Marketing Category Manager

The Opportunity

As the Marketing Category Manager, you will be responsible for managing the roster agency program, and for developing and executing against all elements of the category management process?including development of category strategies, working with internal customers to refine the strategy, executing the strategy (incl. price, cost or demand levers) and managing elements of the contract lifecycle process in partnership with the Contract Management Team.???

The Team

The Customer & Engagement Team at MassMutual is located in the innovation hub of Boston ? The Seaport District. We?re a smallish team, so it?s exciting and unusual that we have open positions. If you are a marketer who is passionate about helping people secure financial freedom, and protect the ones they love, who also enjoys coming up with ideas, making them better, and making them happen, then please read further.

You?ll use your skills to partner both internally with our business partners, and externally with agencies, production companies, martech and market research suppliers who provide us with a wide range of capabilities, from award-winning creative work to innovative technology platforms and industry-leading research.

The Impact

The Marketing Category Manager will be responsible for category management activities related to the purchase of both goods and services.???Overall, you will be a champion for working in new ways and understanding the right partners to activate around campaigns/marketing needs. You will also scope and negotiate all financials and develop, in partnership with Procurement & Legal, supporting contacts for the partnerships. You will be expected to stay in tune with culture, processes, structure, and publisher content creation practices.?Reports to the Head of Customer Activation & Engagement.

You will:

• Manage multiple units/departments within a single or multiple lines of business.

• Participate as member of the organizations management team contributing to the development of strategies and business goals and measures.

• Contribute to the development of financial and resource plans and manage own budget.

• Oversee daily operation of department(s).

• Implement short-term business strategies.

• Implement? cost saving procedures.

• Direct staff in the development and implementation of departmental policies, procedures and programs. Adhere to both company policy and governmental regulations concerning department.

• Manage departmental structure, employee development, training and planning.

• Understand the objectives, needs, requirements and requests of internal business partners to help deliver the right vendor resources

• Develop, lead and execute strategies for assigned categories including exploring market opportunities to improve upon current spending

• Oversee ecosystem of all creative services partners mapped to enterprise budgets?

• Analyze complex supplier data (including spend, usage and performance)

• Collaborate within the Marketing COE on agency resourcing, and end-to-end relationship?management?

• Partner with Procurement to develop and execute Marketing Category Management strategic plans following enterprise standards and governance

• Drive excellence in creative?partnership?

• Monitor and follow applicable laws and regulations

• Manage Procurement projects and delegate tasks to other stakeholders, as needed

• Manage cost and efficiency:?

  • Assist in execution of bidding processes (i.e. Request for Proposal process)

  • Partner with Procurement and business stakeholders to develop and execute supplier negotiations strategies to achieve the best value and least risk for the organization

  • Create and monitor category budgets, as appropriate

  • Negotiations/annual financial planning

  • Budget?management

  • Tracking and reporting

  • Contract creation and?management?(MSA, NDA, SOW)

  • Ensure scope of work is clear and actionable

  • Suggest and oversee production efficiencies

• Maintain an in-depth knowledge of industry benchmarks and pricing models for all advertising, creative, media, martech, and market research and marketing related services?

• Resource Roster Management:

• Partner with Procurement and business stakeholders to develop and execute supplier negotiations strategies to achieve the best value and least risk for the organization

• Explore market opportunities to improve upon current spending

  • Ensure MassMutual has access to the right partners and helps cast the right partners to the right projects

  • Build annual strategic plan for partner roster

  • Identify, prioritize, and secure new capabilities, as needed

  • Oversee and maintain the assignment of all work to curated set of agency partners

  • Lead onboarding of all agencies

  • Oversee governance of agency usage and implementation

  • Curation and scouting of new partners

• Relationship Management:

  • Oversee relationships delivery with partners

  • Regularly monitor agency relationships and evaluate performance

    • Deliver ongoing industry thought leadership on agency partnerships

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Minimum Qualifications:

• 10-12+ years of demonstrated experience managing an agency roster program combined with category management-related experience in roles such as: category manager or strategic sourcing

• Combination of creative or media agency experience and brand-side experience preferred

• Bachelor?s degree in a business field,?business administration and/or finance are desirable

• Exceptional interpersonal, presentation, organizational and problem-solving skills?

• Strong strategic thinking and analytical ability?

• Strong leadership skills, proven experience partnering with many agencies

• High degree of interpersonal awareness and organizational agility?

• Ability to simplify complex ideas and successfully navigate ambiguity?

• Highly developed, concise and direct communication skills, both written and verbal?

• A positive can-do attitude and contagious energy?

Preferred qualifications

• Past experience either managing agency operations; or in developing or executing category strategies?

• Proven sourcing skills and expertise?

• Ability to develop and maintain strong relationships internally and externally with advertising and marketing partners/suppliers

• Strong understanding of marketing landscape, innovative production and creative capabilities?

• Strong attention to detail and analytical capabilities

• Demonstrated experience managing multiple categories concurrently

• Understanding of core contract components and demonstrated experience negotiating contracts

• Well respected in the marketing agency environment with the ability to forge trusted relationships?