He's basically worked his way into the job. Started as a manager, not so successfully it appears, ended up as head scout at RMadrid, then became DOF at Monaco when they were taking off under Ribolovlev, helped build the side that won Ligue1, then the wheels came off at Monaco when FFP and Ribolovlev's divorce kicked in, and Gerard Lopez (owner of Lille and very shrewd businessman, IT and Sports - Football and F1- investor who also manage players and image rights) lured him over to Lille with a promise of cut of profits from sales I think.
I think a lot of these DOF/Sporting Director/Recruitment specialists often work better at medium/smaller clubs in France, Germany, Spain because at bigger clubs the recruitment process is slightly different, at big clubs it's less about unearthing cheap young gems that need polishing, or seeing the possibility of re-tooling a failed talent to make them viable (and valuable) again - it's more geared toward buying for the "now" and spending bigger sums and not adding inherent value.
I know that the bigger clubs do buy hot young prospects, but invariably it's to farm them or it's more speculative. At Lille/RBL/Rennes/Lyon/BMG/Seville etc etc level it's about unearthing raw materials and then adding inherent footballing and financial value.
This is where the Monchi's, Rangnick's, Mislintat's, Campos's etc etc (many in France and Germany particularly) tend to excel I think.