Strategic Demand & Innovation Lead

Mars Incorporated; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 154,000 - 211,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Mars University

Company bonus

Job summary

Mars Incorporated is seeking a Senior Manager, Strategic Demand Leadership (SDL) - Innovation to bridge brand innovation and market reality. You will steer cross-functional teams across Sales, Innovation Marketing, R&D, Consumer Insights, and RGM to turn consumer whitespace into meaningful growth for portfolios up to $800M NSV.

You will shape how products appear on shelves and screens, drive omni-channel launches, and ensure profitable, sustainable growth with key accounts.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 5 years of commercial experience in CPG marketing, innovation commercialization, commercial strategy, category management, or demand planning.
• Proven experience leading commercialization, go-to-market planning, and customer activation of new product launches in a CPG environment.
• Consultant-style analytical toolkit with structured problem-solving and ability to switch from long-term vision to hands-on execution.
• Experience developing consumer, shopper, and customer strategies, activations, and promotional plans.
• Strong fluency in category trends, competitive dynamics, shopper behaviors, and translating insights into commercial advantages.
• Proven ability to influence, align, and mobilize cross-functional partners and senior stakeholders without direct authority.
• Excellent interpersonal, stakeholder management, storytelling, and presentation capabilities.
• Working knowledge of S&OP processes and RGM principles (nice-to-have).

Responsibilities

• Identify consumer needs, whitespace opportunities, and category trends with cross-functional partners to shape innovation pipelines.
• Develop and execute omni-channel launch strategies maximizing awareness, trial, and adoption across channels and key accounts.
• Drive annual sales strategy to deliver net sales and profit goals and balance decisions across channels.
• Own channel plans by understanding SWOT, target consumer, competition, and customer strategy.
• Monitor industry trends and competitor launches to keep pipelines differentiated.
• Track post-launch performance and provide actionable recommendations to scale initiatives.
• Collaborate with Sales and Demand Planning to translate trends into reliable forecasts.
• Manage budgets to maximize ROI on innovation investments.

Skills

Commercial Experience

Launch Leadership

Analytical Skills

Customer Strategy

Market Insights

Leadership & Influence

Communication Skills

S&OP knowledge

Job description

Mars Incorporated is seeking a Senior Manager, Strategic Demand Leadership (SDL) - Innovation to bridge brand innovation and market reality. You will steer cross-functional teams across Sales, Innovation Marketing, R&D, Consumer Insights, and RGM to turn consumer whitespace into meaningful growth for portfolios up to $800M NSV.

You will shape how products appear on shelves and screens, drive omni-channel launches, and ensure profitable, sustainable growth with key accounts.