This is Temporary Position and candidates applying from commutable distance to Herzogenaurach will not be considered for the position .

Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:

Workplaces is responsible for the active management of the Global Real Estate Portfolio including leases and transactions of all the properties, all design, construction and operations for offices, showrooms and DC’s for adidas.

To meet the specific needs of the Workplaces function, adidas focuses on a Product-Led strategy to adopt technical systems, tools, and processes that run and operate a sustainable real estate portfolio. Product-led allows adidas functions to actively manage products or tech tools throughout their lifecycle (inception through to retirement) to address user needs and generate the greatest possible value for the business.

Workplaces currently owns five products that deliver global processes and tools related to Corporate Real Estate Data (Workplaces Data Analytics, Contract & Lease Management, Space Management, Facility Management and Facility Services). The Product Owner Workplaces is responsible for 1 product in the Workplaces suite, continuously improving and evolving the Product in order to maximize the value for all internal customers. In close partnership with Tech, the Product Owner will manage the Product backlog, prioritize improvements with stakeholder input, monitor and communicate releases, and manage a product team to deliver the improvements.

Key Responsibilities:

Business Analysis/Stakeholder Engagement

• Investigate operational requirements, problems, and opportunities, seeking effective business recommendations through improvements in automated and non-automated components of new or changed processes across Workplaces.
• Facilitates input from functional stakeholders, provides constructive challenge and enables effective prioritization of requirements.
• Works with stakeholders, to identify specific user stories to define acceptance tests.
• Assists in developing and then implementing stakeholder engagement/communications plan.
• Assists in collecting and user feedback from customers through resolutions, corrective actions, lessons learned

Requirements Definition

• Assists in developing the requirements baselines, obtains formal agreement to requirements, and ensures traceability to source.
• Follows agreed organizational methods and standards.
• Defines and manages scoping, requirements definition and prioritization activities
• Reviews requirements for errors and omissions.
• Investigates, manages, and applies authorized requests for changes to baseline requirements, in line with change management policy.

Program and project support

• Uses and recommends project control solutions for planning, scheduling, and tracking projects.
• Sets up project files, compiles and distributes reports
• Provides guidance on project management/agile software, procedures, processes, tools, and techniques.
• Supports program or project control boards, project assurance teams and quality review meetings.
• Provides basic guidance on individual project proposals.

Product Management

• Acts as Product Owner for one Workplaces Product. The systems range from global to local.
  • For locally owned systems, provide guidance to the designated person in the local team only when required.
  • For global systems, actively manage the Product and system to fulfill full range of responsibilities of the Product Owner.
• Works with the Product Domain owner to manage the product lifecycle enabling the product to meet the needs of customers/users and achieve financial or other targets.
• Applies standard techniques/methods, tools, and techniques to manage the product lifecycle through agile methodologies.
• Prioritizes product requirements and owns the product backlog.
• Supports user engagement and adoption by planning development of product collateral, supporting and evaluating campaigns, and monitoring product performance.

Release Management

• Rolls-out trials and Product launches and supports communications and training.
• Assesses and analyses release components, processes or task changes, and risk.
• Provides input to scheduling.
• Carries out the builds and tests in coordination with testers and component specialists maintaining and administering the tools and methods – manual or automatic - and ensuring, where possible, information exchange with configuration management.
• Ensures release processes and procedures are maintained

Key Relationships:

• Workplaces Product Domain Owner
• Workplaces functional leads: Portfolio Management, Data Strategy Team, Health/Safety Energy & Environment team, Facility Management teams, Workplace Experience Teams, Workplace Operations teams
• TECH
• Global Business Services
• Controlling
• External service providers (software supplier, consultants)

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Experience with product-led approach, agile methodology and tools
• Knowledge of real estate portfolio management services, and/or computer-aided facility management systems (CAFM)
• Pro-active (engaging & impact-oriented) mindset, ability to think end-to-end
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with different international cultures
• Business mindset: strong numerical and analytical skills, experience in finance
• Some experience working on complex projects on a global level
• 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
• Change Management skills
• Fluent English skills (verbal and written)
• Strong MS-Office skills (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint)
• Knowledge of agile tools (Jira, Confluence, Smartsheet, Collibra)
• Knowledge of data and analytics platforms (Power BI) a plus
• Working with any SAP products a plus

Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications:

• University degree (or equivalent) in Project Management, Business Administration, or IT or related areas, or equivalent
• Minimum 5 years of work experience in Real Estate with minimum 2 years of experience in project or IT management