The Women Research program is dedicated to understanding, evaluating and mastering the needs of women unlocking the solutions (products & services) to access sport or active practices. Beyond the existing women product offer, the ambition is to be pioneering in how Decathlon can create a distinct way into how women interact positively with sport and physical activity in a much broader sense. Research on women specificities and women/men discrepancies is lagging well behind what has been done in men research in general including in sport sciences. A lot can be uncovered especially in physiological, biomechanical, perceptual or behavioral aspects helping to increase an active-healthy lifestyle and this could even reinforce the 1-2 year gap with men in terms of increasing women HALE (health adjusted life expectancy). A priority would be to investigate all the barriers with sport, especially around the menstrual cycle and this can even go towards environmental aspects. The specificity of life stages (pregnancy, post-partum, parenting, menopause) can also be a source of research insights that will reinforce a very singular and accessible role for DECATHLON. 

• Set up a clear and ambitious human-centric research strategy that focuses primarily on exploring the human potential and difficulties (both body & mind) of these diverse populations. This will be transversal to sports, products and services (and other ways to interact with users/customers) with some highlighted priorities

• Connect to business needs/strategies and influence the future of our worldwide DECATHLON offers and Innovation portfolio targeting this women population.

• Create new business opportunities thanks to game-changing human-centric insights, especially when it comes to transversal activation (across sports, new field of play or new sporting activities, from sports to others…) 

• Launch the relevant internal and external collaborations in a multi-disciplinary approach in order to make the most of all relevant resources and data worldwide. Create space for all different kinds of contributions and maximise the diverse opportunities for funding in an international context

• Lead program projects towards success, with a new way to allocate expertise (matrix organisation), guarantee full alignment of team members with the strategy and their ability to feed common targets. Balance different types of activities in the program between explorations, innovation and product excellence projects. 

• Launch projects in the relevant geographies in order to obtain the most accurate understanding of the targeted population with potentially specific cultural and motivational needs

• Oversee all projects and follow up on the standard procedures in SportsLab, respecting the different steps including the quality of data collection, and analysis all the way to CIR

• Team up with our IP team to help locking-in our space (with invention disclosures)

• Contribute to the dynamics of the Creative Collective environment by being a key player, at a global level, at a SportsLab level and within the Leadership team to favor unity and growth amongst your peers. 

• First and foremost ambassador of the Program, representing DECATHLON and/or DECATHLON SportsLab on various occasions (conferences, visits, PR, …)

• Manage the specific program value creation with well crafted indicators and associated reporting 

• Drive specific expenses dedicated to the research program

Leading this program will require to build a strong research strategy that will both connect business needs in the future of sport as well as multi-disciplinary internal and external expertise in order to provide a holistic view on the challenges faced by women. Beyond external expertise, the program may have some impacts or direct interactions with policy makers and/or worldwide organisations in order to be a perfect advocate between our solutions and public interventions. 

The program will host the greatest human explorations that will directly generate insights into how solutions should be designed for women, not only to improve an access for sport but most importantly to completely redefine what could create big leap disruption into favoring their physical activity. To create healthier societies, the aim should not be to just facilitate one-shot “sport session” but to anticipate what will retain women in an active lifestyle, across a range of options depending on personal preferences and motivations, daily or weekly agenda, seasons. The orientation towards health and well-being will be crucial in a preventive role.

Reporting to SportsLab Director, the Program Director of Women Research will create a strong network into all parts of the organisation from products, digital, insights and foresights, marketing (VOC), retail, creative collective (exchange, global solutions, xplo). Grounded with the human-centric expertise, he.she will always seek to come close to the targeted populations in all ways possible, from lab studies to always on ecological data collection. The Women Research Program Director will be a recognised scientific partner to sport/universe/domain/process leaders and their associated offer & technical directors/innovation leaders.

There will be a strong connection with the other Human-centric Research Program Directors to share strategies, best practices, network opportunities in order to maximise impacts and transformations of insights into real life.

There will also be a strong connection with the Expertise-centric Directors to share strategies and efficiently allocate talents to create the best projects, remain agile and flexible, on top of preparing mid to long-term recruitment needs to fulfill the ambitions for all different types of women.

As a functional leader, the Women Research Program Director will be looking after both the scientific quality of projects, their performances, deliverables, transfer to key stakeholders and the human journey and satisfaction regarding the contributions of each team member (from SportsLab and beyond) to the program. The Women Research Director will also bring his.her personal expertise to some operational research aspects where it will be relevant or required. Based on a strong strategy, he.she could supervise internships, apprentices or PhD students in a dedicated way whilst always keeping a close connection with expertise teams.

The Women Research Program Director will be obsessed with delivering high-quality scientific evidences (sometimes breakthroughs) on the targeted populations, in a variety of fast (data-driven observations, decisions) to prolonged explorations. The openness required will be large to intervene in all parts of Decathlon, starting from bringing the expertise at the Creative Collective level. 

The Women Research Program Director will make no compromises when it comes to the choice of metrics and the meaningfulness of the results obtained. He.she will embody the research quality whilst creatively finding ways to apply insights in specific or across sport domains. Connected to all sources of available knowledge on the topic, he.she will be highly connected to how women are well integrated into the future of sport. 

• 10+ years of scientific research & development in relevant commercial innovation, health and well being, elite sport or academic environments

• PhD and post-doctoral qualifications in applied research with additional project management diploma or entrepreneurial experience 

• Proven ability to conduct research studies from definition to delivery 

• Proven ability to convert human-centric knowledge into concrete product concepts, services, experiences, and mastership of intellectual property

• Excellent communication skills, creating traction towards scientific to business-oriented audiences

• Demonstrated skills in balancing short, medium and long term initiatives 

• An ability to strategically direct resources depending on the topics and impact, always trying to seek collaboration with existing multi-disciplinary top-experts 

• A lifelong passion for sport, practicing what they preach in pursuit of body, mind and community health

• Extensive understanding of sustainability and a strong passion towards a regenerative future

• Embody the Decathlon values: “Authenticity, Generosity, Responsibility and Vitality”

• Fluent in English is essential, knowledge of another language is a plus