Marketplace Director EMEA

Patagonia is an outdoor apparel company founded in 1973. At a time when all life on earth is under threat of extinction, we aim to use the resources we have—our business, our investments, our voice and our imagination—to influence changes needed to protect our planet. A registered B Corporation and founding member of 1% for the Planet, Patagonia is recognised internationally for its commitment to product quality and environmental activism, contributing over $145 million in grants and in-kind donations to thousands of grassroots environmental groups around the world.

Your Role

We are in business to save our home planet. You'll be helping us achieve this by enabling a responsible, for-profit and purpose driven business through the lens of Patagonia's purpose and values.

You ensure that we meet our commitments to our organization, partners, customers and community. Your role will contribute by focusing on meeting the demands of our consumers through a multichannel set up by building compelling physical and digital consumer experiences.

You ensure that we are still in business in the long run through a healthy and resilient business, expanding mindfully and driven by our purpose, and clearly communicating our values. You act as a leader who facilitates, creates space for collaboration and adaptive teams. You are surfacing opportunities and risks to build resilient strategies and tactics to meet a complex and fast developing market.

As a member of the Executive Leadership Team EMEA, this role transcends functional responsibilities and collaborates with the ELT on leading Patagonia EMEA. This role is accountable for building high level strategy in collaboration with ELT and implementation with key stakeholders as well as taking strategic and tactical decisions for Patagonia EMEA as needed.

Main tasks

Strategy & Visioning

• Collaboratively develop a customer centric sales strategy for the entire EMEA marketplace with team and key stakeholders, focusing on outdoor and activist customers & communities through our Retail, eComm and Wholesales channels
• Partner with key stakeholders in the US to work on and share best practises and strategy
• Innovate how we distribute our product through physical and digital channels and find ways for Wholesale, Retail and eComm channels to complement each other to offer a cohesive customer experience across touchpoints with Patagonia
• Focus on connecting to the customer moving from transactional to transformational sales opportunities incrementally driving 'great sales'
• Capitalizing on customer touchpoints by inspiring customers to support Patagonia's purpose
• Through partnering with the Marketing & Product team, evolve how we show up in the market to drive engagement and loyalty in an increasing Patagonia customer community and a mutually valuable and long-term relationship
• Lead and enable strategic planning across all channels, manage cross-functional initiatives, and identify and drive new business development opportunities in partnership with peers and your team
• Partner with key stakeholders in EMEA and US to develop and lead EMEA marketplace project priorities
• Keep abreast of industry and customer trends and developments in the marketplace
• Ensure the marketplace strategy is reflective of the Patagonia brand and is meeting all commercial, brand and functional goals in all channels in collaboration with the relevant stakeholders

Customer experience

• Work with key internal functions in EMEA and the US like Product, Marketing, Operations and Channel teams to ensure optimal customer experience, product presentation in our technical product and sportswear categories
• Ensure we are leading with strong technical Patagonia product experience and positioning in all channels
• Partner with Marketing, Product and Enviro and Channel teams to deliver seasonal marketing and environmental initiative plans reaching and engaging customers across all channels with impact
• Continue to evolve on customer experience across all touchpoints throughout the customer journey resulting to an engaged and trusting customer set.

Delivering the business

• Build and own the plan for thoughtful expansion, realizing responsible growth in markets assuring the right long-term decisions are made and the business is able to pivot when required
• Plan and deliver upon the budgeted business objectives across channels and top and bottom line, driving a responsible and profitable business in alignment Finance and Product teams
• Set targets and manage a cross-functional effort to deliver against brand awareness, customer experience and revenue, margin and operating income goals
• Engage on EMEA and Global level to adjust business and other goals as needed

Leading the team

• Lead as a facilitator and conductor to bring a strong team with diverse perspectives together over an aligned strategy and plan
• Take time to fully understand the needs and opportunities in each channel and region
• Build and align vision and strategy in an inclusive manner, making sure all voices are being heard
• Create buy-in and engagement around direction and priorities. Ability to translate the plan into clear team and individual objectives and deliverables
• Lead and nurture the EMEA HQ and Country teams through a culture of safety, trust and accountability with clarity of direction and priorities
• Hire the right talents to build and run the business across EMEA HQ and Country teams
• Coach and provide regular, ongoing feedback to direct reports
• Thoughtfully develop career paths and developmental opportunities with the P&C team and other relevant functions for the marketplace organization
• Be a visible and present leader for all your team members through joint team events (online and offline), market visits and other ways
• Lead and drive (from the front) our strategy for Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI)
• Lead by example in an authentic way

