Senior Corporate Affairs Manager

Job Description

Job Description:

Location: You can be based anywhere in the UK (preferably, nearby MARS offices - Slough, London, Waltham, or West Yorkshire).

Our Pet Nutrition Office is in Waltham, Leicestershire. You will have to come into office 2-3 days per month.

As a Senior Corporate Affairs Manager, you will be at heart of our purpose work, bringing to life our CA strategy. Working closely with the Corporate Affairs Director and CA function regionally and globally to deliver best-in-class programmes and enable UK to deliver against our ambition to end pet homelessness. You will amplify our best loved pet brands through proactive PR and manage our press office and reactive issues. Collaborating with multiple functions, including Marketing, Sales, P&O, Market Strategy and Deployment, Supply and R&D will be key to success of this role.

Benefits

Salary: £65-75k GBP

Bonus: 20%* / annum *payed in full if business meets 100% of targets

Car Allowance: £7.5k/ annum

What are we looking for?

• Purpose-driven individual with strong CA background and sound business acumen
• Results-driven, collaborative and a proactive, ‘can-do’ attitude - a self-starter with a strong bias to action
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to navigate conflict and stand alone
• Strong proactive Corporate, Brand PR and Public Affairs and agency management experience
• Strong ability to frame strategic or complex issues in a clear and compelling way
• Excellent influencing and persuasion skills and ability to build networks
• In-depth knowledge of key societal and environmental challenges facing the sector
• Reactive press office, issues and crisis management experience
• Strong organizational and project management skills, able to manage multiple on-going assignments simultaneously

What will be your key responsibilities?

• To implement the ‘Live our Purpose’ pillar of our strategy – set targets looking immediate to >3 years out, focusing on ending pet homelessness and creating Better Cities for Pets.
• Embed purpose at the core of the business by close collaboration with the global and regional Mars Petcare CA teams, as well as engaging and inspiring our local market cross-functional teams to be advocates for the work and bring our plans to life
• Building relationships, influencing and informing key internal stakeholders and business functions (Sales, Marketing, P&O, Supply, Finance) across Mars, Inc. to ensure UK needs and point of view are put forward and fully aligned with global strategy.
• Protect and promote UK Petcare’s reputation and freedom to operate through proactive engagement, senior leader profile building and reactive issues and press office management.
• Collaborate with One Mars Reputation and Public Affairs roles to strengthen our cross-segment reputation in UK and ensure Petcare share of voice
• Managing our crisis preparedness through CALM and identifying and guiding the business through external/internal threats and opportunities to protect, enhance and/or accelerate business objectives.
• Manage Public Affairs, Corporate and Brand and Trade PR partner agencies to create and deploy campaigns and deliver our corporate and brand PR priorities
• Lead the Adoption Mission and Better Cities for Pets campaigns to contribute to ending pet homelessness. Work with agency, charity partners and stakeholders to create and deploy external-facing PR, customer-focused and public affairs campaigns that inform, engage and drive behaviour change amongst our consumers and drive a supportive Public Affairs and stakeholder environment to further our aims to make a better world for pets

Context and Scope

• Lead the Adoption Mission and Better Cities for Pets campaigns to contribute to ending pet homelessness. Work with agency, charity partners and stakeholders to create and deploy external-facing PR, customer-focused and public affairs campaigns that inform, engage and drive behaviour change amongst our consumers and drive a supportive Public Affairs and stakeholder environment to further our aims to make a better world for pets
• Lead UK Brand and Trade PR activity in partnership with our Regional and Global Brand teams and local cross-functional partners to create and deploy campaigns that amplify our brand and purpose stories and build our reputation, including Sheba’s Hope Reef, Pedigree and Whiskas
• Manage reactive enquiries to the UK press office in a timely manner, demonstrating the appropriate level of research or knowledge of the subject, engagement with relevant internal stakeholders, suitable tone of voice and sound judgement to promote and protect our corporate and brand reputation
• Plan and execute campaigns and content for our proactive External Communications calendar, Brand and Portfolio priorities with the support of external agencies
• Write external-facing content and internal-facing briefings to prepare key spokespeople and members of the Leadership Team for external-facing stakeholder or media engagements

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.