Sr. Director, Global Strategy

Sr. Director, Global Strategy

Date: Jul 10, 2022

Location: Baltimore, MD, US, 21230

Company: Under Armour

Position Summary

Corporate Strategy is embedded at the global corporate level and drives and coordinates the strategic vision for all our strategy teams, which include the corporate group as well as strategists embedded throughout our business units. We work cross-functionally to frame complex and ambiguous issues, conduct consumer and competitive analyses, field market research, create financial models, and develop action plans.

Ultimately, we have ownership of embedding strategy into our culture, adjusting strategy when appropriate based on the company aspirations and available resources, and managing the execution of strategy through the alignment of company-wide KPIs.

This role drives creation of UAs global portfolio strategy through: (1) analysis and integration of consumer insights, the competitive landscape, and market dynamics, and (2) management of and collaboration with all UAs global functions and commercial regions to assess and plan for build out of Under Armours internal capabilities and positioning. This holistic, global strategy is the path that the global business will take (where to play) and gives direction to detailed business planning carried out by our cross-functional partners (how to win). As such, this role is engrained in strategically manifesting the Vision, Mission, Values, Positioning, and Purpose of Under Armour into a comprehensive strategic plan relative to each aspect of our business.

Central to this strategy creation are focus on:

Strategic leadership of the Executive Leadership Team and coordination of all strategy functions across the Company

Evolution of perspective on the target consumers needs and experience to ensure growth of brand value and appeal

Optimal prioritization of global resources and investment

Development of strategic business plans to action the roadmap that are linked back to the corporate strategy

Work on transformational projects and initiatives, to continue to profitable grow and strategically diversify the Company

The focus on transformational projects and initiatives as part of this role has grown in significance. This includes strategic consideration of: outside partnerships; different regional business models; creation of new business capabilities to address consumer experience and solutions; and inorganic growth opportunities to address capability gaps as well as enhance and diversity the business.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities

Long-Range Strategic Planning Process: The principal role of the Director, Corporate Strategy is to lead creation, facilitation, and ownership of all parts of the ideation process around defining what the future UA will look like, and then working with key leadership teams to translate this future ambition to a comprehensive long-range strategic plan. This includes owning and evolving the process behind this strategic plan creation by leading and collaborating with senior executives across the Company. As part of this process, coordinating and managing local and offsite meetings with executive leadership is a key part of this process, which culminates in an update of our long-range strategic roadmap as needed based on the Companys priorities.

Long-Range Strategic Plan Creation: Work collectively with Corporate Strategy colleagues, the Under Armour Executive Leadership Team, and key cross-functional partners (i.e. Consumer insights, Corporate Development, Consumer Experience teams, etc.) to lead, develop, maintain, and evolve the Under Armour long-term portfolio strategy. With Corporate Strategy colleagues, own and drive adherence to this corporate strategy across the entire business. Key responsibilities include: (1) understanding and maintaining the corporate strategy as it currently is in play; (2) pressure testing, analyzing, and pivoting aspects of the strategy when appropriate; and (3) interpreting the corporate strategy for cross-functional teammates and communicating it effectively to them, to ensure alignment of strategic execution.

As part of this strategic plan development, help manage a team of strategists to create the Under Armour long-range plan, in line with our corporate strategy guidelines. Creation of this plan involves close partnership with business execution colleagues across the Company. The key responsibility is to create a single strategic plan, aligned cross-functionally, which involves: (1) working with the global functions (product, merchandising, innovation, design, marketing) to develop a collective, global strategic plan; (2) aligning the strategic plan with the outlook of regional commercial functions and capabilities of the enabling functions (IT, supply chain, etc) to support; and (3) getting support and buy-in on the final, recommended plan from the Executive Leadership Team.

Duties & Responsibilities, Continued

Strategic Project Work: Work collaboratively with strategy colleagues to manage and evolve strategy on an ongoing basis. This involves taking on or developing strategic questions or challenges, as relevant through identification of business improvement opportunities. In this sense, work is akin to an internal consulting team, ready to help business leaders evolve strategy when and where needed. Potential projects may come from any aspect of the Company but most likely focused on our product, marketing, or commercial/sales functions. Key skills required for success include: the ability to break a challenge or problem down into the core elements to solve for; strong analytical skills; and a sophisticated perspective on the UA business, its industry, and key markets. Important to note are that this project work involves consideration of both evolutionary (e.g., how to more effectively and efficiently grow an existing part of the business) and revolutionary (e.g., strategic growth beyond what exists today) opportunities.

Strategy Management and Evaluation: Support the strategy creation process by leading an on-going process to read and react to the fluid state of our Strategy in partnership with finance, business planning, and strategy execution partners. This includes helping to drive the following:

Strategy Scorecard and Goals: Support design and monitoring of goals and scorecards for executives to monitor performance and adjust our strategy based Under Armour key performance indicators

Executive Meetings: Support management of the strategic approach and content for the three annual executive off-site meetings, designed to review give an update on and review our strategy

Contingency and Gap Analysis: Perform deep dive analytics on our strategy to assess gaps and develop contingencies to and evolution of our strategy, as appropriate

Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills & Abilities)

Experience working through, and ideally leading, a long-range strategic planning process

Experience developing long-range strategy for a consumer-focused company

Creative and strategic thinker

Ability to look at and analyze a business from a portfolio perspective (including addressing tradeoffs and paradoxes)

Skill in working with and influencing C-suite and senior level leadership

Demonstrated ability to manage and lead teammates through their own strategy work, including problem solving, analytics, and communication

Strong, sophisticated analytical skills

Solid leadership skills

Excellent presentation skills

Strong writing and communication skills

Advanced project management skills

Action oriented player who is comfortable driving projects independently, with senior guidance

Ability to facilitate relations between business units and departments

Work under pressure quickly, effectively and efficiently

High relationship ability (able to understand and relate to different teammate audiences across the Company, at all levels both very senior and junior)

Experience at working both independently and in a team-oriented, collaborative environment is essential

Can conform to shifting priorities, demands, and timelines through analytical and problem-solving capabilities

Ability to read communication styles of project team leads, team members, and contractors who come from a broad spectrum of disciplines

Ability to defuse tension among and between project teams, should it arise

Adept at conducting research into project-related issues and products

Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment is crucial

Persuasive, encouraging, and motivating

Team-focused, detail-oriented, tenacious

Education And / Or Experience

B.A required, MBA preferred

Minimum of 15+ years of strategy and business planning experience, either in industry or consulting

Experience running a long-range strategic planning process in a large organization required

Experience effectively presenting to multiple levels of constituents, and tailoring presentation and communication accordingly

Experience leading executives in high level idea generation and vision setting within an intense problem-solving environment

Experience creating or executing strategy in a digital and / or omni-channel environment preferred

Experience creating or executing strategy for a consumer-centric company or clients, or in the sports apparel and footwear space, a plus

Knowledge regarding Project Management, and experience with setting up and managing projects in a complex, fast-moving, highly-matrixed environment

Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite (Microsoft PowerPoint, Outlook and Excel)

Other Requirements

Able to be in the office at headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland 3 days per week

Ability to travel domestically and internationally (5-10%)

Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite