Senior Brand Manager

Position Title: Senior Brand Manager

Position Type: Regular - Full-Time ​

Position Location: Toronto HQ

Requisition ID: 33619

About McCain.

At McCain, we're feeding the world: from French fries to cakes, we contribute to the important role food plays in people's lives. That's why we're dedicated to ensuring our core values—Family, Authentic, Trusted, and Quality—shine through every day. As a privately owned family company with over 60 years of experience, a presence in more than 160 countries, and a global team of 22,000 people, our values and culture are at the heart of everything we do. We believe that we can work together, along with our business and community partners, to bring sustainable growth and positive change today, tomorrow, and for generations to come. Join us and see how you can MAKE IT at McCain!

Why join the McCain family.

• Your Life - we're here to help you fulfil your potential, flourish, and thrive in work and life.

• Your Success - work alongside passionate individuals who are committed to supporting your career ambitions, drive, and success.

• Your Impact - we want you to make a meaningful, lasting impact for you, for your colleagues, and for the business.

McCain is a place where you can grow from the ground up, so join us and see how you can MAKE IT at McCain.

About the role.

In every role, McCainers are ambitious, curious, and interested in helping each other create good work experiences. We think about the customer and make doing business with McCain easy.

The Senior Brand Manager, Retail Marketing, US Appetizers is a critical member of the North America (NA) Marketing Team at McCain who is a key player in developing and executing annual and mid-range portfolio and marketing strategies to deliver the 2030 Plan for the channel, unlocking profitable growth. Responsible for all aspects of the marketing mix to drive consumer demand, the Senior Brand Manager, US Retail will act as the strategic business leader, partnering with sales, innovation, marketing operations, go-to-market, insights, and other functional groups within the organization to meet portfolio business objectives. The ideal candidate is a proven consumer marketer - a solutions-oriented, forward thinker with a strong commercial lens, sound technical marketing skills, experience leading cross-functional teams and developing talent. Fueled by a passion for the consumer, the customer, and the category, the Senior Brand Manager, Retail will deliver profitable sales and market share growth with the goal of growing and transforming the business and the category.

Leadership Principles.

Our principles, each with related practices, guide our actions across the organization. Together, they address how McCain interacts with our customers and employees, and how we work as individuals and collectively to find success. While each role adheres to the Leadership Principles, individual roles may focus more on a specific principle or principles.

We are customer obsessed. Customers are our starting point. By understanding their needs and leveraging data and consumer insights, we drive mutual success.

We think big and plan ahead. Through ambition, curiosity, and smart risks, we can accomplish goals, refine processes, and innovate to scale success.

We bring out the best in our people. We create safe spaces for our people so that trust and empowerment come naturally. Inclusion is about listening first, showing humility, and working together.

We act like owners. Together, we clear obstacles and do the work that makes us all successful and proud to be part of McCain.

Accountabilities.

