Digital Design Leader [Permanent - CDI] (f/m/d)

Context & project Decathlon’s mission is to bring people together through sport to make wellbeing accessible for all. Fulfilling this mission requires design excellence at both ends of our digital experience: for the millions of sports lovers using our customer apps and websites, and for the thousands of teammates who rely on our tools in stores, warehouses, and offices to do their jobs every day. Digital design plays a pivotal role in supporting Decathlon’s growth and human connection. How? By ensuring our digital tools are simple, reliable, and enjoyable, and by giving our design community the shared foundations, systems, and practices they need to deliver the best possible experiences. Your mission In this context, we’re looking for a Digital Design Senior Manager within the Product Center of Excellence (CoE) to lead our core design capabilities, provide thought leadership on the future of our craft, and support our design community across Decathlon Digital. As a Design Leader, you will have a dual mission: you will directly manage the Design System team and the Design & Research Ops team, while functionally leading and inspiring the community of digital product designers embedded across our different business domains (eCommerce, Store apps, Supply Chain, and internal platforms) and countries. You will also steer how design evolves at Decathlon in the era of AI. Role & Responsibilities As a Digital Design Leader, you will act as a strategic partner at Decathlon Digital to: • Manage and develop your direct teams (Design System and Design & Research Ops): set their priorities, support their professional growth, and ensure their work delivers tangible value to Decathlon teams. • Lead our Design System : ensure its relevance across all digital touchpoints by catering to the specific needs of B2C, E2E, and B2B products, as well as sports experiences. Measure its adoption and its contribution to team efficiency and experience quality. • Drive Design & Research Ops : ensure that tools, methods, and operational frameworks meet real team needs, are effectively adopted, and tangibly contribute to operational efficiency and the quality of product decisions. • Support and coach our design teammates functionally: clarify career paths, structure onboarding programs, drive upskilling, and foster synergies and best-practice sharing across domains. • Champion a forward-looking vision for design and its practices , especially in the era of AI, through active industry monitoring and experimentation with emerging practices. • Create the conditions for active community contribution to the evolution of our tools, standards, and practices. • Build strong partnerships with Product and Engineering leaders to advocate for design excellence, digital accessibility (RGAA / WCAG), eco-design, and business impact. Hard skills • Around 8-10 years of experience in digital design , gained within complex, international product environments. • Proven track record in direct management , ideally leading hybrid profiles (designers, engineers). • Strong cross-functional leadership , with a demonstrated ability to influence, advise, and align senior stakeholders (Directors, business teams, tech, and product). • Deep understanding and strong awareness of current digital design challenges , particularly regarding Artificial Intelligence (AI) and eco-design. • Fluency in both written and spoken French and English is required to thrive in an international environment. Behaviors / Soft skills • Influence without authority — Build trust, inspire teams with a forward-looking vision, and rally decentralized designers, product managers, and engineering leaders around shared standards • Cross-functional collaboration — Work closely with diverse domains (O