Manager, Brand Planning & Operations

Red Bull•Santa Monica, CA

About The Position

The Manager, Brand Planning & Operations serves as a connector for driving brand performance by leading the end-to-end development, facilitation, and execution of the annual Brand Marketing business planning process, as well as day to day management and organization of cross-functional Brand topics. This role partners closely with Brand Leadership and cross-functional stakeholders to ensure brand strategy yields actionable marketing plans that accelerate brand health, business growth, and organizational alignment. The Manager, Brand Planning & Operations is responsible to design and facilitate structured planning forums, workshops, and trainings to build planning excellence, strengthen brand standards, and ensure consistent application of brand planning frameworks across teams. The ideal candidate is exceptionally organized, highly proactive, and thrives on bringing order to complexity. They have outstanding attention to detail, naturally create structure where it does not exist, and are relentless about follow-through. They are equally comfortable thinking strategically with senior leaders and rolling up their sleeves to ensure flawless execution, earning trust through consistency, operational excellence, and an ability to keep large, cross-functional teams aligned, accountable, and moving forward.

Requirements

Minimum 6 years-experience working within Consumer-Packaged Goods (CPG) environment
Exceptional networking and communication skills, including presentation and facilitation abilities
Demonstrated success leading complex, cross-functional planning processes and managing multiple large-scale initiatives involving executive stakeholders
Exceptional organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple complex workstreams, maintain outstanding attention to detail, and consistently deliver under tight deadlines
Highly proactive with a strong bias toward action, excellent judgment, and the ability to anticipate needs, prioritize effectively, and escalate issues appropriately
Ability to influence without direct authority
Outstanding written communication with the ability to distill complex information into clear executive narratives
A strategic, future-focused mindset paired with a passion for hands-on tasks to execute
Curious and questioning outlook – wants to understand the business to find improvement, efficiencies, and synergies
Clear and proven ability to develop and implement successful marketing strategies that support business objectives
Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, leveraging data to support business solutions
Ability to rapidly assess and succinctly summarize the current landscape/process flow and market opportunities
Develop a strong working knowledge of all departments to effectively support teams on cross-functional initiatives and shared projects
Ability to connect and work with as well as through people as fully trusted team-player
Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office (particularly PowerPoint and Excel), project management platforms (Asana, Monday, Smartsheet, Jira or similar), collaboration tools, and AI-enabled productivity solutions

Responsibilities

Responsible for managing the brand planning process, supporting teams in bringing together strategies and insights from each of the brand functions into a cohesive, clear and concise story for all annual planning deliverables, aligned with the organization’s overall goals
Provide structure and guidance to the Brand leadership team, setting clear expectations for deliverables and creating an environment that fosters innovation
Support in identifying consumer and business opportunities across brand marketing and provide recommendations rooted in qualitative and quantitative analysis to drive action amongst all brand pillars
Manage organizational changes effectively, ensuring the company adapts to new opportunities and challenges
Leverage synthesized market research, consumer insights, brand health metrics, company analytics, and progress reports to drive the development of the annual business plan and mid to long-term strategy
Lead Cross Functional Team meetings across Brand, to align on major business initiatives, in year pivots, and forward-looking go to market strategy
Own brand standards development, documentation and enforcement across Product Marketing, Shopper Marketing, Initiatives, Point-of-Sale, Advertising and Student & Field marketing
Drive continuous improvement in our planning processes and tools, leveraging technology and automation where possible
Support strategic decision making by analyzing key data, presenting insights to leadership for actionable outcome
Facilitate business case opportunity process across Brand
Provide regular updates on project status to senior management, identifying risks and proposing solutions when necessary
Develop and own ongoing reporting process and tools to communicate holistic Brand Marketing results, learnings and best practices
Identify opportunities in, and improve upon the Brand team's critical processes, platforms, and ways of working
Deliver ad hoc analysis against tight deadlines as defined by Brand Marketing leadership
Remain current on consumer, social, industry and business insights and trends that may have an impact on Red Bull's growth
Assist with the ideation / creation/development of needed materials (pitch decks, updates, reports).
Lead & drive main ‘reporting projects’ (quarterly updates, all hands-meetings content, country visits) – narrative & story
Lead ongoing development, management and share-out of cross functional competitive analysis that monitors industry trends and competitive activity to ensure we stay at the forefront
Own and manage annual business planning timelines, tools and processes across the RBNA Brand Marketing team, ensuring alignment with National, Regional and Global stakeholders
Accountable for successful Region Brand Marketing planning process and delivery – ensuring cross functional deliverable timelines are met and local plans deliver on the National Brand Marketing strategy and direction
Develop a comprehensive calendar of key meetings across Regional, National, and Global teams that ultimately deliver on cross-marketing business objectives
Own the strategy, research, development, and cross-functional roll out of a project management platform designed to simplify processes, improve execution, and support long-term business outcomes.
Plan the training calendar and content for the Brand Marketing teams (Regional, National and Field)
Lead and coordinate Red Bull brand onboarding trainings
Research additional trainings, education products and external speakers to offer to the different teams based on knowledge needs and trends