Brand Director

Brand Director, Middleby Outdoor

• Long-term Strategic Planning & Budgeting: Portfolio planning inclusive of prioritizations to achieve business goals for the next 2-5 years, budget planning, identify category growth areas and market trends, create, and evaluate pricing strategy.
• Team Leadership: guide and direct team on portfolio and brand-level strategy, product line planning & lifecycle management, and market execution, as well as act as key cross-functional POC for portfolio (Insights & Analytics, Finance, Legal, etc.)
• Influence and Advocacy: presenting to internal and occasionally external audiences to gain agreement on portfolio and brand growth strategies, and partner with sales to secure product placement at key retailers. Ensure the portfolio is delivering market-leading tactics and messaging.
• Trend/Future Hunting: Constantly has finger on pulse of trends in the marketplace, changing shopper patterns and use to direct the future growth. The role should also include enhancing product value proposition and leveraging expansion opportunities.
• Develops, drives, and owns the brand strategy to grow brand equity and brand identity in the market and ultimately enhance consumer experience and loyalty.
• Provides strategy & direction to oversee business case development, go to market strategy/plans and the launch plans for new products, product positioning, pricing strategy, product packaging/design and communication briefs. Includes responsibility for delivering revenue line and profit targets for new products while ensuring achievement of revenue and gross margin targets on business.
• Leads cross-functional teams consisting of product development, engineering/R&D, sales, operations, and other internal teams to create innovation strategies and briefs, platforms and new product segments based on consumer insight and market research.
• Work with commercial and cross-functional partners (Supply Chain, Finance, Product, & Marketing) to develop and execute the channel marketing strategies, and plans for our diverse base of customers, for both existing and new product platforms.
• Ensures the consumer and marketing insights/analytics, including competitive trends, support brand initiatives and position the company for growth and profitability. Continually identifies and assesses new markets, product needs and opportunities.

Experience & Competencies:

• 8+ years of experience in brand management at a consumer goods company
• Experience leading P&Ls, consumer research, and new product development roadmap and execution
• High level of familiarity with channel management, National Account selling and category management
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to tell a compelling story to both internal and external partners
• Passion and curiosity to continuously seek out opportunities and ideas to strengthen and grow your business with a bias for action to quickly adapt and execute on the needs of the business while being comfortable challenging the status quo
• Ability to be a cross functional leader that can effectively communicate and collaborate with cross functional partners within sales, supply chain, research and development, communications, finance and market research
• Have the ability to leverage first party and third-party consumer research to articulate the voice of the customer to develop an execution plan for new products and packages
• Advanced analytical skills with strong proficiency in market data, competitive data, POS, Sales, Gross Margins, Operating Margins, Inventory Turns, etc.
• Customer-focused, can-do mindset with a passion for problem-solving and commitment to excellence and continuous improvement
• Passion for people and team leadership and development; past experience effectively leading teams
• Experience navigating a complex organization and changing priorities, while exercising attention to detail; proven ability to manage deadlines and maintain focus on high-impact work in a dynamic, fast-paced work environment

About the Company

Middleby Corporation is a fast-growing and profitable global manufacturer of commercial foodservice, food processing and residential cooking equipment with approximately $3 billion in revenue headquartered in Elgin, IL. Sales of the company's products are marketed under 80+ different brands. The company has 55+ manufacturing operations (including 20+ international) and 10 international distribution offices. Middleby has grown from approximately $100 million in revenues since 2001 and was named a Fortune Magazine's Fastest Growing Company in 2014 and 2015. Forbes included Middleby in their list of the World's Best Employers for 2021.