Director Business Solutions (m/f)

Job description

Country: Germany
Job Function: Information Technology

State / Province: Germany
Position Type: Full time

City / Location: Herzogenaurach
Brand: adidas

Relocation: No

Somewhere, in one of our workshops right now, the future is taking shape. We are constantly working to redefine the way clothing and footwear transforms the pitch, court or course. This is what drives us: the feeling of discovery and the urge to innovate. When we create a product that makes our hearts beat faster, we know we’re onto something.

If this sounds inspiring, you might be one of us: Someone who loves to create the present, as well as shape the future. There’s a reason adidas has been at the forefront of defining sport for more than 60 years: We never stand still. Everyday, we work to improve everything we create.

At adidas, interesting, amazing and inspiring aren’t just ideas. They are what we do every single day.

Purpose

Lead, manage and deliver comprehensive consulting to multiple business stakeholders and large-scale cross-functional projects and programs with the respective profound process and technical knowledge within the boundaries of time, cost & quality while focusing and managing expectations and requirements of the stakeholders.

Key Accountabilities

Business Solution Management

1. Demand Management

· Capture, prioritize and structure the business demands and requirements to create a multi-year strategy and roadmap for your respective IT department. Align delivery milestones for the demand portfolio with business partners, taking into account business priorities, strategy and the respective IT delivery capabilities.
· In order to create the roadmap/project portfolio, lead and facilitate workshops in strategical important areas with both business and IT. Understand and manage demand dependencies within the business community and across Global IT to maximize added value and continuous business process improvement.

2. Delivery Management

· Take full responsibility for delivering into the agreed project/portfolio/RFC execution within the boundaries of time, cost & quality and for managing the customers’ expectations and requirements. This includes leading negotiations and fully understanding the impact of the project results on the organization to ensure proper escalation management, if needed. Furthermore, manage and oversee the stabilization and sustainable handover of projects to the respective support teams.
· Build up and lead scalable/sustainable delivery team through identifying resources needed and assigning individual responsibilities in order to execute successfully.
· Lead and drive change management for the respective projects and ensure changes are smoothly and successfully implemented to achieve lasting benefits. This also includes proper documentation, training, controls and metrics.

3. Service Management

· Oversee and resolve any escalations in application operations to ensure that Global IT targets and KPIs are achieved. Manage service level adjustments, either up or down, depending on business needs.
· Proactively identify and deliver KSR efficiency potentials and savings. Drive quality improvement actions.

Functional and Technical Expertise

· Full end-to-end understanding of respective business processes and best practices in order to translate internal and external trends into deliverables for the business. Drive these initiatives by securing a sponsor, resources and budget to realize added value and contribution to innovation within business and Global IT.
· Continuously enhance the current system landscape towards customer satisfaction by performing projects or change requests through the IT process life-cycle (Analysis, Design, Implementation, Testing, Go-Live and Support).

Stakeholder Management

· Develop a healthy and productive relationship with key customers/business and senior management stakeholders that you have identified. Manage these relationships to meet their business needs and align expectations. Always strive to improve business partner satisfaction, e.g. Net Promoter Score improvements.
· Represent your respective function at internal or external events when applicable.

Financials and Controlling

· Ensure the portfolios of I-codes you’re overseeing are transparent and effectively managed. Take appropriate action should any concerns arise. If required, manage respective budget through tracking and reporting the monthly budget accruals and variances and ensure timely and accurate invoicing.
· Manage the end-to-end financial process by providing accurate and thorough budget planning, target setting and adjustments, if required. Drive cost efficiency.
· Ensure that all financial and controlling commitments and targets are fully achieved through compliance with adidas Group standards. Work closely with the controlling department.

If required: People Management

· Build the appropriate structure to be able to effectively manage the respective organization, identify and develop future talents and create realistic succession scenarios for key positions
· Ensure appropriate leadership skills are present at every level through creating a motivational and supportive work environment in which employees are coached, trained and provided with career opportunities through development
· Allocate the different work to the respective employees considering experience, complexity, workload and organizational efficiency
· Continuously monitor and evaluate team workload and organizational efficiency with the support of IT systems, data, analysis and team feedback and make appropriate changes in order to meet business needs.
· Provide team members/direct reports with clear direction and targets that are aligned with business needs and Global IT objectives

Individual Key Accountabilities

· Build and support Rewards related roadmap in collaboration with overall Hire2Retire strategy and embrace 6-2-1 methodology

Knowledge, Capabilities and Experience

· Ability to provide a clear framework for performance to direct reports or project team
· Ability to coach, guide and manage a (project)team
· Pro-active (engaging & impact-oriented) mindset, ability to think end-to-end
· Ability to be self-directed while working under tight deadlines
· Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with different international cultures
· Business- and solution-oriented, global mindset
· Strong numerical and analytical skills, experience in finance
· Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts and draw valid conclusions
· Ability to cope with change, make decisions and act comfortably with risk and uncertainty
· Expert knowledge of respective business processes and IT systems
· Strong strategic thinking and planning skills
· Strong experience in working on several projects simultaneously
· Strong communication (both written and verbal) and facilitation skills (small and large groups) especially when interacting with different levels of business
· Ability to travel, domestic or international, as required
· Fluent English (verbal and written),
· Strong MS-Office skills (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

Qualifications

· Four-year college or university degree with focus on Business Administration, IT or related areas, or equivalent combination of education and experience
· Minimum of 8 years of progressive work experience in large-scale (IT) projects or program management or large-scale application service responsibility
· If required: 2–3 years of experience in managing a team

We are looking forward to receiving your application!

Check out this video of the adidas CIO on digital transformation.