VP-Marketing Operations and Chief of Staff

Northwestern Mutual•Milwaukee, WI

3d•$196,000 - $294,000

About The Position

This role partners closely with the Marketing leadership team, Chiefs-of-Staff in adjacent functions, and Finance to ensure alignment of business objectives and operational budgets. The position functions as an enabler for strategic initiatives, ensuring workstream interlocks, visibility of outcomes, and execution of key priorities, while driving operational efficiencies. Additional responsibilities include leading Marketing’s Program Management Office (PMO), managing departmental capacity and budgets to optimize spending, and executing programs aligned with Marketing’s MYS plan, roadmap, and strategic vision. The role also focuses on marketing ROI objectives, providing dependable advice and consultation to the VP and Head of Marketing by leveraging marketing performance data. Additionally, the position serves as the Head of Marketing’s internal marketing communications lead and supports change management initiatives within the department.

Requirements

Minimum 15 years of experience in Field Sales & Marketing roles, demonstrating progressively expansive responsibilities in operations, program and/or process management, financial management, P&L ownership, and/or business leadership
Understanding of sales cycles and product lifecycles and their respective pressures on the marketing organization to drive demand and revenue
B2B, B2C, and B2B2C marketing with experience in field enablement, cross-channel marketing, integration of offline and online advertising, and attribution modeling, marketing mix modeling
Persuasive leader with experience driving initiatives with demonstrable outcomes, engaging with executives, and supporting others to articulate a vision.
Deep analytical and critical thinking skills. Comfortable using a data-driven approach to assess markets, industries, financial and business models.
Strong written and verbal communication skills
Prior experience in large, global enterprise organizations; launched and scaled startups, or experience integrating startups in established mature organizations.

Responsibilities

Manage the organization’s annual planning process and strategic roadmap, including leading the planning process, tracking initiatives, and verifying execution and dashboard updates.
Serve as a trusted advisor to elevate and amplify the Head of Marketing’s capacity, capability, and effectiveness, acting as a sounding board, liaison, or proxy when needed, and managing executive communications.
Oversee the process for capturing and documenting marketing’s strategic initiatives, establishing an information protocol across the team.
Ensure impact-level marketing measurement and executive reporting on marketing’s contribution to the business.
Create, plan, and facilitate staff meetings for effective decision making, tracking, and reporting on follow-up actions.
Orchestrate the annual marketing planning process, ensuring the marketing department’s goals align with the company’s multi-year strategy.
Create clarity around emerging initiatives for prioritization and resourcing.
Manage and coordinate high-value, cross-functional initiatives and special projects initiated by the Head of Marketing.
Identify and execute initiatives contributing to long-term operational excellence, ensuring key projects have clear milestones, success measures, and operational plans.
Manage the process to connect employees across the department, ensuring regular engagement and leveraging strategic assets.
Plan and build content for internal communications, all-hands meetings, and operational reviews.
Deliver effective change management and communications for technology implementation, data policy, and process re-engineering within marketing.
Coordinate opportunities for efficiency through research, benchmarking, analytics, and proposing new systems/processes.
Maintain and oversee the team budgeting process, linking strategic goals to budget allocation and ROI.
Coordinate budget issues to ensure actuals meet targets and liaise with the finance business partner for accuracy.
Participate in the development of team roles & responsibilities matrix, competency assessments, and skills development.
Gather and disseminate internal and external marketing best practices, promoting a Center of Excellence philosophy.
Lead the development of marketing curriculum and career growth planning in partnership with HR.