Director- Communications & Stakeholder Engagement

Job Description

Job Description:

The Corporate Affairs (CA) team of Mars Global Services (MGS) leads the communications and engagement activities of the shared services group within Mars, Incorporated. The global CA team supports the Mars Global Services objective to make work easier across Mars. With 3,000 Associates and 7,000 external partners worldwide, MGS is the powerful operational engine for Mars – creating conditions where our Associates maximize their impact and MGS innovates and scales to drive performance.

The MGS Commercial group comprises 400 Associates and ~20,000 vendors across Mars worldwide. Traditionally referred to as procurement, our Commercial service line has several diverse areas of accountability – all designed to drive simplification and standardization, efficiency and effectiveness, enable technology, and transformation and change. Key areas of accountability include: factory and professional services, marketing and sales services, supply chain, capital, and digital technologies.

The communications leader in this role will have an energy and passion for driving change through high quality communications. She/he will be adept working in a global, multi-functional environment.

The MGS Corporate Affairs team currently seeks a Director to drive communications activities exclusively for MGS Commercial, the team that leads indirect buying services, Commercial services operations, and the Commercial center of excellence for all business units across Mars. The person in this role must be a thought leader, project manager, and strategic communicator capable of executing the following responsibilities:

• Partnering with the Global VP of MGS Commercial and her direct reports on critical communications to leaders of Mars Evaluating the change management strategies for critical programs being deployed by MGS Commercial and determining the right resource to drive communications. In those situations where an external communications resource is needed to drive change communications, the Associate in this role will be responsible for managing that resource and ensuring successful communication best practices.

• Driving overall narrative, storytelling, and communications cadence for the Service line

Business-to-Business Communications

As the communications lead for MGS Commercial, the Associate in this role will work closely with the MGS Commercial leaders to communicate with segment and functional leaders across Mars about the capabilities and contributions of the MGS Commercial team. This will include forming clear communication strategies on the transformation underway within MGS Commercial with the intent to drive stakeholder engagement, while building reputation and support of MGS Commercial to ensure business performance in service of the segments. The role requires excellent understanding of how to market services within a business, communicate transformations, manage stakeholders, deliver stakeholder feedback to operational experts, and measure results from communications activities.

Communications Strategy

Lead development of the storyline and narrative for MGS Commercial via a omni-channel communications strategy that takes Into account various stakeholders both Internally and externally. This leader plays a critical role to develop communications that galvanize support for the future of MGS Commercial globally -- across many levels of audiences including Associates, leaders, suppliers, and partners. All this strategy with supporting tools such as key messaging, communications calendar, and metrics.

Associate Communications

The Associate in this role will also work with the Global VP of MGS Commercial and the P&O business partner of MGS Commercial to develop and execute communications that drive engagement of MGS Commercial Associates. This role will focus intensely on major transformation initiatives. And, it will also include development of unifying periodic communications to support the MGS Commercial team’s journey to forge a group identity, while supporting the MGS vision for all Associates to act in a collaborative and performance- driven manner. Associate communications needs will include Associate announcements, organization changes, senior leader meeting advising, executive communications, etc.

Change Communications Planning & Implementation

A critical responsibility will be to partner with the change management leads of key MGS Commercial deployments, drive development of their communications strategies and, where possible, support roll out and measurement of those initiatives. For large change communication programs, external agencies may be retained to support the communications needs of the project and the person in this role must have an ability to review agencies, craft and manage budgets, measure work and otherwise command agency resources.

Agency Management

The Corporate Affairs team has several relationships with agencies that provide targeted support on an “as needed” basis to MGS and its business lines. The Associate in this role will need to know when to engage these resources on behalf of the Commercial team, thinking critically about the quality and efficiency delivered.

Writing, Editing & Messaging

The Associate in this role will be responsible for a range of written documents required of MGS Commercial throughout the year including, but not limited to, stories or articles for Associates and stakeholders or presentations to business partners in the segments and functions of Mars. An ability to work with MGS Commercial leaders to craft core messages then transfer those messages into critical communication vehicles is essential.

What will be your key responsibilities?

The Director of Communications – MGS Commercial will report to the Senior Director of Corporate Affairs and have a dotted line reporting relationship to the VP of MGS Commercial and work closely with her team.

The role requires strong collaboration skills, comfort with senior leaders, and an ability to influence others. Stakeholders include functional leaders across Mars (for example, Commercial leaders for each business unit, peers in the Corporate Affairs function across the world) as well as MGS.
Drive for results, comfort with ambiguity, organizational agility, and an ability to manage and measure work will be critical given the number transformation activities MGS Commercial drives.

What can you expect from Mars?

• Work with over 130,000 diverse and talented Associates, all guided by the Five Principles.

• Join a purpose driven company, where we’re striving to build the world we want tomorrow, today.

• Best-in-class learning and development support from day one, including access to our in-house Mars University.

• An industry competitive salary and benefits package, including company bonus.

Mars is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. If you need assistance or an accommodation during the application process because of a disability, it is available upon request. The company is pleased to provide such assistance, and no applicant will be penalized as a result of such a request.