Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization
Workplaces is responsible for the active management of the adidas Real Estate Portfolio, including leases and transactions across offices, showrooms and distribution centers. This supports adidas by enabling business growth, portfolio optimization and great workplaces, while ensuring effective stewardship of real estate investments.
The Senior Manager Portfolio Strategy EM is responsible for the tactical implementation of the portfolio strategy and the management and optimization of the Emerging Markets corporate real estate portfolio across leased and owned locations. The role collaborates within an extensive network of internal and external stakeholders and industry experts to provide value-added service and support sustainable portfolio decisions.
The role identifies corporate real estate requirements through close collaboration with business and country stakeholders. The business determines its market and location requirements based on commercial priorities, including proximity to clients, stores and other operational needs. This role leads a thorough business intake, translates approved requirements into real estate search and evaluation criteria, tests viable scenarios using portfolio data and broker market insights, and provides fact-based recommendations at key lease and portfolio decision points.
The role leads stay-versus-go analysis, transaction management, lease negotiations, portfolio governance and business case development. It is the regional steward for critical lease milestones and portfolio data, ensuring actions are initiated sufficiently in advance to protect business continuity, negotiating leverage and decision quality.
In addition, the role will help develop regional commercial analytics and financial insights for Emerging Markets Workplaces, covering lease costs and wider operating portfolio OPEX and CAPEX. This includes improving financial visibility, enabling consistent reporting and identifying and supporting opportunities for efficiency, optimization and business value.
Key Responsibilities
Portfolio Planning
- Manage and maintain an integrated view of the Emerging Markets workplace portfolio across offices, showrooms, distribution centers and other relevant workplace locations.
- Understand and track business needs, drivers, expectations, constraints and timelines through comprehensive intake with country and functional stakeholders.
- Translate business requirements into clear transaction specifications, search criteria, project definitions, scopes of work and decision timelines.
- Lead thorough stay-versus-go analysis, assessing business requirements, market options, cost, risk, operational implications and timing.
- Use broker market intelligence, portfolio data and internal inputs to develop viable supply scenarios and guide executive-level decision making using financial and non-financial information and performance metrics.
- Identify portfolio optimization opportunities, including renewal, relocation, consolidation, expansion, contraction or exit, and present clear recommendations and trade-offs to decision makers.
- Ensure portfolio recommendations align with country and business objectives while balancing financial, operational and workplace requirements.
- Lead business case development and ensure portfolio recommendations and transactions achieve defined financial objectives and approved investment criteria.
Transaction & Lease Management
- Manage end-to-end real estate transactions, including acquisitions, new leases, lease renewals, relocations, expansions, contractions, subleases, terminations, extensions and dispositions, as applicable.
- Monitor critical lease dates and act as the regional steward for timely action, proactively initiating stakeholder engagement, analysis, governance and decision making sufficiently in advance of key milestones.
- Manage potential site identification and market searches, assess viability, coordinate requests for proposal and option comparison, and lead commercial negotiations and transaction documentation in collaboration with brokers, Legal, Non-Trade Procurement, Finance, Design & Delivery and Workplace Management.
- Coordinate the creation of relevant documents, including business cases, market analyses, engagement agreements, requests for proposal, letters of intent, lease documents and exhibits.
- Ensure brokers, transaction managers and Legal negotiate lease arrangements in line with approved scenario assumptions, global, regional and local standards, financial objectives and critical business terms and conditions.
- Coordinate due diligence and ensure relevant financial, legal, technical, compliance and operational risks are visible in recommendations and approvals.
- Maintain effective landlord relationships and manage escalation of material commercial or lease matters.
Stakeholder, Broker & Vendor Management
- Build and maintain trusted relationships with Business leaders, Finance leaders, HR leaders, business functions and Workplace stakeholders across Emerging Markets.
- Lead client relationship management for key country and functional stakeholders and provide clear portfolio updates, scenario analysis and recommendations to relevant leadership.
- Lead cross-functional alignment across business, Finance, Legal, Non-Trade Procurement, Design & Delivery, Workplace Management, and global specialist teams.
- Manage external brokers, transaction partners, landlords, consultants and specialist vendors, setting clear deliverables, timelines, standards and quality expectations.
- Lead through influence in a distributed and diverse environment.
Portfolio Governance & Data Management
- Act as the regional steward for accurate, complete and current portfolio data, documentation and governance records, in collaboration with local Workplace Management teams and relevant global functions.
- Ensure effective completion of lease administration activities, including lease abstraction, documentation control, data accuracy and system updates, in collaboration with Global Workplaces COE teams.
- Establish clear ownership, update rhythms and data quality controls for regional portfolio information.
- Ensure compliance with corporate policies, approval requirements and internal controls, including identification and mitigation of potential conflicts of interest and adherence to applicable governmental or jurisdictional processes.