• Act as a leader and mentor to the team actively contributing to building an engaged, inclusive and high performing team.
• Sets the vision and long-range strategy in collaboration with internal stakeholders for the retail business, leveraging macro trends, demand space frameworks, consumer insights, shopper insights, and market & competitive analyses to identify where to play, how to win, and what to do in a way that drives profitable growth.
• Partner closely with Insights, Innovation and Go to Market Hub to identify and champion growth opportunities, translating market insights into strong go-to-market propositions
• Develop portfolio, brand & PL strategy, inclusive of brand heart development to grow a family of products/brands that are distinctively positioned and are targeted to customer/consumer needs. The Senior Brand Manager is responsible for setting a mid-term (3 year) brand, portfolio and base business strategy.
• Lead portfolio architecture strategy, inclusive of portfolio price tiering/ positioning
• Critical partner to Go to Market Hub counterpart to shape AOC annual planning process, driving/influencing innovation, base business growth initiatives and supporting/enhancing brand positioning and commercial objectives. Control & manage the full funnel marketing spend for the Retail business and report on results/ROI
• Lead core innovation strategy (non-disruptive) developing and executing line extensions & renovation, inclusive of core product stewardship initiatives
• Execute disruptive innovation plans, partnering closely cross functionally to deliver executional excellence
• Champion the customer and consumer, understanding the entire value chain to deliver an integrated and synergistic execution of the strategy across functions
• Support monthly IBP operating rhythm; with Go to Market Hub to help drive to decisions and alignment that balance supply against demand—and drive positive mix and scale impact to financial performance of the business
• Support T1, selective T2 customer engagements led by the Go to Market Hub and sales ensuring business alignment to unlock joint value creation
• Lead base business portfolio performance and product lifecycle reviews, to ensure an efficient and relevant portfolio that delivers to customer, category and commercial objectives. Initiate portfolio mix optimization, profitability, sourcing and pricing initiatives as needed
• Proactively review key brand and category performance drivers, identifying key levers that positively impact the P&L and adjust as needed to achieve annual operating plan objectives, inclusive of SKU profitability and mix.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's or advanced degree in Marketing, Business Administration, or related field required; MBA preferred
• Previous P&L management experience
• Experience deriving insights from both primary consumer research and syndicated data
• Proficiency in Excel, PowerPoint, and Word
• Excellent organizational and communication skills
• 7+ years of Marketing/Brand Management experience with P&L ownership of a large brand or portfolio of brands within the Consumer Packaged Goods industry, with a minimum of 5 years in food
• Expert knowledge of principles, concepts, strategies and techniques relating to Foodservice marketing.
• Strong commercial acumen and financial know how in the food CPG space in a tier 1 or 2 matrixed organization
• Ability to understand entire value chain and where commercial can drive efficiencies and effectiveness
• Experience of customer facing engagements with major retailers.
• Strong people management and leadership skills with high EQ with 2-3 years of experience managing direct report(s)
• Strong ability to influence people and build strong relationships with both internal and external stakeholders and customers.
• Experience working strategically and operationally, and adapt to fast paced, ambiguous environments while maintaining accountability.
• High degree of tenacity and persistence to get actions completed on schedule with a hands on approach when needed.
• Highly organized with premium analytical skills, strong attention to detail, and a track record of translating data into insights and action.
• Proven track record in delivering several complex projects at a time
• Adept with project management fundamentals with Stage-Gate process understanding to drive decision-making with gatekeepers

Skills:

• Is a self-starter and independent thinker with a strong work ethic who can convert insights into sustainable strategies and action plans that deliver results.
• Is a strong commercial marketer with proven expertise in driving sustainable impact and creating business value
• Has a solid track record of developing insight-led
• Leads with a general management mindset
• Takes a people-centric approach
• Is capable of prioritizing and business vision while ensuring alignment from key stakeholders
• Has a proven ability to lead & motivate cross functional teams delivering business and brand objectives

Marketing Strategy and Fundamentals

• Strategic leader who can drive category and brand growth developing where to play, how to win, what to do marketing, brand, and portfolio strategies
• Bias for leading with consumer insights, a demand-driven stance on the business, and an understanding of category & industry trends and intelligence — bringing teams along to win internally and in the marketplace
• A strong foundational understanding of marketing mix fundamentals

Commercial and business management acumen

• A strong commercial acumen required to manage the channel P&L to achieve financial goals (top and bottom-line), aligning and prioritizing work to deliver against KPIs and owning and executing strategic initiatives in line with goals (e.g., portfolio simplification, optimization, etc.)
• Robust understanding of the key drivers for the brand / category through financial knowledge of the SKU's under their portfolio and their contribution to the business.

Profitable portfolio management

• An ability to initiate portfolio mix optimization, portfolio analysis, price pack architecture, profitability, sourcing and pricing initiatives.

People & Culture

• Lead cross functional teams to ensure all team members are motivated, have clear goals and are vested in delivering the plans
• Strong ability to build rapport, with the aptitude to influence others towards a common goal.
• Upskill and mentor the brand/product team in knowledge of principles, concepts, strategies and techniques relating to brand management and marketing

The McCain experience.

We are McCain: this statement is about our power collectively and our importance individually—your impact is a significant part of the business. Our winning culture focuses on authenticity and trust so we can always bring out the best in our people. Here, you have the opportunity to learn, grow, and thrive while being yourself. Join our team to see why we're better together.

McCain Foods is an equal opportunity employer. We see value in ensuring we have a diverse, antiracist, inclusive, merit-based, and equitable workplace. As a global family-owned company we are proud to reflect the diverse communities around the world in which we live and work. We recognize that diversity drives our creativity, resilience, and success and makes our business stronger.

McCain is an accessible employer. If you require an accommodation throughout the recruitment process (including alternate formats of materials or accessible meeting rooms), please let us know and we will work with you to meet your needs.

Your privacy is important to us. By submitting personal data or information to us, you agree this will be handled in accordance with the Global Privacy Policy

Job Family: Marketing
Division: NA Appetizers
Department: ​Mktg Retail Shareables and Snackables Brand Mgmt ​
Location(s): CA - Canada : Ontario : Toronto || US - United States of America : Illinois : Oakbrook Terrace

Company: McCain Foods (Canada)