Manager Brand Finance

Adidas is an equal opportunity employer and we are committed to fostering an inclusive workplace. We welcome applications from people of all ages, genders (incl. gender identity), ethnic and social backgrounds, nationalities, sexual orientations, religions and beliefs, and those with apparent or non-apparent disabilities*. We do not tolerate harassment or discrimination toward any of our applicants or employees.*We actively encourage individuals with disabilities to apply and will provide reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process.

Purpose & Overall Relevance For The Organization
The Global Brand & Sales Finance team delivers insights, including early trend analysis, to guide key business decisions and achieve financial goals. We enable capabilities, best practices, and governance across markets, categories and channels.

The Brand Finance Team partners with the adidas Brand to set and achieve tactical and strategic financial targets, while driving financial analysis to support fact-based decision making. The objective of the adidas Brand Marketing Finance and Operating Overheads (OOH) team is to provide financial transparency and insights for the Global Brands organization, which includes all aspects of financial planning, budgeting, controlling, performance management as well as Management reporting for Marketing Investments, Brand OOHs and the Licensing business.

The Manager Brand Finance Licensing acts as a financial advisor and business partner to the Licensing Team, by giving recommendations to enable and drive fact-based decision-making. He/she supports the business to achieve (financial) targets as well as the strategy based on the analysis of analytical indicators. He/she is responsible for ensuring correct royalty reporting as basis for payments to our external partners as well as providing financial insights within his/her area of responsibility.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with global Licensing and Marketing Teams and provide comprehensive expertise to ensure smooth operation of the business
• Planning, forecasting and tracking of Royalties for assigned area of responsibility.
• Create transparency on KPIs with respect to business plans (primarily Net Sales, Volume, Margin), especially in relation with the renegotiation / extension of licensing contracts
• Act as a contact for all financial and contractual information with relevance to royalty reporting, payments and license ending for internal stakeholders and auditors if requested
• Manage standardized reporting and ad-hoc analyses. Be responsible for the end-to-end processing of royalty statements (partner coding review, reporting, timely payment) for our global licensors
• Manage small to medium sized projects and support the implementation of findings and sustainability of achievements
• Implement adequate and aligned communication packages to present results, recommendations and solutions; communicate appropriately with external partners to solve their requests and to maintain good relationships
• Apply and support implementing state-of-the-art analytical tools for the licensing business to review Net Sales, Royalties and Std. Margin and to ensure the accuracy of the royalty reporting to our external partners
• Drive alignment on Licensing finance and process topics and act as interface between the global Licensing team, Markets, Product Teams and other functions, e.g. Accounting, Taxes and Legal
• Ensure accounting compliance of month-, quarter, and year-end close; document and explain assumptions to external auditors

Key Relationships

• Global Licensing & Global Marketing Teams
• BU Finance teams & Corporate Controlling Teams
• Marketing Expenses & Royalty controlling Teams in all markets/HQ
• Corporate Finance Teams (GBS, Taxes, Accounting, Treasury), Legal
• External Partners / external Business Consultants

Knowledge, Skills And Abilities

• Strong analytical mindset, high affinity towards numbers and problem-solving skills
• Pro-activity, result-orientation and execution focused
• High degree of costumer orientation, accompanied by good communication skills towards internal and external partners
• Ability to work independently towards fixed timelines
• Ability to maneuver in a consistently changing environment
• Ability to operate cross-functionally and understanding of external business drivers
• Business fluency in English (written and spoken)
• Comprehensive understanding of system landscape (MS Office esp. Excel and PowerPoint, good knowledge of SAP/SAC)

Requisite Education And Experience / Minimum Qualifications

• University degree in Business Administration/Finance/Controlling
• Very good system expertise: MS office skills (especially Excel), fundamental SAP/SAC, Power BI
• Solid Accounting and Controlling knowledge
• Minimum 4 years of relevant work experience

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.