Job Title: General Manager – Brazil (Early‑Stage Market Build‑up)
Location: São Paulo, Brazil | Fully based in‑country, frequent domestic travel across Brazil; occasional travel to global headquarters
About the opportunity
We are a large, well‑established global sporting‑goods group with solid supply‑chain strength, multi‑brand portfolio and accelerating overseas global expansion. This is a ground‑floor entrepreneurial opportunity to build up our Brazil business from early stage.
You will be given high autonomy to shape the market strategy, build local distribution network, set‑up the local organization, and own full end‑to‑end business results in Brazil. This role suits a hands‑on builder who thrives in resource‑constrained startup‑like environment backed by a powerful group headquarters.
What you’ll do
As the General Manager for Brazil, you will take full P&L ownership for the Brazil business. Wholesale channel is your top strategic priority for market development, business expansion and sustainable profitable growth. You will lead the end‑to‑end development of this early‑stage market, identify commercial opportunities, build robust local customer & distribution network, and lay solid organizational and operational foundations for long‑term business scaling. This role requires strong entrepreneurial mindset and execution drive, with high autonomy to deliver results with limited local resources.
Key responsibilities:
- Own complete business performance against annual targets: sales, gross margin, profitability, inventory management, cash‑flow and market expansion KPIs.
- Develop and execute Brazil market entry strategy and annual operating plan to deliver scalable, sustainable growth.
- Lead wholesale business development: source, evaluate, negotiate and onboard key distributors, retailers and key‑account commercial partners; build and manage B‑side distribution ecosystem.
- Identify new customers, territories and business opportunities to continuously expand market footprint across Brazil. Own high‑level commercial negotiation with core partners and ensure execution of commercial agreements.
- Explore retail and supplementary sales channels where commercially viable, to build a balanced multi‑channel business model, while keeping wholesale as the core engine.
- Drive end‑to‑end key initiatives from idea to delivery; solve complex business challenges, leverage internal group resources and local external partners in a fast‑changing, resource‑limited environment.
- Build and scale local cross‑functional organization including Sales, Marketing, Operations, Finance and Human Resources; recruit, develop and inspire local talent, foster ownership‑driven, result‑oriented team culture.
- Full ownership of budgeting, forecasting, inventory and cash‑flow management; continuously optimize overall business profitability.
- Prepare regular business updates for global headquarters, covering business performance, market trends, competitor intelligence, key partner updates and actionable strategic recommendations.
- Ensure full compliance with local Brazilian laws, regulations and group policies; effectively manage local operational, financial and labour‑related risks.
- Other reasonable assignments delegated by global management team.
What you’ll bring
- Strong commercial acumen, proven entrepreneurial hunter mindset; highly proactive, hands‑on and resourceful. Comfortable building business with high autonomy under limited local resources.
- Demonstrated wholesale business development track‑record: proven experience identifying, approaching, negotiating and developing distributors, retailers and key commercial partners.
- Solid leadership, decision‑making, problem‑solving and multi‑stakeholder management capabilities.
- Combine strategic thinking with strong execution and genuine ownership mentality.
- Deep, hands‑on understanding of Brazil local market, customer landscape and competitive environment.
- Genuine passion for sports is mandatory.
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree or above in Business, Management or related disciplines; MBA considered as a strong plus.
- Minimum 8+ years of general management, commercial leadership or sales leadership experience.
- Solid proven track‑record in wholesale / B2B channel development (distributor, retailer, key‑account partner development).
- Direct experience holding full P&L responsibility for a business unit.
- Practical on‑the‑ground experience building business and commercial networks within Brazil.
- Prior working experience in sporting goods, footwear, apparel or broader consumer goods industry is highly preferred.
- Hands‑on experience building market, team or organization from ground‑zero in an early‑stage / fast‑growing entrepreneurial context.
- Proven history of delivering business growth via proactive market development and new‑customer acquisition.
- Fluent Portuguese and English; working‑level Mandarin Chinese is a significant plus.
Travel requirement
Position is fully based in Brazil. Requires regular travel across Brazil for customer visits, partner meetings and market oversight. Occasional travel to global headquarters will be required.
