Vice President, Marketing Food & Beverage

Ecolab•Saint Paul, MN

About The Position

A trusted partner for millions of customers, Ecolab is a global sustainability leader offering water, hygiene, and infection prevention solutions and services that protect people and the resources vital to life across more than 170 countries. The Food & Beverage Division is one of Ecolab’s largest, most profitable, and most globally scaled businesses. As a trusted strategic partner to many of the world’s most iconic food and beverage brands, Ecolab supports over 120,000 manufacturing customer locations worldwide, helping customers ensure food safety, reduce water and resource consumption, and drive productivity through science‑based solutions, deep expertise, and world‑class service. Role Summary: The Vice President of Marketing, Food & Beverage: Global Dairy, Beverage and Brewery Segments and CIP Portfolio is responsible for defining and driving global growth strategies for Beverage, Brewery, and Dairy segments, as well as global portfolio leadership for CIP, ensuring clarity of strategic direction, innovation focus, and consistency of execution across regions. The VP partners closely with Sales, RD&E, Technical Consulting, Finance, Supply Chain, and Digital to deliver sustainable growth, margin expansion, and long term competitive advantage. This role owns the development and execution of multiyear growth plans, translates customer and market insights into differentiated value propositions, and drives demand generation, innovation success, and commercial impact across the full portfolio. This role is also the commercial lead for the North America Marketing Organization. Is responsible for NA Portfolio management, sales activation and integrated marketing campaigns for NA. The role has direct responsibility for a team 20 marketing professionals, with a strong focus on building functional excellence, developing future leaders, and advancing modern, data driven marketing capabilities. As a senior leader, the Vice President of Marketing serves as a core member of the North America Food & Beverage Leadership Team and the Global Food & Beverage Marketing Leadership Team, contributing to enterprise strategy, investment prioritization, and cross regional alignment. This role reports to the VP of Marketing Global Food & Beverage and dotted line to the SVP GM of North America Food & Beverage.

Requirements

MBA or equivalent graduate-level degree.
Minimum 12–15 years of progressive marketing, strategy, or commercial experience, preferably within Food & Beverage, industrial, or B2B environments.
7+ years of people leadership experience, including managing senior leaders and complex organizations.
Demonstrated success driving portfolio growth, innovation, and digital-enabled marketing strategies at scale.
Strong strategic, financial, and analytical acumen with the ability to translate strategy into execution.
Proven ability to influence and lead across matrixed, global organizations.
Strong foundation in classical marketing disciplines combined with modern, data-driven approaches

Nice To Haves

Experience leading global segment or portfolio strategies.
Background in Food & beverage industry
Experience partnering on or leading M&A integration and growth initiatives.

Responsibilities

Strategic Growth & Portfolio Leadership Own and drive annual and multi-year growth strategies for the Dairy, Beverage, and Brewery segments, ensuring consistency, scale, and impact across regions.
Serve as global portfolio leader for CIP and water circularity, defining portfolio strategy, value propositions, innovation priorities, and lifecycle management.
Anticipate industry, customer, and macroeconomic trends to proactively identify growth opportunities and mitigate risk.
Lead annual business planning and long-range strategic planning processes for North America
Drive cross-divisional and cross-regional initiatives to unlock enterprise-wide growth opportunities.
Market Insights, Demand Creation & Commercial Excellence Translate deep customer and market insights into differentiated positioning, messaging, and value propositions.
Lead development and execution of segment and portfolio-level marketing strategies Partner with Sales and Commercial Digital teams to accelerate pipeline development, customer acquisition, and retention.
Partner closely with field and corporate accounts leadership for sales activation Ensure marketing programs deliver measurable commercial impact, with a strong focus performance management.
Innovation & Program Leadership Oversee major product and program launches across North America and globally within assigned segments.
Partner closely with RD&E and Technical teams to shape innovation roadmaps, ensuring alignment with customer needs and growth priorities.
Provide early-stage marketing leadership and governance to improve speed, focus, and success of innovation initiatives.
Champion digital innovation, data-driven decision-making, and modern marketing capabilities.
Team Leadership & Talent Development Lead, inspire, and develop a high-performing marketing organization of approximately 20 associates.
Build functional excellence across portfolio, segment, customer, regional, and capability-based marketing roles.
Attract, develop, and retain top marketing talent with a strong focus on succession planning and leadership development.
Foster a culture of accountability, collaboration, inclusivity, and continuous improvement.
Operational Excellence & Enterprise Collaboration Manage the North America Food & Beverage marketing budget, ensuring disciplined investment and maximum return.
Serve as a senior leader within the division, contributing to broader business decisions, investment prioritization, and enterprise initiatives.
Build strong partnerships across Sales, Finance, Supply Chain, Digital, RD&E, and other corporate functions to ensure integrated execution.