Senior Manager Communications Strategy and Activation

Bimbo Bakeries USA•Irving, TX

4d•$102,000 - $142,800

About The Position

Bimbo Bakeries USA (BBU) is undergoing a marketing transformation to accelerate Branded growth. The Sr. Manager of Communications Strategy & Activation will be critical in elevating brand storytelling and delivering bold, breakthrough, culturally relevant creative activations. The ideal candidate is a strategic brand builder with a strong background in developing creative and translating to integrated activations and brand experiences. This role leads a team of 2 Associates, reports to the Director of Integrated Communications & Creative Services and is part of the Marketing Center of Excellence at Bimbo Bakeries USA. This role also leads cross-functional teams and agency partners, guiding strategy, establishing processes, and driving effectiveness.

Requirements

8+ years of relevant experience in agency and/or brand roles.
Bachelor’s degree is in Marketing or a related field is required, with a Master’s degree being a plus.
The ideal candidate will have creative agency experience, brand creative experience, or both.
Understanding the inner workings of agencies across creative, packaging, digital, social, and PR.
Collaborations with peers in consumer insights and media, driving consumer-centric activations.
Strong understanding of campaign production.
Experience leading an integrated agency team from brand side, agency side, or both.
Experience with packaging design, aligned to best practices to stand out on the shelf.
Ability to travel 10-20% domestically and/or internally for internal meetings, conferences, creative shoots, and/or brand activations.

Nice To Haves

Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) experience is preferred.

Responsibilities

Team Leader
Set the standard for the Comms Strategy & Activation team by building strong relationships, stewarding the function both internally and externally, and fostering a culture that believes in the power of brand and creativity. Represent the function values, philosophies, and priorities at every touchpoint.
Lead, coach, and develop a team of 2 Associates, dedicated to Comms Strategy & Activation, that is collectively responsible for creative effectiveness and full-funnel activations across every Brand in the Bimbo Bakeries USA portfolio.
Establish and optimize scalable processes, workflows, and best practices that elevate team performance and cross-functional collaboration.
Build, lead, and mentor a forward-thinking team, providing guidance, coaching, and development opportunities to foster growth and improve performance.
Model leadership behaviors that build trust, accountability, and a culture of continuous improvement.
Brand Partner
Lead your team in partnering with Brand teams on all aspects of brand building to achieve annual business goals and improve brand equity.
Guide and empower direct reports to manage day-to-day Brand relationships for their assigned Brands, while you oversee strategic alignment and escalation.
Provide expertise and enable excellence across brand foundations, packaging design, visual identity, creative development, paid asset production, and integrated communications. Champion the adoption of standardized tools, frameworks, and processes across all brands to drive consistency and efficiency.
Support Brand teams with guidance on process, tools, and partners to elevate creative effectiveness and full-funnel activations.
Drive prioritization and resource allocation across brands, ensuring the team is focused on the highest-impact work.
Share wins, learnings, and processes with your team and across Brand teams to enable the entire portfolio to efficiently improve.
End-to-End Creative Development & Production
Oversee and govern the creative development workflow, ensuring your team and agencies follow a clear, repeatable process from briefing through delivery.
Ensure your direct reports are equipped to manage day-to-day creative development while you provide strategic oversight and escalation support.
Responsible for the end-to-end creative development process for brand platforms and brand campaigns that are distinctive, relevant, and have proven potential to extend across full-funnel consumer touchpoints. Empower team to lead for their assigned brands, helping with escalation as needed
Craft creative briefs for agency partners, working closely with Brand and Consumer Insights to ensure we are providing clear direction that is informed by a strong understanding of the brand purpose, business strategy, and audience.
Inform creative testing approach and stimulus development, participate in research when possible, and guide creative optimizations to apply learnings.
Guide creative asset production process, with production cost consultants when applicable, through pre-production, shoot, and post-production to deliver assets on time and on budget that uphold the creative integrity and are aligned to brand strategies, standards, and specs needed.
Steward the brand purpose, personality, and tone of voice throughout the creative development process.
Lead post‑mortem reviews and codify learnings into updated processes, templates, and standards for your team.
Integrated Communications Strategy, Planning & Activation
Lead the development and adoption of integrated planning frameworks, ensuring your team and partners follow consistent standards.
Responsible for the communications strategy, planning, and activation of each brand’s annual integrated plan designed to achieve full-funnel objectives. Empower team to lead for their assigned brands, helping with escalation as needed
Spearhead collaboration across functions and agencies to ensure the big idea guides how the plan is built, connecting touchpoints, providing budget recommendations, and defining and measuring KPIs for each channel and tactic.
Coach brand teams and cross-functional partners on how to drive consistent storytelling excellence across all consumer touchpoints.
Champion your team to take a big-picture perspective and consumer-centric approach that leverages insights and prioritizes relevance.
Steward the brand platform and campaign throughout full-funnel plan development.
Cross-Functional Connector
Establish structured communication routines and governance forums that ensure alignment, transparency, and timely decision-making.
Lead your team to be the cross-functional quarterback and dot connector, identifying and including the relevant cross-functional partners across the Engagement Studio, Media, eComm, Shopper, Consumer Insights, and Procurement for expertise and visibility.
Empower your team to provide expertise and guidance to internal stakeholders on creative excellence, production, and holistic comms strategy that includes earned.
Agency Management
Partner with Director of Integrated Communications & Creative Services to centralize agency management and governance (internal and external), holding our agencies accountable to pre-defined deliverables and standards (excludes our Media Agency of Record).
Continuously evaluate agency performance and recommend structural improvements to optimize the ecosystem.
Ensure your direct reports are trained and empowered to manage agency relationships day-to-day while you oversee strategic governance.
Empower your team to foster IAT collaboration, establishing ways of working that enable fully integrated plans that are informed by the idea.
Guide your team to foster long-term relationships and maximize agency output.
Identify and execute opportunities for outside inspiration sessions from agencies or other vendors.