Chief Marketing Officer, Better for you

About the position

Mars Snacking is seeking a Chief Marketing Officer to lead its Better For You portfolio—a collection of culturally relevant, purpose-driven brands redefining modern snacking. The portfolio includes KIND, RX, Nutri-Grain, Special K Bars, and Kashi Bars, spanning insurgent brands through scaled platforms. This is a rare opportunity to architect brand growth at the intersection of purpose, performance, and cultural relevance. The CMO will serve as the senior-most marketing leader for the portfolio, balancing brand autonomy and distinctiveness with the scale and capabilities of Mars. This role is not for a traditional CPG marketer. Mars is seeking a bold, modern brand builder with founder-level energy—someone who thrives in complexity, challenges convention, and believes brands can drive both commercial success and meaningful impact.

Responsibilities

• Define and globally port out clear, differentiated brand positioning and marketing strategies across the Better For You portfolio—respecting each brand’s unique DNA while creating a cohesive strategic spine.
• Ensure each brand continues to play a distinct role within the “better for you” food movement, grounded in consumer needs, cultural relevance, and purpose-driven growth.
• Balance short-term performance with long-term brand equity, ensuring no brand becomes commoditized as the portfolio scales.
• Deeply understand core consumers while identifying new occasions, audiences, and points of distribution that expand reach and relevance across brands.
• Partner closely with Sales to shape a compelling long-term brand vision and portfolio story that customers can buy into and actively support.
• Co-develop omnichannel strategies that drive both brand strength and volume, across retail, e-commerce, and emerging channels.
• Reshape the innovation pipeline from a traditional launch-driven process into a consumer-needs- and occasion-led model.
• Build a holistic innovation agenda across brands, portfolios, packs, and formats that elevates the Better For You platform and fuels sustainable growth.
• Pioneer a digital-first, consumer-led marketing approach, connecting authentically through brand fanatics, creators, tastemakers, and communities that are “brand- and mission-right.”
• Connect digital marketing activities across regions and brands at the purpose and platform level, while allowing for local relevance and expression.
• Instill an ROI-driven mindset as marketing investment increases—balancing experimentation with discipline.
• Maintain a blended approach to marketing, combining mass reach (TV/OLV) with earned, experiential, and grassroots activation to preserve the challenger mindset of the brands.
• Lead, inspire, and develop a highly committed, multi-brand marketing organization; recruit additional talent as needed to support scale and ambition.
• Ensure all talent models a culture rooted in purpose, courage, inclusivity, and high performance.
• Build leaders who think like general managers, actively pulling levers across price, pack, portfolio optimization, innovation, and communications.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA highly preferred.
• Senior marketing leadership experience (20+ years) with material time at VP / CMO / GM-equivalent level.
• Demonstrated success operating in an entrepreneurial, fast-moving, or challenger environment, with clear evidence of risk-taking and innovation.
• Experience leading complex, multi-brand and/or portfolio businesses, including brands at different stages of maturity.
• Proven ability to build, inspire, and develop high-performing teams within a matrixed organization.
• Strong commercial acumen, including experience partnering closely with Sales and Finance and managing large marketing investments with ROI discipline.
• Authentic alignment with purpose-driven brands and the credibility to serve as a senior steward and spokesperson.

Nice-to-haves

• The successful candidate will likely have been developed in a high-performing global CPG organization but must have proven experience succeeding in entrepreneurial, agile, or challenger environments.
• They bring strong strategic clarity, modern brand instincts, and are comfortable leading in ambiguity.
• They are courageous yet thoughtful—capable of leading brands that take meaningful stands while exercising sound judgment and cultural sensitivity.
• An authentic spokesperson and steward for the brands, with a personal passion for purpose-led growth.
• A strong talent and team developer who thrives in a matrixed, evolving organization, with exceptional influencing skills.
• A calculated risk-taker who embraces bold ideas while driving accountability.
• Nimble, resilient, and effective in structures that are still being built.
• A leader with a clear point of view, capable of anchoring the portfolio through the evolution from founder-led brands to scaled global platforms within Mars.

Benefits

• 401(K) or RRSP's with generous company match
• Flexible Paid Time Off. Choose what works best for you, including summer hours.
• Paid parental leave.
• Excellent health, dental & vision insurance, with options to fit you & your family’s needs
• Company paid disability and life insurance to provide income protection
• Our wellness strategy focuses on mental and physical wellbeing via programs like Employee Assistance Program, a wellness subsidy, healthy food options and gym facility in HQ.
• Casual office dress code– feel free to wear your KIND gear
• Stock up on your favorite KIND bars to share with your family & friends, through a quarterly voucher
• Training & tuition reimbursement program, because continuing to learn matters and we support your development
• A dynamic, ambitious, fun and KIND work environment
• Charitable Donation Matching: KIND matches your charitable donations up to \$1000 annually through our donation matching portal.