What we're looking for

• A passion for saving our home planet and making a positive impact through your work
• Bachelor's degree in Business or equivalent combination of relevant education, experience, and training
• Minimum 15 years of experience in Strategy and Sales (owned & wholesale)
• Demonstrated breadth of experience in the European market
• Strong leadership, coaching, and facilitation skills
• Empathy and courage, to drive resilience in teams
• Ability to foster trust and a deep commitment to collaborating over a common plan
• Strong commercial business acumen
• Solid project management skills with an ability to accurately prioritize and manage trade-offs for delivery of existing projects while concurrently planning future projects
• Data driven and customer centric decision making
• Strong communication skills both written and verbal
• A deep attention to detail and dedication to accuracy and precision
• Results and impact oriented. Skilled at knowing when to stop the analysis and transition into commercial discussions
• Ability to thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced, often ambiguous environment
• Ability to work and learn independently and collaboratively in complementary teams
• Adept at creative storytelling using data driven insights, and the ability to bring complex consumer data to life for non-technical business partners
• Confident working with multiple partners, prioritizing and leading multiple workstreams simultaneously to create business impact and drive purpose
• Proven experience in building positive working relationships and working with cross-functional teams
• Experience in a multinational consumer products environment, and with omni-channel fulfillment network strategy, inventory and returns flow
• Passion for innovating consumer experiences through developing and scaling customer centric distribution capabilities, while also collaborating to drive a more productive and efficient ecosystem of channels providing product and service
• Ability to influence critical business outcomes in a matrix based, global environment
• Ability to seamlessly move between forward thinking and strategy and tactical implementation
• Innovative problem solver and connector of people and ideas
• Strong connection to Patagonia's mission statement and values

Other important details:

• This is a full time position, based in Amsterdam
• We have a hybrid work model, working from home for maximum 3 (full-time roles) or 2 (part-time roles) days per week
• We strive to make unbiased decisions and to offer a great experience to every person who applies for a role at Patagonia. Our interviews include standardised questions that focus on the aspects that are important for success in the role. For some roles there will also be a practical assignment, where you can showcase your skills

Perks:

• Events and workshops with environmentalists, change-makers, educators and sports ambassadors
• Taking part in employee-lead groups such as Sports, Internal Communications, Footprint, Pride, Pata Parents and Events, or create your own
• Ongoing unique learning and development opportunities such as our own programme Earth University and workshops in anti-racism, core sports, among others.
• Possibility to apply for an Environmental Internship (spending time away from your regular job to work for an environmental group, while being paid your regular salary) after one year of employment
• Option to participate in our 1% for the Planet grants council, being trained and empowered to review and make funding decisions on the grant applications from environmental groups.
• We have dog-friendly offices where employees can bring their furry friend to work
• We are an activist company and have policies in place to support employees that want to engage in activism.
• All employees interns and their families have access to our Employee Assistance Programme, designed to provide third party, confidential support on a wide range of topics relating to emotional, behavioral and social challenges
• All employees and interns have access to Unmind, our workplace mental health platform
• Possibility to schedule your work hours flexibly (compensating missed hours during the week) to do volunteer work, care for loved ones, enjoy the outdoors, or spend more time to pursue your passions
• After 1 month of employment, it's possible to work remotely from another location in EU/EEA, UK or Switzerland for up to 12 weeks per year (pro-rated for less than 1 year)
• Fully paid maternity leave (duration varies by country). After nine months of employment, we offer 12 weeks of partner leave and 12 weeks of adoptive leave. Pro-rated for part-time employees.
• Access to Patagonia discounts and sample sales, as well as discounts at other outdoor and value-aligned companies
• Plus other benefits specific to each region
• Note: the above mentioned is only an indicative list and may change at the time an offer of employment is made. .

At Patagonia, we commit to becoming an anti-racist company that leads by example. This means doing the work to be inclusive and equitable, across all aspects of our business. Every person who applies to join Patagonia receives equal employment opportunities, and we value a welcoming environment where each member of our EMEA team feels included, respected and empowered, regardless of their race, colour, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, civil status, national origin, disability or age.

At Patagonia, we strive to have inclusive representation within our organisation and embrace a diverse mix of talent to contribute to our culture. We actively seek applications from Black and People of Colour (BPOC) and other underrepresented groups.

As we are in business to save our home planet, we can only do this together.

Please make sure that your CV and cover letter are in English.

Disclaimer for recruitment agencies:

Thanks for your interest in supporting us for this role, but we don't accept unsolicited CVs from recruitment agencies