Program Manager Brand Activation

Staples•Framingham, MA

About The Position

The Program Manager, Brand Activation is responsible for planning, coordinating, and executing integrated marketing campaigns that support category priorities, seasonal initiatives, and enterprise business goals. This role serves as the central point of connection across numerous teams, ensuring campaigns are delivered on strategy, on time, and with a consistent customer experience across channels. The ideal candidate combines strong marketing knowledge, project management expertise, stakeholder management skills, and a proactive approach to solving complex business challenges. This individual will lead campaign planning efforts, manage execution timelines, drive cross-functional alignment, and help continuously improve marketing processes and outcomes.

Requirements

Strong program and project management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously.
Exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail.
Ability to build relationships and influence cross-functional partners without direct authority.
Strong written, verbal, and presentation communication skills.
Customer-focused mindset with the ability to connect executional work to broader business objectives.
Analytical and strategic thinking skills with a focus on continuous improvement.
Ability to anticipate challenges, solve problems proactively, and navigate ambiguity.
Experience balancing competing priorities while maintaining high-quality deliverables.
Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business, Communications, or a related field.
5+ years of experience in marketing, campaign management, brand activation, retail marketing, program management, project management, or a related discipline.
Experience planning, coordinating, and executing marketing campaigns or cross-functional business initiatives.
Experience managing timelines, workback schedules, deliverables, stakeholder reviews, approvals, and launch readiness activities.
Experience partnering with multiple business functions such as Merchandising, Creative, CRM, Digital Marketing, Paid Media, Operations, Analytics, Stores, or external agencies.
Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously across competing priorities and deadlines.
Proven experience identifying risks, resolving executional challenges, communicating project status, and escalating decisions appropriately.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite, including PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and Teams.

Nice To Haves

Experience in retail, omnichannel, consumer marketing, or brand activation environments.
Experience supporting seasonal, promotional, category, or enterprise-wide marketing campaigns.
Familiarity with project management and workflow tools such as Workfront, Monday.com, Asana, Smartsheet, or similar platforms.
Experience developing campaign briefs, activation plans, creative requests, status reporting, and post-campaign recaps.
Experience analyzing campaign performance, business results, customer insights, and stakeholder feedback.
Demonstrated success influencing cross-functional teams and driving alignment across multiple stakeholders.
Experience mentoring peers or guiding team members through project processes and campaign execution best practices.

Responsibilities

Lead the planning, coordination, and execution of category, seasonal, promotional, and brand activation campaigns across multiple customer-facing channels.
Translate business priorities and marketing objectives into actionable campaign plans, briefs, workback schedules, milestones, and deliverables.
Manage project timelines, approvals, stakeholder reviews, launch readiness activities, and post-campaign evaluations.
Partner with Merchandising, Creative, CRM, Digital Marketing, Paid Media, Operations, Stores, Analytics, and agency partners to ensure seamless campaign execution.
Facilitate cross-functional meetings, status updates, and communication routines to keep initiatives moving forward.
Identify risks, dependencies, resource constraints, and executional challenges while recommending solutions and escalation paths when needed.
Ensure campaign messaging, assets, promotions, offers, and timing remain aligned across channels.
Support in-market campaign adjustments and optimization opportunities in partnership with key stakeholders.
Consolidate campaign results, business insights, stakeholder feedback, and performance learnings to improve future activations.
Maintain campaign planning tools, documentation, processes, and templates that improve efficiency and executional excellence.