Associate Director of North America Marketing – Pet Food & Rendering

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and execution of the North America growth strategy for Kemin's Pet Food & Rendering portfolio
• Identify and evaluate new market opportunities, customer segments, strategic partnerships, and expansion pathways that support long-term business growth
• Champion an outside-in, customer-focused marketing approach by leveraging voice-of-customer insights, market intelligence, industry trends, and competitive analysis
• Translate market, customer, regulatory, and industry insights into strategic business recommendations and growth initiatives
• Influence regional business planning, revenue growth strategies, portfolio investments, and resource allocation decisions
• Partner with commercial and technical teams to accelerate growth, improve customer value creation, and strengthen competitive positioning
• Lead the North America innovation portfolio strategy, ensuring alignment between customer needs, market opportunities, and business growth priorities
• Influence innovation investment decisions through market sizing, opportunity assessment, customer insights, and competitive intelligence
• Represent North America in global portfolio governance, stage-gate reviews, and innovation pipeline discussions
• Evaluate portfolio performance and recommend strategic actions including investment, expansion, repositioning, or portfolio rationalization
• Partner with Global Marketing, R&D, and Commercial teams to shape commercialization strategies and accelerate market adoption
• Champion commercialization excellence across the innovation lifecycle from concept through launch and adoption
• Provide strategic leadership for market segmentation, targeting, positioning, value proposition development, and communications
• Drive strategic pricing, value creation, differentiation, and messaging discussions in partnership with commercial leadership
• Ensure consistency and effectiveness of customer-facing narratives across products, services, and market segments
• Oversee regional launch planning, go-to-market strategies, and activation efforts to support commercial success
• Partner with sales leadership to strengthen strategic account planning and market development initiatives
• Monitor market performance and business results, ensuring marketing investments deliver measurable impact against growth objectives
• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing regional marketing organization
• Establish clear priorities, performance expectations, and development plans aligned with business objectives
• Elevate strategic thinking, customer-centricity, and storytelling capabilities across the team
• Ensure effective prioritization across portfolios, balancing near-term business needs with long-term strategic objectives
• Regional Leadership Team Engagement
• Act as a trusted, active member of the North America Leadership Team
• Provide a strong customer, market, and competitive perspective in leadership discussions and business planning processes
• Engage in healthy debate, align on decisions, and champion agreed priorities across the organization
• Bring energy, urgency, and a positive leadership presence to the team

Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in Business, Animal Science, Nutrition, Marketing, or a related field with a minimum of 10+ years of experience in product management, marketing, or commercial leadership, strategic planning, or related business roles within pet nutrition, animal health, or B2B ingredients
• MBA preferred
• Strong understanding of pet food ingredients and rendering industries
• Experience leading portfolio strategy, innovation commercialization, and market development initiatives
• Strong understanding of market analysis, customer segmentation, value proposition development, and strategic planning
• Demonstrated ability to influence senior leaders and build alignment across diverse stakeholder groups