As Director Buying - Sport/Outdoor, you will lead one of the company's most strategically important categories, shaping the long-term vision, growth strategy, and commercial performance of the Sport/Outdoor business. Operating at the intersection of customer demand, brand partnerships, and market trends, you will drive category expansion, profitability, and competitive differentiation within a fast-growing digital retail environment. As a key member of the Commercial Leadership Team, you will influence business-wide decisions while building strong partnerships with leading global sports brands and developing a high-performing organization. 

Responsibilities:

• Together with your Planning counterpart, you hold full end-to-end commercial ownership of the Sport/Outdoor division in a fast-paced e-commerce, members-only environment, ensuring delivery of financial targets across revenue, margin, and sell-through. 

• Define and lead the category vision, strategic direction, and multi-year growth roadmap for Sport/Outdoor, aligning commercial objectives with customer needs, market trends, and broader business priorities. 

• Lead seasonal and in-season buying across global and local sports brands, balancing commercial performance, consumer demand, product innovation, and brand relevance within an off-price e-commerce model. 

• Own and optimize the Sport/Outdoor assortment architecture using performance data, customer insights, market trends, and category intelligence to maximize commercial impact and customer acquisition. 

• Build, manage, and expand strategic relationships with leading sports, outdoor, and athleisure brands, leading negotiations to secure optimal commercial terms, exclusive opportunities, and long-term supply partnerships. 

• Drive commercial performance through deep analysis of key e-commerce KPIs, including sell-through, conversion, stock availability, pricing architecture, inventory productivity, and category performance. 

• Monitor market trends, consumer behavior, sports participation trends, and competitor activity to identify growth opportunities and ensure the assortment remains relevant, differentiated, and commercially successful. 

• Collaborate closely with Planning, Trading, Marketing, CRM, and Supply Chain teams to ensure seamless execution of the commercial strategy across all digital touchpoints, ensuring clear communication of performance, risks, and opportunities. 

• Lead, inspire, and develop a high-performing Buying team, fostering a culture of ownership, agility, commercial excellence, and data-driven decision-making while contributing to the overall Sports division strategy. 

Qualifications:

• At least 5 years of leadership experience within the Sports, Sportswear, Outdoor, or Active Lifestyle industry, ideally in a senior Buying leadership role. 

• Significant experience in sports buying, merchandising, category management, or trading within an e-commerce or digital retail environment; off-price experience is a strong plus. 

• Strong understanding of sports and outdoor market dynamics, consumer trends, seasonal buying cycles, product innovation, and digital consumer behavior. 

• Proven track record of driving commercial performance in e-commerce using KPIs, trading insights, assortment optimization, and performance analytics. 

• Established network and experience managing and growing relationships with sports, outdoor, athletic footwear, and activewear brands and wholesale partners. 

• Strong negotiation skills with a history of delivering successful commercial outcomes in complex, high-volume brand environments. 

• Demonstrated leadership capability with experience building, coaching, and scaling high-performing, agile, and commercially driven teams. 

• Entrepreneurial, analytical, and results-oriented mindset with excellent stakeholder management skills; fluent in business English and willing to travel. 

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