Global Director Of Competitive Brand

Reports to: Global VP of Brand Marketing

Team: Significant matrix leadership across all markets and functions

Location: US based, ideally from August 2023 or soon after.

About Speedo

Founded in Bondi, Australia in 1928 by an immigrant Scotsman, Speedo has been challenging convention and breaking records since day one. Within a year we had set our first world record in the world's first non-woolen suit, and our winning streak began.

No stranger to controversy, Speedo were the first to bare arms… and ankles and knees too; Placing performance over modesty, our designers stripped away inch after inch of cloth in pursuit of speed. In 1932, aged just 16, Clare Dennis won Olympic Gold at the Los Angeles Games only to have her medal challenged for ‘indecency’ after showing too much shoulder-blade in her Speedo Racerback suit. She kept her medal, and we kept pushing forwards.

In 2008, fueled by eighty years of innovation, Speedo swept the board at the Beijing Olympics winning 89% of all medals. It then took FINA and the IOC to step in to ban our technology to give our competition some hope of competing.

In 2020 we bought the license for our North American distribution, bringing the world’s biggest swimwear market back into the fold, and paving the way for a truly global brand strategy with the competitive advantage that our scale brings.

Today, Speedo is the world’s #1 swimwear brand, with an incredibly exciting future ahead of it. But, whilst we’re leading the pack, we’re never content to sit on our hands. There are still many consumers yet to reach, many markets yet to win, and a lifetime of gold medals to chase.

We’re looking for the world’s best talent to join the world’s number one swimwear brand as we take it to the next level. Come and be part of it.

About Pentland Brands

Pentland is the name behind some of the world’s loved active & footwear brands. Our brands are there in the moments that matter to consumers, and being there for more people in more of those moments drives everything we do.

Our owned brands include Speedo, Berghaus, Endura, Canterbury of New Zealand, Mitre, Ellesse and Red or Dead. We’re also the global licensee for Lacoste Chaussures and Kickers in the UK.

As a family business, we believe every individual has the power to help shape our future. We have been recognized as one of the best workplaces in the UK and Europe. Our global HQ is in the UK and we employ over 1,800 people across 20 countries around the world.

Your potential is our potential and together we can build and grow brands that last.

About the Role

Speedo is the number one competitive swimwear brand in the world, and it’s your job to ensure it stays there.

More world records have been set in Speedo than in all other swimsuits combined, because we are relentlessly focused on the needs of the competitive swimmer, and on driving an innovation agenda that leaves our competitors in our wake.

You’ll start by ensuring everyone at Speedo truly understands the needs of our consumer. From there, you’ll take deep rooted unmet human needs and turn them into game changing propositions, partnering with your teammates in Product, Innovation, Marketing & Commercial.

It’s a big brief, managing the biggest of the budgets across the global brand marketing teams and you’ll have to lean into the team around you. This role is like an orchestral conductor – you’ll write the music and you’ll hold the baton, and through your leadership the team around you will create products and communications that resonate deeply with our consumer.

Key Responsibilities & Skills

• You will own Speedo’s global definition of our ‘Competitive Swimmer’, ensuring we understand the physical & emotional needs of this priority target consumer better than any other brand, and using this consumer insight to drive a deep empathy throughout Speedo’s teams all over the world.
• You will define & own Speedo’s global consumer strategy for the Competitive Swimmer, with the support of Speedo’s global leadership team, designing a strategy and plan to ensure we are the #1 brand in all key markets. As the owner of that plan, you will “call the plays” across Marketing, Product & Sales to ensure we have a cohesive and consistent strategy across our business.
• You will manage our Sports Marketing managers to hand-pick the best athletes to sponsor, and to ensure our sponsorships get the maximum yield for both Speedo and our Athletes (a win-win relationship). You will also ensure our athlete needs are fed back into our innovation & product design process.
• You will collaborate with our Innovation & Design teams to facilitate product trials that drive constant product improvements.
• You’ll be “on deck” with our target consumer regularly, gaining invaluable first-hand feedback on range architecture, product design, brand aesthetic, commercial feedback and all other facets of consumer insight that will enhance our ability to serve their needs better. You will ensure this highly prized information is widely shared internally to create a consistent focus across our key markets.
• You will consult heavily with our Sales teams to ensure consumer purchase behaviour is well understood, and that we’re only every putting the right products into the right channels to meet the needs of the right consumers.
• You will collaborative with our Innovation, Product Management & Merchandising teams to define & brief the product ranges that will ensure we best serve this consumer, from elite racing suits to training apparel to leisurewear to training aids.
• You will lead any marketing campaigns that are specific to the Competitive Swimmer audience.

What you’ll bring

• You are brave and disruptive by nature, and unafraid to channel that energy into your work at Speedo
• An unrivalled perspective and insight on the competitive swimmer and the category
• Just like our founder, you’ll bring an entrepreneurial energy & maverick approach to business and a high level of commercial acumen and ambition
• First-class creative judgement and a natural eye for detail and well-resolved design
• You know how to write robust and convincing consumer strategy, and be able to construct brand propositions from concept through to consumer
• A passion for swimming, and an untameable determination to be the #1 swimwear brand in the world. Ideally you will have sports brand experience, if from swimming that is a bonus.
• You know how brands grow, and you know how they thrive. You will have a solid & demonstrable understanding of what it takes to build a brand that truly resonates with the competitive consumer.
• You intuitively understand how to create ‘brand heat’, and how to wield cultural resonance as a brand building tool

You’ll be a team player, naturally inclined to lean into the organization around you in order to best achieve your goals – whether that be building content plans, go to market strategies, new propositions or global marketing ca