Senior Manager Communications Strategy and Activation

Manager of Communications Strategy & Activation will be critical in elevating brand storytelling and delivering bold, breakthrough, culturally relevant creative activations. Guide and empower direct reports to manage day-to-day Brand relationships for their assigned Brands, while you oversee strategic alignment and escalation. Provide expertise and enable excellence across brand foundations, packaging design, visual identity, creative development, paid asset production, and integrated communications. Support Brand teams with guidance on process, tools, and partners to elevate creative effectiveness and full-funnel activations. Ensure your direct reports are equipped to manage day-to-day creative development while you provide strategic oversight and escalation support. Responsible for the end-to-end creative development process for brand platforms and brand campaigns that are distinctive, relevant, and have proven potential to extend across full-funnel consumer touchpoints. Guide creative asset production process, with production cost consultants when applicable, through pre-production, shoot, and post-production to deliver assets on time and on budget that uphold the creative integrity and are aligned to brand strategies, standards, and specs needed. Responsible for the communications strategy, planning, and activation of each brand's annual integrated plan designed to achieve full-funnel objectives. Establish structured communication routines and governance forums that ensure alignment, transparency, and timely decision-making. Lead your team to be the cross-functional quarterback and dot connector, identifying and including the relevant cross-functional partners across the Engagement Studio, Media, eComm, Shopper, Consumer Insights, and Procurement for expertise and visibility. Empower your team to provide expertise and guidance to internal stakeholders on creative excellence, production, and holistic comms strategy that includes earned. Ensure your direct reports are trained and empowered to manage agency relationships day-to-day while you oversee strategic governance. Leads through change with confidence and resilience, inspiring teams to stay focused and energized even when facing roadblocks. Demonstrates strong people leadership, with a proven ability to motivate, coach, and grow direct reports while empowering them to take ownership. Relationship builder who practices empathy and respects diverse backgrounds and needs. Authentically builds credibility and followership through courage and self-awareness, resulting in allies. Recognizes others for their accomplishments and finds opportunities to celebrate big and small wins. Thinks systemically, navigating complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity with a structured, solutions-oriented mindset. Strong problem-solving and analytical skills; ability to determine critical issues and develop effective action plans. Effective verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to use storytelling to influence decisions. Gritty and resourceful when necessary. Trusted to make well-informed decisions and take evidence-based risks. Self-starter who can meet deadlines, is well organized and can work autonomously. A strong project manager with expertise in designing ways of working across a global, matrixed organization. Demonstrates strong project and process leadership, with the ability to design, implement, and continuously improve ways of working across teams. Experience working in a remote team setting under pressure and in a fast-paced environment. Adapts approach and attitude in real time, according to the changing demands of different situations. Creates a climate where people are motivated to do their best to help the organization achieve its objectives. Holds self and others accountable to meet commitments. Makes sense of complex, high quantity, and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems.

8+ years of relevant experience in agency and/or brand roles. Bachelor's degree is in Marketing or a related field is required, with a Master's degree being a plus. The ideal candidate will have creative agency experience, brand creative experience, or both. Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) experience is preferred. Understanding the inner workings of agencies across creative, packaging, digital, social, and PR. Collaborations with peers in consumer insights and media, driving consumer-centric activations. Strong understanding of campaign production. Experience leading an integrated agency team from brand side, agency side, or both. Experience with packaging design, aligned to best practices to stand out on the shelf. Ability to travel 10-20% domestically and/or internally for internal meetings, conferences, creative shoots, and/or brand activations.