Assistant Manager, Category Mgt. Football & Motorsports SEA

Purpose & Overall Relevance For The Organisation

Support the short- and mid-term objectives for the category and driving the category across all KPIs.

Implement global strategies in a locally relevant way, considering different consumer needs and distribution channels.

Key Functional Responsibilities

• Support and drive the long-term strategic direction of the Football and Motorsports category, ensuring alignment with broader business goals and regional market needs.
• Own the SEA and country-level range selection, ensuring alignment with the multi-seasonal category strategy.
• Lead product-level segmentation, including DTC & Membership exclusives and channel-specific products.
• Manage article phasing (RID/RED) to ensure timely product introductions across SEA markets, aligned with local strategies.
• Participate in in-season trading activities, monitor sell-out performance, and collaborate with channels to optimize results.
• Perform category analysis including sell-thru, forecasting, pricing corridor & segmentation compliance, etc.
• Support article pricing strategies that support both country-specific pricing and overarching financial objectives.
• Build and submit seasonal financial forecasts with Demand Planning, integrating insights from countries and channels to meet forecasting milestones.
• Support pricing and promotional strategies, including markdowns and clearance plans, in line with EM guidance and market dynamics.
• Support the creation of products to drive locally relevant activations and partnerships, collaborating closely with Brand Activation and SPOMA teams.
• Support the development of teamwear development for federations, clubs, and grassroots teams, collaborating closely with the SPOMA team.
• Participate and support sample ordering milestones, ensuring the needs of internal and external stakeholders are met.
• Develop and implement multi-channel go-to-market (GTM) plans for key concepts, driving successful product launches across SEA markets.
• Provide local consumer, market, and competitor insights to the EM hub, contributing to the broader category strategy development.
• Participate in in-season trading activities, monitoring sell-out performance and collaborating with channels to optimize results.
• Ensure range management systems (HL/MDC) are kept up to date with accurate country and cluster information to ensure smooth operational execution.
• Support Manager in Pre- & In-season tasks such as data collection, workshop planning, sample management, reporting and special projects.
• Support broader brand team with GTM process.
  
  

KPI’s

• Net Sales, Gross Margin (GIM%)
• Category Sell-out
• Market share
• Range size, efficiency, and overlap management
• Go-To-Market execution (Sell-in to campaign launch)
  
  

Key Relationships

• EM Hub Business Unit
• SEA Brand Activation & SPOMA teams
• SEA Channel teams
• SEA Finance/ Demand Planning, Purchasing, SCM, Business Development
• Country Marketing & Channel teams
  
  

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• Strong passion for sports and ability to collaborate with cross-functional teams to align on strategies and ensure successful execution
• Strong cross-functional marketing experience in sport or fashion/lifestyle categories, ideally in the sporting goods industry.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to make fact-based recommendations and decisions.
• Strong commercial acumen with the ability to derive strategic insights from data and drive high-performance results in category management.
• Proven ability in merchandising, category management, brand management, sales, and finance, with a focus on achieving KPIs.
• Strong consumer focus, balancing brand and commercial goals, with advanced proficiency in MS Office, especially PowerPoint and Excel
• Excellent interpersonal and collaboration skills, managing cross-functional teams effectively.
• Commercial acumen and keen interest in a broad range of sports.
• Proactive problem-solver with high attention to detail and a background in both market-level and above-market organizations.
  
  

Requisite Education & Minimum Qualifications

• 3-5 years of experience in Merchandising / Category Management/ Marketing or Sales preferred.
• University degree in Business or equivalent professional experience, ideally in Sales and/or Marketing
• Industry experience in Sports/ Fashion/ FMCG preferred
• Previous experience in working in a global matrix organization preferred
• Fluent in English
  
  

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.