and the brand.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead programs and teams which deliver sports science insights to increase the understanding of the athlete and athlete-product interactions
- Identify relevant opportunities and trends, to enable team resources to be focused on evaluating and documenting relevant performance insights
- Align the team's research and development objectives with the brand and team innovation direction
- Lead and develop strategic partnerships, to constantly increase the team’s capabilities
- Lead new validation strategies, including both perception and performance testing, to efficiently evaluate and document the benefit of product and experience for athletes
- Develop and manage processes which enable the testing of prototypes and innovative product concepts, prior to commercialization, in close cooperation with other members of the Athlete Performance team
- Collaborate with the cross-functional Innovation team to bring new concepts to life, via sports science insights, which enable an increased performance
- Ensure appropriate leadership skills are present through creating a motivational and supportive work environment in which employees are coached, trained, and provided with career opportunities
- Set clear objectives for team members and provide deep or broad expertise in supervised area
Key Relationships
- Innovation teams
- Brand Strategy
- Athlete Servicing and Testing & Quality
- Corporate functions (e.g. Legal & Compliance, Human Resources, Finance, IT, Logistics)
- Business Units
- Research institutions and industrial and academic partners
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
- Curiosity for science and technology with a passion for making insights in the field of sport
- Ability to understand scientific and complex information, and communicate this to technical and non-technical audiences
- Educate and train colleagues by sharing knowledge on an on-going basis
- Demonstrate the ability to work independently and within a team atmosphere
- Fluent English (required), German (advantageous)
- Communicate and negotiate effectively
- Cooperate well, develop and maintain relationships
- Work independently as well as part of a team
- Plan working time efficiently, balancing short term tasks with long term goals
- Strong analytical skills, solution driven and result oriented
- Ability to travel domestically and internationally
Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications
- PhD or Master's degree in Biomechanics, Bio based Science, or Engineering
- Minimum 10 years industry relevant experience in research, engineering, or similar position (PhD or relevant experiences will be considered)
- 5 years leadership of diverse and global teams in a matrix organization
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.