Global Strategy Director

Starcom; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Starcom in the United Kingdom is seeking a talented strategic lead to partner with Mars Petcare brands on their marketing transformation journey across global markets. This role sits at the heart of a Power of One model integrating media, production, data, tech, social and commerce to create PESO experiences.

You will evaluate strategy, develop global frameworks, and build case studies while collaborating with senior leaders across four businesses. Travel may be required.

Qualifications

• Deep fluency in Ehrenberg-Bass/How Brands Grow and applying to strategy assessments.
• Proven ability to build trust across a matrixed global structure.
• Experience with media planning and international exposure.
• Strong analytical skills and data-led insights.
• Ability to create global frameworks with local nuance.
• Proficient in storytelling and turning activity into case studies.
• Comfort in governance and oversight, not day-to-day delivery.
• Experience designing training or guidance for regional teams.
• Ability to navigate senior stakeholder relationships diplomatically.
• Excellent PowerPoint reporting and leadership updates.

Responsibilities

• Support the capability transformation agenda and upskill teams.
• Collaborate with Mars Petcare leadership to build transformation capabilities.
• Provide leadership with visibility into network work across divisions.
• Build strong relationships with divisional leads and strategy teams.
• Drive best practice by delivering training and creating guidance.
• Develop a bank of case studies from across divisions.
• Assist Global Strategy Lead on strategic initiatives.
• Ensure processes are followed and deviations flagged.
• Act as link between Global Petcare strategy and divisional businesses.
• Evaluate strategy outputs against growth principles and provide constructive challenge.
• Navigate complex stakeholder relationships with diplomacy.

Skills

Ehrenberg-Bass principles

Relationship building

Media planning

Data-driven insights

Global framework design

Storytelling

Stakeholder management

Presentation skills

English fluency

Tools

PowerPoint

Excel

Job description

We are looking for a talented individual to join the team and our bespoke agency for a globally recognized company known for its iconic brands across Snacking, Petcare and Food & Nutrition across our network and around the globe.

This is a unique opportunity to partner with iconic brands on their marketing transformation journey. You will help enable the client to future-proof their business, whilst also being part of a Power of One model that integrates media, production, data & tech, social, influencer and commerce to create end-to-end PESO experiences.

The global team will consist of individuals from over 70+ markets, all operating with the same vision: To build a better today, for tomorrow.

Responsibilities:

• Support the wider capability transformation agenda, upskilling client and agency teams on strategic frameworks, tools and process
• Work with the Global Mars Petcare and Divisional Clients as they build out their transformation capabilities within Mars
• Provide Global Mars and Petcare leadership with consistent, structured visibility into work happening across the network, equipping them to consult effectively with each of the four businesses (Pet Nutrition, Royal Canin, MVH and Champion)
• Build and maintain strong working relationships with divisional client and strategy leads, acting as the primary channel through which global extracts visibility, context and stories from the business.
• Drive best practice across the network by developing and/or delivering training and guidance to regional teams - codifying what's working in one division so it can be applied elsewhere.
• Proactively surface and build a growing bank of case studies from work happening across the four businesses, either writing first drafts or directing others to.
• Assist the Global Strategy Lead where necessary on strategic initiatives from the Client CMO's office.
• Ensure divisional processes are followed correctly and consistently, flagging and helping resolve deviations.
• Act as the connective link between the Global Petcare strategy team and the four divisional businesses maintaining live oversight of strategic work happening across the network.
• Evaluate divisional strategy and outputs against Ehrenberg-Bass / How Brands Grow / Mars' Laws of Growth principles, providing a rigorous quality check and constructive challenge and potentially assist teams as they write their strategies
• Navigate complex, matrixed stakeholder relationships across global and divisional teams with diplomacy and discretion

What we're looking for

• Deep working fluency in Ehrenberg-Bass / How Brands Grow principles, with the ability to apply them to evaluate and challenge strategic recommendations.
• Excellent relationship-building skills, able to build trust and credibility across a matrixed, multi-division global structure without formal authority over the teams involved.
• Demonstrable media planning and strategy exposure, with international exposure
• Strong history with analytical skills and proficiency in media planning tools
• Practiced at building global approach frameworks that allow for local nuance
• Passionate about multi-media channel planning based on data-led insights. Familiarity with Marketing Mix Modelling and other predictive or analytic methodologies
• Strong written and verbal storytelling ability, with experience turning business activity into clear, compelling case studies.
• Strong strategic judgement, able to assess the quality and rigour of strategy developed by others without necessarily authoring it directly.
• Comfortable operating in a governance and oversight capacity - process adherence, quality control and capability-building rather than day-to-day delivery.
• Experience designing or delivering training, or producing written guidance, for regional or divisional teams.
• Politically astute, with sound judgement navigating senior stakeholder relationships and sensitive situations.
• An assured presenter and communicator, confident representing global perspectives to senior leadership and divisional teams alike.
• Naturally curious, with strong analytical and lateral-thinking skills, able to ask difficult questions constructively.
• Simple, effective use of PowerPoint for structured reporting, guidance documents and leadership updates.
• Fluency in English; additional languages a plus.
• May need to travel internationally on occasion.