Manager, Portfolio Strategy

Mars (New); Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 108,000 - 149,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Mars University education

401k plan

Paid time off

Job summary

Mars (New) in Chicago seeks a Manager, Portfolio Strategy to identify, design, and launch growth initiatives across a multi-category portfolio. You will lead agile projects, define challenger brand strategies, and optimize portfolio architecture to drive volume and household penetration.

This role requires 4+ years in CPG, MBA preferred, and strong Excel/PowerPoint skills. Office-based with Mars Five Principles guiding daily work.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Strategy, Business Administration, or related field; MBA preferred.
• 4+ years of experience in CPG with Brand Strategy, Strategic Planning, Category Management, or Go-To-Market/Trade Strategy.
• Hands-on experience leveraging syndicated data, consumer insights, and shopper insights to identify growth opportunities.
• Strong stakeholder management and pipeline management experience.
• End-to-end project management capabilities with handling ambiguity and tight timelines.
• Strong communication, networking, and presentation skills.
• Strong knowledge of Excel and PowerPoint.

Responsibilities

• Strategic Initiative Execution to unlock step-change volume, market share, and household penetration across the portfolio.
• Innovation Performance Excellence: analyze historical performance and translate learnings into scalable practices.
• Go-To-Market & Investment Optimization: evaluate GTM execution, distribution playbooks, and promotional ROI.
• Challenger Brand & Portfolio Role Definition: identify strategies and define brand roles in the portfolio.
• Cross-Functional Orchestration: lead agile teams across R&D, Sales, Finance, and Agencies.
• Ad-Hoc Strategic Projects: support Line Manager on briefs and executive presentations.

Skills

Brand Strategy

Strategic Planning

Category Management

Go-To-Market

Trade Strategy

Excel

PowerPoint

Stakeholder Management

Project Management

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Marketing/Strategy/Business Administration or related field

MBA preferred

Job description

Job Description: Manager, Portfolio Strategy Chicago, IL Office-based

The Manager, Portfolio Strategy is a high-impact strategic orchestrator tasked with identifying, designing, and launching growth initiatives to unlock massive volume and household penetration (HHP) growth across a multi-category portfolio. Supporting the Line Manager directly, this role acts as an agile project leader driving critical, complex initiatives. These include identifying challenger brand strategies, clarifying the role of brands and portfolio architecture, improving innovation performance knowledge, optimizing investment allocation strategies, refining go-to-market (GTM) execution, and establishing best-in-class portfolio practices to secure our long-term competitive advantage.

What are we looking for?

Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Strategy, Business Administration, or related field required (MBA preferred). 4+ years of experience in CPG, with a strong background in Brand Strategy, Strategic Planning, Category Management, or Go-To-Market/Trade Strategy, including Hands-on experience leveraging syndicated data, consumer insights, and shopper insights to identify growth opportunities and inform portfolio choices. Strong stakeholder management Innovation and pipelining management experience Strong end-to-end project management capabilities Comfortability managing high levels of ambiguity Experience with coordinating complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives under tight timelines. Strong communication, networking, and presentation skills Strong knowledge of excel and PowerPoint

What would be your key responsibilities?

Strategic Initiative Execution: Lead the execution of key strategic initiatives designed to unlock step-change volume, market share, and household penetration (HHP) growth across the entire portfolio. Innovation Performance Excellence: Analyze and build capability around historical innovation performance, translating past launch learnings into scalable, repeatable best practices that optimize future success rates. Go-To-Market (GTM) & Investment Optimization: Partner with Sales, Trade Marketing, and Brand Activation to evaluate and improve GTM execution, distribution playbooks, and promotional investment strategies to ensure maximum ROI. Challenger Brand & Portfolio Role Definition: Identify challenger brand strategies and define the role each brand plays within the broader portfolio, ensuring clear choices on where to win, how to compete, and how resources should be prioritized. Cross-Functional Orchestration: Lead agile, multi-disciplinary teams (R&D, Sales, Finance, External Agencies) to rapidly develop, pressure-test, and scale complex projects from concept to commercial execution. Ad-Hoc Strategic Projects: Support the Line Manager on high-priority strategic briefs, business case developments, and executive presentations addressing competitive threats, regulatory shifts, or macroeconomic trends.

What can you expect from Mars?

Work with over 130,000 with diverse and talented Associates, all guided by The Five Principles. Join a purpose driven company, where we’re striving to build the world we want tomorrow, today. Best-in-class learning and development support from day one, including access to our in-house Mars University. An industry competitive salary and benefits package, including company bonus. Mars does not sponsor visas for this role. The base pay range for this position at commencement of employment is between the range listed below, however, base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including but not limited to job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total compensation package for this position will include variable pay, medical and dental benefits, participation in 401k plan, and paid time off benefits. Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an applicant receives an offer of employment. The pay range shown is applicable to all US locations listed within the job posting: USD 108,160.00 - USD 148,720.00. Mars is a family-owned business with more than $35 billion in global sales. We produce some of the world’s best-loved brands: M&M’s®, SNICKERS®, TWIX®, MILKY WAY®, DOVE®, PEDIGREE®, ROYAL CANIN®, WHISKAS®, EXTRA®, ORBIT®, 5™, SKITTLES®, BEN’S ORIGINAL®, and COCOAVIA®. Alongside our consumer brands, we proudly take care of half of the world’s pets through our nutrition, health and services businesses such as Banfield Pet Hospitals™, BluePearl®, Linnaeus, AniCura, VCA™ and Pet Partners™. Headquartered in McLean, VA, Mars operates in more than 80 countries. The Mars Five Principles – Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom – inspire our 140,000 Associates into taking action every day towards creating the world we want tomorrow.