Senior Manager Communications Strategy and Activation

Job description

***Have you ever enjoyed Arnold®, Brownberry® or Oroweat® bread? A Thomas’® English muffin or bagel? Or perhaps snacked on a Sara Lee®, Entenmann’s® or Marinela® cake or donut? If the answer is yes, then you know Bimbo Bakeries USA!*** ***More than 20,000 associates in bakeries, sales centers, offices and on sales routes work to ensure our consumers have the freshest products at every meal. In addition to competitive pay and benefits, we provide a safe and inclusive work environment that appreciates diversity, promotes development and allows our associates to be their authentic selves.*** **#LI-LF1** **Come join the largest baking company in the world and our family of 20,000 associates nationwide!** **Top Reasons to Work at Bimbo Bakeries USA:** **Salary Range: $102,000 - $142,800** **Comprehensive Benefits Package** **Annual Bonus Eligibility** **401k & Company Match** **Position Summary:** Bimbo Bakeries USA (BBU) is undergoing a marketing transformation to accelerate Branded growth. The **Sr. Manager of Communications Strategy & Activation** will be critical in elevating brand storytelling and delivering bold, breakthrough, culturally relevant creative activations. The ideal candidate is a strategic brand builder with a strong background in developing creative and translating to integrated activations and brand experiences. This role leads a team of 2 Associates, reports to the Director of Integrated Communications & Creative Services and is part of the Marketing Center of Excellence at Bimbo Bakeries USA. This role also leads cross-functional teams and agency partners, guiding strategy, establishing processes, and driving effectiveness. **Key Job Responsibilities:** **Team Leader** - Set the standard for the Comms Strategy & Activation team by building strong relationships, stewarding the function both internally and externally, and fostering a culture that believes in the power of brand and creativity - Lead, coach, and develop a team of 2 Associates, dedicated to Comms Strategy & Activation, that is collectively responsible for creative effectiveness and full-funnel activations across every Brand in the Bimbo Bakeries USA portfolio. - Establish and optimize scalable processes, workflows, and best practices that elevate team performance and cross-functional collaboration. - Model leadership behaviors that build trust, accountability, and a culture of continuous improvement. **Brand Partner** - Lead your team in partnering with Brand teams on all aspects of brand building to achieve annual business goals and improve brand equity. - Guide and empower direct reports to manage day-to-day Brand relationships for their assigned Brands, while you oversee strategic alignment and escalation. - Provide expertise and enable excellence across brand foundations, packaging design, visual identity, creative development, paid asset production, and integrated communications. Champion the adoption of standardized tools, frameworks, and processes across all brands to drive consistency and efficiency. - Support Brand teams with guidance on process, tools, and partners to elevate creative effectiveness and full-funnel activations. **End-to-End Creative Development & Production** - Oversee and govern the creative development workflow, ensuring your team and agencies follow a clear, repeatable process from briefing through delivery. - Ensure your direct reports are equipped to manage day-to-day creative development while you provide strategic oversight and escalation support. - Responsible for the end-to-end creative development process for brand platforms and brand campaigns that are distinctive, relevant, and have proven potential to extend across full-funnel consumer touchpoints. Empower team to lead for their assigned brands, helping with escalation as needed - Craft creative briefs for agency partners, working closely with Brand and Consumer Insights to ensure we are providing clear direction that is informed by a strong understanding of the brand purpose, business strategy, and audience. - Guide creative asset production process, with production cost consultants when applicable, through pre-production, shoot, and post-production to deliver assets on time and on budget that uphold the creative integrity and are aligned to brand strategies, standards, and specs needed. - Lead post‑mortem reviews and codify learnings into updated processes, templates, and standards for your team. **Integrated Communications Strategy, Planning & Activation** - Lead the development and adoption of integrated planning frameworks, ensuring your team and partners follow consistent standards. - Responsible for the communications strategy, planning, and activation of each brand’s annual integrated plan designed to achieve full-funnel objectives. Empower team to lead for their assigned brands, helping with escalation as needed - Spearhead collaboration across functions and agencies to ensure the big idea guides how the plan is built, connecting touchpoints, providing budget recommendations, and defining and measuring KPIs for each channel and tactic. - Coach brand teams and cross-functional partners on how to drive consistent storytelling excellence across all consumer touchpoints. **Cross-Functional Connector** - Establish structured communication routines and governance forums that ensure alignment, transparency, and timely decision-making. - Lead your team to be the cross-functional quarterback and dot connector, identifying and including the relevant cross-functional partners across the Engagement Studio, Media, eComm, Shopper, Consumer Insights, and Procurement for expertise and visibility. - Empower your team to provide expertise and guidance to internal stakeholders on creative excellence, production, and holistic comms strategy that includes earned. **Agency Management** - Partner with Director of Integrated Communications & Creative Services to centralize agency management and governance (internal and external), holding our agencies accountable to pre-defined deliverables and standards (excludes our Media Agency of Record). - Continuously evaluate agency performance and recommend structural improvements to optimize the ecosystem. - Ensure your direct reports are trained and empowered to manage agency relationships day-to-day while you oversee strategic governance. - Empower your team to foster IAT collaboration, establishing ways of working that enable fully integrated plans that are informed by the idea. **Key Behavioral Competencies:** - Leads through change with confidence and resilience, inspiring teams to stay focused and energized even when facing roadblocks. - Demonstrates strong people leadership, with a proven ability to motivate, coach, and grow direct reports while empowering them to take ownership. - Relationship builder who practices empathy and respects diverse backgrounds and needs. - Authentically builds credibility and followership through courage and self-awareness, resulting in allies. - Recognizes others for their accomplishments and finds opportunities to celebrate big and small wins. - Thinks systemically, navigating complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity with a structured, solutions-oriented mindset. - Strong problem-solving and analytical skills; ability to determine critical issues and develop effective action plans. - Effective verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to use storytelling to influence decisions. - Gritty and resourceful when necessary. - Trusted to make well-informed decisions and take evidence-based risks. - Self-starter who can meet deadlines, is well organized and can work autonomously. - A strong project manager with expertise in designing ways of working across a global, matrixed organization. - Demonstrates strong project and process leadership, with the ability to design, implement, and continuously improve ways of working across teams. - Experience working in a remote team setting under pressure and in a fast-paced environment. **Leadership Competencies** - Adapts approach and attitude in real time, according to the changing demands of different situations. - Creates a climate where people are motivated to do their best to help the organization achieve its objectives. - Holds self and others accountable to meet commitments. - Makes sense of complex, high quantity, and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems. **Education and Work History:** - 8+ years of relevant experience in agency and/or brand roles. - Bachelor’s degree is in Marketing or a related field is required, with a Master’s degree being a plus. - The ideal candidate will have creative agency experience, brand creative experience, or both. - Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) experience is preferred. - Understanding the inner workings of agencies across creative, packaging, digital, social, and PR. - Collaborations with peers in consumer insights and media, driving consumer-centric activations. - Strong understanding of campaign production. - Experience leading an integrated agency team from brand side, agency side, or both. - Experience with packaging design, aligned to best practices to stand out on the shelf. - Ability to travel 10-20% domestically and/or internally for internal meetings, conferences, creative shoots, and/or brand activations. *The physical and mental demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an associate to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be requested to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.* *Bimbo Bakeries USA is an equal opportunity employer with a policy that provides equal employment opportunity for applicants and employees regardless of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, veteran status, any other classification protected by law.* *It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.*