Brand Growth Lead for Special K & Nutri-Grain

Mars, Incorporated and its Affiliates; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 134,000 - 185,000; Full time

Job summary

Mars, Incorporated and its Affiliates is seeking a Brand Manager for Special K and Nutri-Grain to lead strategy, innovation, and full-funnel media across two iconic brands. You will translate consumer and financial insights into integrated plans, partnering with cross-functional teams and agencies to drive growth and strong in-market results.

The role requires guiding a multi-year plan, managing budgets, and mentoring a direct team, with a focus on consumer-led innovation and marketplace

Qualifications

• Undergraduate degree required; MBA is an asset, focus on Marketing/ Business is a plus.
• 5+ years of CPG brand management, marketing, or other relevant CPG experience.
• Demonstrated track record of building, activating, and managing brand strategy to deliver consumer and business growth.
• Strong general management, analytical, and financial skills (including budget management).
• Demonstrated ability to leverage insights and analytics to inform investment choices, prioritize strategic objectives and maximize results.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams and agency partners in a matrixed environment, aligning stakeholders and driving high-quality execution.
• Experience developing innovation pipelines and leading initiatives from insight and concept through commercialization and launch.
• Expertise with full-funnel media and integrated marketing strategy, including optimizing across channels, guiding creative development, and managing external stakeholders
• Bias for ownership and action, with sound judgment, comfort navigating ambiguity, and the ability to move work forward at pace.
• Passion and experience with people management is a benefit, including coaching and developing direct or indirect team members.

Responsibilities

• Set the vision: own annual plan and long range strategy for Special K and Nutri-Grain, using consumer, category, competitive, and financial insights to define priorities and deliver sustainable, profitable growth.
• Monitor brand health and business performance, diagnose opportunities and risks, and convert learning into decisive action and continuous improvement.
• Build and advance a consumer-led innovation and renovation pipeline, develop robust business cases, and lead cross-functional teams through commercialization and launch.
• Partner across org to develop and deliver integrated communications and media strategies across platforms; establish clear objectives and optimize based on results.
• Champion, protect and strengthen each brand’s positioning, identity, and distinctive assets while ensuring consistent, relevant execution across consumer and customer experiences.
• Manage brand performance, forecasts, budgets, and investment trade-offs in partnership with Brand leadership, Finance, Sales, Insights, Media, Supply, R&D and other key functions.
• Coach and develop team members and foster a culture of ownership, collaboration, inclusion, and high standards.

Skills

Brand management

Strategic thinking

Cross-functional leadership

Financial skills

Analytics

People management

Education

Undergraduate degree in Marketing/Business

MBA (asset)

Tools

Budget management

Job description

Mars, Incorporated and its Affiliates is seeking a Brand Manager for Special K and Nutri-Grain to lead strategy, innovation, and full-funnel media across two iconic brands. You will translate consumer and financial insights into integrated plans, partnering with cross-functional teams and agencies to drive growth and strong in-market results.

The role requires guiding a multi-year plan, managing budgets, and mentoring a direct team, with a focus on consumer-led innovation and marketplace