Manager of Communications Strategy and Activation

Have you ever enjoyed Arnold®, Brownberry® or Oroweat® bread? A Thomas’® English muffin or bagel? Or perhaps snacked on a Sara Lee®, Entenmann’s® or Marinela® cake or donut? If the answer is yes, then you know Bimbo Bakeries USA! More than 20,000 associates in bakeries, sales centers, offices and on sales routes work to ensure our consumers have the freshest products at every meal. In addition to competitive pay and benefits, we provide a safe and inclusive work environment that appreciates diversity, promotes development and allows our associates to be their authentic selves. Come join the largest baking company in the world and our family of 20,000 associates nationwide!Top Reasons to Work at Bimbo Bakeries USA:Salary Range: $94,300 - $122,600Annual Bonus EligibilityComprehensive Benefits PackagePaid Time Off401k & Company Match#LI-LF1Position Summary: Bimbo Bakeries USA (BBU) is undergoing a marketing transformation to accelerate Branded growth. The 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 strong experience developing creative strategies and translating them into integrated activations, campaigns, and brand experiences. This role reports to the Senior Manager of Communications Strategy & Activation and is part of the Marketing Center of Excellence at Bimbo Bakeries USA. The role serves as a key brand partner and cross-functional connector, leading day-to-day communications strategy, creative development, agency collaboration, and activation planning for assigned brands while helping establish consistent tools, processes, and standards across the team. Key Job Responsibilities:Functional Leader

• Help advance the Communications Strategy & Activation function by modeling strong brand stewardship, creative excellence, accountability, and collaboration.
• Contribute to scalable processes, workflows, templates, and best practices that improve team effectiveness and cross-functional ways of working.

Brand Partner

• Lead day-to-day partnership with assigned Brand teams on all aspects of brand building to achieve annual business goals and improve brand equity.
• Provide expertise and enable excellence across brand foundations, packaging design, visual identity, creative development, paid asset production, and integrated communications, while supporting adoption of standardized tools and frameworks across brands.

End-to-End Creative Development & Production

• Lead the end-to-end creative development process for assigned brand platforms and campaigns that are distinctive, relevant, and built to extend across full-funnel consumer touchpoints.
• 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, escalating strategic questions or executional barriers as needed.

Integrated Communications Strategy, Planning & Activation

• Lead communications strategy, planning, and activation for assigned brands’ annual integrated plans designed to achieve full-funnel objectives.
• 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 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

• Serve as the cross-functional quarterback and dot connector for assigned brands, identifying and including relevant partners across the Engagement Studio, Media, eComm, Shopper, Consumer Insights, Procurement, and agency teams for expertise, visibility, and timely decision-making.
• Provide expertise and guidance to internal stakeholders on creative excellence, production, and holistic comms strategy that includes earned.

Agency Management

• Manage day-to-day agency relationships for assigned brands, supporting centralized agency governance and holding partners accountable to pre-defined deliverables, standards, and timelines.
• Foster IAT collaboration, establishing ways of working that enable fully integrated plans that are informed by the idea.
• Evaluate agency ways of working, surface opportunities for improvement, and partner with senior leaders to optimize agency output and collaboration.

 Key Behavioral Competencies:

• Leads through change with confidence and resilience, helping teams and partners stay focused when facing ambiguity or roadblocks.
• Relationship builder who practices empathy and respects diverse backgrounds and needs. 
• Authentically builds credibility and followership through courage and self-awareness, resulting in allies. 
• Thinks systemically, navigating complexity, uncertainty, and ambiguity with a structured, solutions-oriented mindset.
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills; ability to determine critical issues and develop effective action plans. 
• Effective verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to use storytelling to influence decisions.
• Gritty and resourceful when necessary. 
• Trusted to make well-informed decisions and take evidence-based risks. 
• Self-starter who can meet deadlines, is well organized and can work autonomously. 
• A strong project manager with expertise in designing ways of working across a global, matrixed organization.
• Demonstrates strong project and process leadership, with the ability to implement and improve ways of working across cross-functional teams.
• Experience working in a remote team setting under pressure and in a fast-paced environment. 
• Ability to travel 10-20% domestically and/or internally for internal meetings, conferences, creative shoots, and/or brand activations.

Leadership Competencies:

• Adapts approach and attitude in real time according to the changing demands of different situations.
• Builds partnerships and works collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives.
• Holds self and partners accountable to meet commitments and deliver high-quality work.
• Makes sense of complex, high-quantity, and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems and move work forward.

Education and Work History:

• 6+ years of relevant experience in agency and/or brand roles.
• A bachelor’s degree is in Marketing, or a related field is required. A master’s degree is a plus.
• The ideal candidate will have creative agency experience, brand creative experience, or both.
• Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) experience is preferred.
• 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.

 #YOUBELONGATBBU 
The physical and mental demands described in each job posting are representative of those that must be met by an associate to successfully perform the essential functions of each job. Reasonable accommodations may be requested to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of each job.Bimbo Bakeries USA is an equal opportunity employer with a policy that provides equal employment opportunity for applicants and employees regardless of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, veteran status, any other classification protected by law.It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.