- Maintain portfolio space data, including total area, space types and other agreed metrics, in collaboration with local Workplace Management teams & Global Workplaces COE teams.
- Ensure floor plans, CAD files, measured plans and area records are obtained and retained to support portfolio reporting, analysis, and decision making.
Commercial Analytics & Financial Insights
- Support the development of regional commercial reporting and financial visibility across the Emerging Markets Workplace portfolio.
- Coordinate the consolidation and analysis of lease costs and wider workplace OPEX and CAPEX across clusters/countries.
- Develop consistent functional templates, processes, and reporting approaches in partnership with Finance, Non-Trade Procurement and relevant Workplace teams.
- Develop benchmarking and performance insights, including cost per location, square meter, workstation and headcount where reliable source data is available.
- Identify, quantify and support implementation of efficiency, consistency and cost-management opportunities arising from portfolio, OPEX and CAPEX analysis and comparison.
- Lead and coordinate relevant portfolio and commercial inputs for annual budget preparation and future planning.
Key Relationships
- Regional and Country Senior Leadership & Senior Stakeholders (project Steering Boards)
- Global, Regional and Local Finance teams, including Non-Trade Procurement
- Regional HR leadership & HR teams
- Global Portfolio Strategy and Commercial Management teams
- Workplace Management teams
- Design & Delivery Project Management teams
- Legal teams
- External brokers, landlords, transaction managers, consultants and specialist vendors
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Proven ability to lead business case development, execute portfolio strategy and manage complex corporate real estate transactions.
- Expert verbal and written communication, influencing, presentation and negotiation skills, including confidence working with senior executives.
- Sound legal understanding and judgement relating to property contracts, transaction risk and the roles of Legal, Finance, Procurement and technical specialists.
- Comprehensive financial acumen, commercial judgement and data modelling capability, including advanced Excel.
- Strong functional knowledge of transaction management, financial analysis, project planning and execution, portfolio data governance and supplier management.
- Experience managing external brokers, landlords, consultants and vendors across multiple markets.
- Ability to structure ambiguous problems, connect portfolio, operational and financial information and communicate practical recommendations.
- Strong attention to detail and ability to organize, maintain and quality-control varied portfolio, lease, space and financial data.
- Highly collaborative, with the capacity to build strong individual and team relationships and lead through influence in a distributed and diverse work environment.
- Proactive, engaging and impact-oriented mindset, with the ability to think critically end-to-end and continually adjust in a dynamic business environment.
- Fluency in English, written and verbal.
- Ability to travel as required.
Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications
- Typically 7+ years of relevant corporate real estate portfolio and transaction experience, with demonstrated ownership of complex transactions and business cases.
- Practical experience in more than one Emerging Markets location and/or across multiple countries, including exposure to different landlord, broker, legal and commercial practices.
- University degree in business, real estate, finance, engineering, architecture or a related discipline, or equivalent relevant professional experience.
- Demonstrated business acumen and entrepreneurship, with experience working in an international organization and with cross-functional senior stakeholders.
- Experience in lease administration, portfolio systems, space data management or workplace commercial analytics is advantageous.
AT ADIDAS WE HAVE A WINNING CULTURE. BUT TO WIN, PHYSICAL POWER IS NOT ENOUGH. JUST LIKE ATHLETES OUR EMPLOYEES NEED MENTAL STRENGTH IN THEIR GAME. WE FOSTER THE ATHLETE'S MINDSET THROUGH A SET OF BEHAVIORS THAT WE WANT TO ENABLE AND DEVELOP IN OUR PEOPLE AND THAT ARE AT THE CORE OF OUR UNIQUE COMPANY CULTURE: THIS IS HOW WE WIN WHILE PLAYING FAIR.
A list of Behaviours:
- COURAGE: Speak up when you see an opportunity; step up when you see a need..
- OWNERSHIP: Pick up the ball. Be proactive, take responsibility and follow-through.
- INNOVATION: Elevate to win. Be curious, test and learn new and better ways of doing things.
- TEAMPLAY: Win together. Work collaboratively and cultivate a shared mindset.
- INTEGRITY: Play by the rules. Hold yourself and others accountable to our company's standards.
- RESPECT: Value all players. Display empathy, be inclusive and show dignity to all.
At adidas, we strongly believe that embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) into our culture and talent processes gives our employees a sense of belonging and our brand a real competitive advantage.
- Culture Starts With People, It Starts With You -
By recruiting talent and developing our people to reflect the rich diversity of our consumers and communities, we foster a culture of inclusion that engages our employees and authentically connects our brand with our consumers.
Job Title: Senior Manager Portfolio Strategy Workplaces EM
TEAM: Real Estate & Facilities
Location: Dubai
State: Duba
Country/Region: AE
Contract Type: Full time
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