Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization
Global Engineering enables successful, efficient, and future-ready distribution centers across the adidas Group. The Senior Project Manager, DC Solution Engineering & Design shapes and deploys adidas’ global distribution center engineering strategy, driving design standards, new technologies, benchmarking, and consistent, optimized, cost-effective implementations worldwide.
This role requires travel 50%-75% across North America, Latin America, and Europe.
Key Responsibilities
- Define and continuously improve global standards for distribution center design, including facility layout, process design, and automation concepts.
- Develop scalable distribution center design and automation strategies based on business forecasts and volume scenarios.
- Drive standardization of material handling equipment, automation solutions, and distribution center processes across regions.
- Partner with Global Non-Trade Procurement on global and regional supplier and technology strategies.
- Lead or support feasibility studies and business cases for new distribution center builds, expansions, and automation investments.
- Facilitate the introduction of new technologies with regional engineering, IT, and operations teams.
- Benchmark adidas distribution center concepts against external best-in-class solutions.
- Act as a technical authority and advisor to regional engineering and distribution center management.
- Support capital projects through engineering and material handling equipment workstreams from concept through commissioning and handover.
- Contribute to the global engineering community through best-practice sharing, documentation, and capability development.
- Identify and evaluate warehouse process, layout, flow, utilization, packaging, and operating-method improvements.
- Evaluate labor management systems, including implementation, configuration, results analysis, and recommendations.
Key Relationships
Internal stakeholders include Global Engineering, market and distribution center engineering teams, distribution center management and operations, project management, technology functions, Global Real Estate, finance, investment committees, project steering boards, and executive sponsors. External stakeholders include automation and technology suppliers, engineering and logistics consultants, system integrators, and solution providers.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Proven experience in distribution center design, facility layout, process engineering, automation, and material flow.
- Ability to translate forecasts and operational requirements into end-to-end distribution center designs using CAD tools such as AutoCAD.
- Expertise in material handling equipment and automation, including ASRS, goods-to-person, conveyors, sortation systems, AMRs, and manual concepts.
- Understanding of supply-chain and logistics processes, WMS, WCS, and WES architectures.
- Experience with data analysis, capacity modeling, scenario evaluation, Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, 5S, labor management systems, engineering labor standards, and work measurement.
- Strong project management, planning, budgeting, risk management, presentation, influencing, mediation, and consensus-building skills.
- Advanced Excel, PowerPoint, and MS Project skills.
Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in engineering, Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, Business Administration with a focus on Supply Chain, Logistics, or Distribution Engineering, or equivalent professional experience.
- Extensive experience in consumer goods, retail, or e-commerce distribution environments, preferably within international networks.
- Experience with automated and hybrid distribution center environments.
- Five years of engineering work experience, ideally in a distribution center environment.
- Two years of management experience required.
- AutoCAD experience preferred.
- Willingness and ability to travel internationally frequently.
- Excellent English proficiency; additional languages are an advantage.
Workplace and Benefits
adidas offers a hybrid work policy requiring office attendance Monday through Thursday, with flexibility to work remotely on Friday. The working location is Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Benefits include medical, dental, vision, prescription drug coverage, disability and life insurance, a 401(k) plan, stock purchase plan, education assistance, paid parental leave, flexible time off, paid holidays, service time off, and eligibility for an annual performance-based bonus.
adidas is an Equal Opportunity Employer that celebrates diversity, supports inclusiveness, and provides reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process.