Brand Strategy Manager

Wawa, Inc.

About The Position

The Brand Strategy Manager will help shape Wawa’s future by developing clear brand strategies and translating them into actionable plans that drive business growth and strengthen brand equity. The role translates short- and long-term business priorities into integrated marketing plans and establishes strategic frameworks for consistent execution across markets and customer touchpoints. The manager partners with teams across Marketing, Consumer Insights, Merchandising, Product Development, Finance, Operations, and other areas of the business to connect consumer needs with commercial opportunities. The role leads enterprise-level marketing planning and optimization, advises cross-functional teams, evaluates and prioritizes initiatives, and ensures campaigns and other brand activities deliver a cohesive customer experience. It also defines measures of success, evaluates performance with partner teams, presents recommendations to senior leaders, leads associate-recruitment strategies across social, content, partnerships, and activations, and manages and develops direct reports.

Requirements

8+ years of progressive experience in brand strategy, integrated marketing, marketing planning, or a related discipline; preferably in a consumer-facing organization.
Experience managing, coaching, or formally developing talent; direct people-management experience preferred.
Demonstrated experience owning integrated marketing calendars and leading strategy across campaigns, promotions, product launches, partnerships, and brand initiatives.
Strong understanding of brand positioning, consumer behavior, integrated marketing, and the roles of paid, owned, earned, and experiential channels across the customer journey.
Ability to influence senior leaders and cross-functional partners, navigate competing priorities, and drive decisions in a matrixed organization.
Strong strategic and commercial judgment, including the ability to use consumer insights, performance data, and business inputs to establish priorities and make recommendations.
Exceptional communication, facilitation, and presentation skills, including the ability to create clarity and momentum in ambiguous or evolving situations.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, Communications, or a related field is preferred.
Direct people-management experience is preferred.
Experience in a consumer-facing organization is preferred.

Responsibilities

Manage the development, governance, and ongoing optimization of Wawa’s integrated marketing calendar, aligning enterprise priorities and organizational inputs.
Translate brand and business objectives into strategic frameworks, annual and seasonal plans, and actionable briefs for cross-functional execution.
Advise Marketing, Merchandising, Consumer Insights, Loyalty, Digital, Communications, People, and other teams; challenge inputs and recommend a path forward.
Establish and lead a disciplined process for evaluating, prioritizing, sequencing, and integrating marketing initiatives based on consumer relevance, business value, operational readiness, and channel capacity.
Coordinate campaigns, promotions, product launches, partnerships, and brand moments to create a cohesive customer experience and support growth and brand equity goals.
Identify and resolve gaps, overlaps, competing messages, risks, and opportunities across the marketing calendar; escalate decisions when needed.
Monitor business priorities, customer behavior, culture, and performance, and recommend and lead adjustments to strategy and plans.
Define success measures and partner with Consumer Insights, Analytics, and Finance to evaluate performance, capture learnings, and improve future planning.
Present strategic recommendations, tradeoffs, decisions, and learnings to senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders to build alignment and commitment.
Lead social, content, partnership, and activation strategies supporting associate recruitment, in partnership with Advertising and People teams.
Manage, coach, and develop direct reports by setting goals, providing feedback, prioritizing workload, and building strategic and functional capabilities.
Lead complex enterprise planning processes involving multiple teams, priorities, budgets, and timelines.
Make recommendations and decisions with incomplete or competing information, balancing brand, consumer, commercial, and operational considerations.
Facilitate cross-functional discussions, resolve differing perspectives, and drive clear decisions, ownership, and next steps.
Communicate complex strategies and recommendations to stakeholders at all levels, including senior leadership.
Synthesize consumer, cultural, competitive, and business inputs into focused, actionable plans.
Identify dependencies, risks, conflicts, and opportunities across concurrent initiatives and proactively develop solutions.
Lead and develop talent through clear expectations, delegation, timely feedback, coaching, and performance management.