Los Angeles Senior Manager, Trend & Incubation Marketing (LTD) CA

Job description

POSITION OVERVIEW At adidas, we never launch a product unless we consider it perfect. Our teams bring together creativity, craftsmanship, cultural insight, and innovation to create products and experiences that connect with consumers around the world. Through strategic partnerships and collaborations, we connect influential voices across music, fashion, streetwear, entertainment, and emerging cultural communities to shape the future of sport and culture. As Senior Manager, Trend & Incubation Marketing (LTD), you will contribute to adidas' global Culture Marketing strategy and collaboration portfolio. You will identify emerging cultural opportunities, develop strategic partnerships, and help manage the end-to-end collaboration lifecycle. From partner acquisition and concept development through product creation, launch, and performance evaluation, your work will strengthen brand relevance, cultural credibility, and commercial growth. This role combines cultural intelligence, strategic relationship management, and operational excellence to translate emerging trends into meaningful brand opportunities. Working across Product Creation, Design, Merchandising, Brand, Communications, Finance, and Commercial teams, you will help bring culturally relevant products, compelling stories, and consumer experiences to life. Through strategic portfolio management, team leadership, and scalable operating processes, you will strengthen collaboration execution and support long-term partnership value. Your contributions will help adidas build meaningful cultural connections, expand its influence across emerging communities, and shape the future of global Culture Marketing. IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a Limited Duration position with an anticipated assignment end date of April 30, 2027. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES • Global Culture Marketing Strategy: Contribute to the development and execution of adidas' global collaboration strategy across music, fashion, streetwear, entertainment, and emerging cultural communities. • Cultural Intelligence and Trend Identification: Monitor cultural movements, consumer behaviors, and industry developments to identify emerging talent, influential voices, and opportunities that strengthen brand relevance. • Strategic Partner Acquisition: Identify, evaluate, negotiate, and secure collaboration partners that align with adidas' cultural positioning, consumer priorities, and commercial objectives. • Partnership Relationship Management: Serve as a senior relationship lead for key collaboration partners, developing trusted relationships and long-term partnership strategies that deliver sustained value. • Collaboration Lifecycle Management: Oversee partnership activities from opportunity identification and contract execution through concept development, product creation, launch, performance evaluation, and renewal planning. • Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with Product Creation, Design, Merchandising, Brand, Communications, and Commercial teams to deliver compelling collaboration products, marketing stories, and consumer experiences. • Product and Creative Direction: Influence product briefs and creative development to ensure partner vision, cultural authenticity, and adidas business objectives are reflected in collaboration initiatives. • Trend Incubation and Opportunity Development: Translate cultural insights and emerging consumer trends into innovative partnership concepts, creative opportunities, and potential growth initiatives. • Portfolio Strategy and Prioritization: Establish evaluation frameworks and recommend partnership investments, expansions, renewals, or exits based on strategic alignment, cultural influence, and commercial potential. • Performance Measurement: Define and monitor KPIs across cultural impact, brand relevance, earned media, consumer engagement, product performance, and commercial outcomes. • Budget Management: Manage budgets across partner acquisition, relationship development, product seeding, activations, and collaboration initiatives while maintaining financial accountability. • Global and Regional Alignment: Collaborate with global, regional, and local teams to support consistent strategy execution while maintaining market-specific cultural relevance. • Governance and Operating Models: Develop and improve partnership governance frameworks, approval processes, and standardized operating models that strengthen decision-making and accountability. • Process Improvement and Scalability: Establish playbooks, tools, templates, and best practices that improve operational efficiency, execution consistency, and organizational scalability. • Operational Excellence: Drive milestone management, reporting cadences, business reviews, and cross-functional coordination to ensure effective partnership execution. • Team Leadership and Development: Lead, coach, and develop team members while fostering accountability, collaboration, professional growth, and continuous capability building. • External Brand Representation: Represent adidas at industry events, cultural experiences, and strategic partnership engagements to strengthen relationships and identify emerging opportunities. • Confidentiality and Business Integrity: Exercise sound judgment when managing confidential partnership agreements, financial information, commercial data, and strategic business initiatives. REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS • Demonstrated experience in culture marketing, strategic partnerships, brand collaborations, talent partnerships, or related marketing disciplines. • Strong understanding of music, fashion, streetwear, entertainment, contemporary consumer culture, and emerging cultural trends. • Experience identifying, evaluating, negotiating, and managing strategic partnerships or brand collaborations. • Ability to translate cultural insights, emerging trends, and consumer behaviors into actionable partnership opportunities and business strategies. • Proven ability to lead complex projects and coordinate cross-functional stakeholders within a global or matrixed organization. • Demonstrated experience leading and developing teams through direct people management or cross-functional leadership. • Strong strategic thinking, creative problem-solving, and business judgment with the ability to connect cultural opportunities to brand and commercial objectives. • Excellent communication, presentation, negotiation, and stakeholder management skills. • Strong organizational, planning, and project management capabilities with the ability to manage multiple priorities effectively. • Experience managing budgets, evaluating performance, and leveraging business insights to inform strategic decisions. • Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, including Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. • Ability to adapt and perform effectively in a fast-paced, dynamic, and culturally driven environment. PREFERRED EXPERIENCE • Experience developing or managing high-profile collaborations within the sportswear, fashion, music, streetwear, or entertainment industries. • Established professional networks across cultural communities, creative industries, talent management, and strategic partnership ecosystems. • Experience managing global collaboration portfolios or multi-market partnership initiatives. • Experience identifying and incubating emerging cultural partnerships, innovative collaboration concepts, or new marketing opportunities. • Understanding of product creation processes, including concept development, design collaboration, merchandising, and go-to-market execution. • Experience developing partnership governance frameworks, operating models, and standardized collaboration processes. • Familiarity with evaluating cultural influence, consumer engagement, earned media, and commercial performance. • Experience working with external creative agencies, experiential partners, talent representatives, and industry stakeholders. • Knowledge of the Los Angeles cultural landscape and i