Manager, Enablement

The J.M. Smucker Co.; Orrville (OH); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

The J.M. Smucker Co. in Orrville, OH is seeking a Manager, Enablement to partner with Sales and Marketing leaders, directing a team that translates business needs into training, change management, and process improvements across initiatives.

This role owns intake, prioritization, resource allocation, and governance for enablement work, ensuring plans drive adoption and business impact while coaching team members and aligning work with cross‑functional leaders.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• 8+ years in sales, marketing, communications, training, change management, or enablement roles.
• Experience managing direct reports or project teams.
• Ability to influence senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Ability to manage multiple initiatives and external vendors.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a primary intake point for Sales and Marketing enablement needs.
• Oversee a portfolio of concurrent Sales and Marketing enablement initiatives.
• Translate business needs into enablement plans and success measures.
• Build cross-functional relationships to improve alignment and execution.
• Influence senior leadership with clear project status updates.
• Set team priorities and allocate resources.

Skills

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Project management

Communication

Change management

Strategic thinking

Training and enablement

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Microsoft Office

AI productivity tools

Job description

Your Opportunity as the Manager, Enablement

The Manager, Enablement serves as a strategic enablement partner to Sales and Marketing leaders, managing a team responsible for filtering, prioritizing, and translating key business needs into communication, change management, business process, and training solutions. This role owns intake, prioritization, resource allocation, and governance for enablement work across Sales and Marketing, ensuring efforts are aligned to business impact, stakeholder readiness, and team capacity. The individual partners closely with cross‑functional leaders to assess change impacts, clarify process implications, define success measures, and drive adoption throughout the project lifecycle. This role also coaches and develops Enablement team members, establishes consistent ways of working, and continuously improves enablement approaches based on feedback, adoption, and business outcomes.

Location: Orrville, OH (Close proximity to Cleveland/Akron)

Work Arrangements: Hybrid - onsite a minimum of 9 days a month primarily during core weeks as determined by the Company; maybe more as business need requires

Strategic Communication

• Serve as a primary intake point for Sales and Marketing enablement needs, helping clarify the request, business objective, audience, timing, and desired outcome


• Oversee a portfolio of concurrent Sales and Marketing enablement initiatives, ensuring priorities, resources, risks, and stakeholder expectations are actively managed


• Translate business needs into enablement plans, communication strategies, milestone-based action steps, and success measures that drive adoption and business outcomes


• Build and maintain cross-functional relationships to improve alignment, decision-making, and execution across Sales, Marketing, and partner teams


• Influence senior leadership through maintaining clear & concise project status updates


• Set team priorities, allocate resources, manage workload, and ensure work is aligned to business impact

Business Process

• Translate complex workflows into clear process maps, role definitions, decision rights, timelines, and repeatable operating routines


• Serve as a business process advisor on key initiatives, ensuring process implications are understood, documented, and built into communication, training, and change plans


• Establish and maintain process governance, including ownership, escalation paths, update cadence, and expectations for sustained adoption


• Facilitate working sessions with senior leaders and stakeholders to align on current-state challenges, future-state recommendations, and implementation requirements

Change Management

• Advise the team on change impact across Sales and Marketing stakeholders, including implications to roles, processes, tools, routines, and decision-making


• Determine the appropriate level of change support required, ranging from light communication support to full end-to-end change strategy ownership


• Coach Enablement team members on change strategy, stakeholder readiness, resistance planning, and adoption tactics

Team Leadership

• Manage day‑to‑day performance, workload, priorities, and development of direct reports; provide coaching, feedback, and performance input aligned to business priorities


• Establish operating routines, expectations, and quality standards to ensure consistent delivery across the team


• Lead, coach, and develop a team of Enablement Leads supporting Sales, Marketing, Category & Sales Strategy & Planning priorities.

Capability Development

• Identify where training, tools, resources, or process guidance are needed to support adoption and long‑term behavior change


• Ensure learning solutions are practical, role‑relevant, and aligned to Sales and Marketing ways of working


• Partner with subject matter experts and outside resources as needed to deliver scalable enablement support

Minimum Requirements

What we are looking for:

• Bachelor’s degree


• 8+ years of experience in sales, marketing, communications, training, change management, business process, or enablement-related roles


• Experience managing, coaching, or leading direct reports or project teams


• Experience influencing senior leaders and cross‑functional stakeholders


• Experience managing multiple initiatives, priorities, and stakeholder groups simultaneously


• Experience working with cross‑functional teams and external vendors


• Strong organizational, communication, and stakeholder management skills with the ability to quickly identify key messages and tailor communication to different audiences


• Ability to lead work independently, make sound prioritization decisions, and advance initiatives with limited direction


• Ability to coach team members and stakeholders on how to analyze, synthesize, and translate business needs into clear action plans


• Ability to simplify complex challenges into practical plans, tools, timelines, and stakeholder‑ready recommendations


• Ability to manage multiple projects, balance competing priorities, and adjust plans based on business impact and capacity


• Strong relationship‑building and stakeholder management skills, including ability to collaborate across Sales, Marketing, and cross‑functional teams


• Ability to learn new subject areas quickly and apply sound judgment in ambiguous or evolving business situations


• Demonstrated emotional intelligence, including ability to navigate resistance, build trust, and support teams through change

Additional skills and experience that we think would make someone successful in this role (not required):

• Experience leading enablement, change management, communication, training, or business process teams


• Project management and/or change management certification


• Experience managing budgets, vendor partnerships, or external training resources


• CPG, sales, marketing, or commercial organization experience


• Experience establishing governance, intake models, or portfolio prioritization processes


• Strong business process mindset and experience improving ways of working across cross‑functional teams


• Ability to assess business requests, challenge assumptions, clarify needs, and recommend the right level of enablement support


• Experience establishing process governance, including ownership, decision rights, escalation paths, operating routines, and success measures


• Comfort using data, stakeholder feedback, and adoption insights to measure effectiveness and refine solutions


• Strong executive communication skills, including ability to create concise recommendations, updates, and decision‑ready materials


• Experience leading change, communication, training, or process work through others, including coaching direct reports or project contributors


• Proficiency with AI productivity tools, Microsoft Office applications, and collaboration platforms used to improve team effectiveness

The Right Place for You

We are bold, kind, strive to do the right thing, we play to win, and we believe in a strong community that thrives together. Our culture is rooted in our Basic Beliefs, and we believe in supporting every employee by meeting their physical, emotional, and financial needs.

Stay connected with us on LinkedIn®

We're an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, age, national origin, disability status or protected veteran status.