Strategic Marketing & Communications Category Leader

Sterling Kohler; Wisconsin; On-site; USD 135,600 - 211,000; Full time

Job summary

Kohler Co. in Kohler, WI seeks a Sr. Category Leader, Marketing & Communications to lead media procurement and supplier governance.

This onsite role focuses on shaping sourcing strategies, spend optimization, and delivering ROAS across paid media, digital, and agency engagements. You will partner with marketing, finance, legal, and analytics teams to translate business needs into effective contracts, performance metrics, and supplier relationships.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 8+ years of combined experience in strategic sourcing focused on marketing categories, category management, media procurement, or related roles.
• Experience managing media, marketing, agency, communications, or technology-related contracts and sourcing projects with $1M-10M+ in annual spend.
• Proficiency with supplier management, contract management, eSourcing, spend analytics, Microsoft Excel, Power BI, Microsoft Copilot, and related procurement or analytics tools.

Responsibilities

• Lead media procurement strategy and sourcing execution for Kohler’s marketing organization, including paid media, digital, programmatic, social, search, retail media, agency services, measurement, and related marketing technology.
• Partner with marketing, brand, finance, legal, privacy, analytics, and agency stakeholders to translate business needs into sourcing strategies, scopes of work, contract requirements, performance expectations, and supplier governance plans.
• Lead competitive sourcing events, supplier evaluations, bid analysis, negotiations, award recommendations, renewals, and contract changes for media agencies, platforms, and related suppliers.
• Analyze spend, supplier proposals, rate cards, agency fees, media pricing models, contract terms, market dynamics, and performance data to support fact-based decisions and total value recommendations.
• Manage supplier relationships and governance routines, including scorecards, business reviews, issue resolution, escalation paths, performance commitments, renewal planning, and continuous improvement actions.
• Deliver category value through cost avoidance, savings, risk reduction, improved transparency, supplier accountability, and stronger return on marketing investment including ROAS.
• Provide media procurement expertise on agency models, fee structures, commercial terms, brand safety, content rights and evolving media market trends.
• Communicate sourcing activity, supplier performance, risks, value delivered, and recommended improvements to procurement, marketing, and senior business leaders.

Job description

Kohler Co. in Kohler, WI seeks a Sr. Category Leader, Marketing & Communications to lead media procurement and supplier governance.

This onsite role focuses on shaping sourcing strategies, spend optimization, and delivering ROAS across paid media, digital, and agency engagements. You will partner with marketing, finance, legal, and analytics teams to translate business needs into effective contracts, performance metrics, and supplier relationships.