Director, Content Operations & Production

About the Role

This position plays a critical role in our transformation toward data-driven brand building, redefining how we connect with pet parents through personalized, meaningful engagement. Reporting to the VP, Marketing Operations & Transformation, you will own the end-to-end content production engine—from brief to publish—across all brand and channel needs. This is an operating-model leadership role focused on systems, partners, talent, workflows, and discipline to produce content reliably across a complex multi-brand portfolio, including AI and automation strategy for future scaling.

Responsibilities

• Discipline Building & Adoption
  • Build the content operations and production discipline for Pet Nutrition Marketing in partnership with the global team, defining team roles, standards, ways of working, and the operating model that scales across the portfolio.
  • Drive adoption of the discipline across all brands and channels, meeting brand teams where they are and bringing them into a consistent, repeatable production practice.
  • Role-model collaborative leadership to build cohesive production at scale across functions, brands, and partners.
• Production Operating Model
  • Define and run the brief-to-publish operating model: intake, scoping, briefing, creative development, review and approval, production, delivery, and archival.
  • Design systems that make content production predictable, repeatable, and continuously improving.
  • Build or manage systems enabling content to be produced once and adapted across markets, channels, and personalization layers to reduce time-to-market and unit cost while protecting craft.
• Partner Ecosystem & Build vs. Buy
  • Own strategic relationships with production partners, negotiate master arrangements, and hold partners accountable to outcomes, scope, and quality.
• Brand Integrity & Asset Value
  • Run the QC discipline to ensure every produced asset meets brand standards, regardless of producer or location.
  • Partner with Global Product teams on DAM strategy and infrastructure to protect asset value over time, including version control, metadata discipline, rights tracking, and asset reuse at scale.
  • Collaborate with Marketing Systems & Enablement on the platform layer.
• Technology & AI Strategy
  • Own the business use cases for AI-assisted production: piloting, scaling, guardrails, brand safety, and value measurement.
  • Partner with Marketing Systems & Enablement on the broader enterprise approach to AI.
  • Partner with the AEO/GEO lead to optimize content for AI-powered search experiences, improving discoverability and performance across emerging answer engines and generative search platforms.
• Investment Stewardship
  • Manage the total production budget, partner with brand teams on budget allocation, and drive cost discipline through better briefs, smarter sourcing, modular reuse, and process improvements.
  • Report return on production investment to senior leadership.
• Cross-Functional Leadership
  • Serve as the primary partner to Integrated Planning & Media, brand leadership, Social & Communities, Recruitment & Sampling, and Marketing Systems & Enablement.
• Team Leadership
  • Attract, lead, and develop direct reports, ensuring high-quality objectives and development plans to build top talent.

Requirements

• 12–15 years in content production, creative operations, or integrated production leadership; brand-side or production-company leadership required.
• CPG experience strongly preferred, particularly in multi-brand portfolio environments.
• Track record managing complex multi-channel production at enterprise scale with meaningful budget stewardship.
• Proven experience leading production transformation, not just steady-state management.
• Experience designing operating models, workflows, and governance across cross-functional teams.
• Working knowledge of the production technology landscape: DAM, work management, creative review platforms, and AI-assisted production tooling.
• Proven people leadership with a demonstrated commitment to developing talent and building team engagement.
• Experience managing senior stakeholders in matrixed environments.

Benefits

• Work with over 130,000 diverse and talented associates, all guided by The Five Principles.
• Join a purpose-driven company striving to build the world we want tomorrow, today.
• Best-in-class learning and development support from day one, including access to Mars University.
• An industry-competitive salary and benefits package, including company bonus.