Sr. / Marketing Operations Manager (Hybrid)

Job Title: Sr. / Marketing Operations Manager (Hybrid)

Location: US-GA-Atlanta

Please note this role requires proof of vaccination or qualified exemption in accordance with required criteria if not vaccinated.

Position Overview: Sr. / Marketing Operations Manager

The Safe-Guard Marketing team guides and supports Safe-Guard clients and retail platform partners in online and in-dealer education and sale of vehicle protection products. The team establishes best practices, develops branded creative support, and seeks to identify new opportunities that help to grow dealer engagement, and build consumer awareness and consideration for branded vehicle protection products.

We are seeking a strategic marketing leader who combines deep operational expertise in a wide range of marketing mediums (print, collateral, direct marketing, email, online advertising, digital content, site, social) with marketing technology (asset and content management, marketing channel management, analytics) with very strong project management, planning, reporting, and optimization chops to help us ensure the right resources vs. project requests thus helping our team deliver the best execution of client and brand programs.

The ideal Marketing Operations Manager candidate not only knows how to wire things up but is also a master at planning and proactively ensuring all stakeholders see clearly how teams are performing and can recommend areas of improvement. In short, you're a pragmatic project planner and team builder who keeps it real; you ensure marketing operations has everything needed to function at their core with just a dollop of lighthearted marketing ninja skills sprinkled throughout.

The Marketing Operations Manager will partner with the VP, Marketing and PR, and will work in close collaboration with Marketing Management, Creative and Studio, as well as Account Management, Sales and IT.

Position Objective:

Reporting to the VP, Marketing and PR, the Marketing Operations Manager builds a foundation for excellence by reinforcing marketing strategy with infrastructure, process, best practice, and metrics. The Marketing Operations Manager is responsible for the operational effectiveness of the overall marketing team. This role will have the ability to interface effectively at various levels inside and outside of the organization.

The person for this role must be a process/efficiency guru and team builder who loves helping teams do better and be better. They must be a self-starter, enjoy working with and serving others, and have a solid understanding of marketing operations and marketing technology. They will have experience in marketing operations, team management, and project management, either at an ad agency or service organization.

Reports to: VP, Marketing and PR

Essential Functions:

Marketing Operations Leadership

• Partners with VP, senior business leadership, and marketing management to intake and prioritize marketing department activities to meet changing marketing and business priorities
• Manage the development of tools, processes, and frameworks to further intake of marketing requests, develop marketing best practices, support teamwork and collaboration, provide transparency to marketing activities, and deliver operational efficiencies
• Partner with VP to develop strategies that impact organizational design and sales/marketing process planning
• Leads, manages, and actively invests in growing direct reports
• Monitor the industry and competitive landscape and share reports and insights on emerging trends to marketing leadership
• Other duties, as dictated by departmental priorities

Resource Management

• Partners with VP and marketing management team to plan and facilitate regular forums such as staff meetings and standups in order to ensure the right prioritization and focus to achieve goals
• Understands key functions and projects in the department; provides monitoring and follow-through support on action items in progress
• Develops relationships with the individual program owners, including the timely flow of information within the project team, the company and vendors, and to/from the program owner
• Regularly evaluates processes and platforms to improve and optimize marketing team performance
• Build, maintain, and train team members on key sales and marketing processes, platforms, and documentation
• As short-term resource needs arise, partners with department managers to define requirements and works with external resources (staffing firms, freelancers) to gather qualified and available candidates
• Develops a library of content to be used for onboarding new full-time and short-term resources to the marketing team

Inventory Management

• Owns relationship with and manages warehousing and fulfillment vendor to contractual SOW and SLAs
• Build, communicates, and maintains a process to streamline and optimize management of printed inventory
• In partnership with warehousing and fulfillment vendor and marketing management, reviews and optimizes inventory of printed materials to meet business needs
• Develops and distributes reporting for product supplies in order to facilitate billing to dealers
• Manages 3rd party vendors to business needs and contractual SLAs

Marketing Analytics

• Develop and communicate marketing dashboards to effectively manage and monitor sales/marketing progress against KPIs and SLAs
• Develops and reviews the analytics, reporting and dashboards to create an accurate view of marketing performance and business contribution

Marketing Channel Management

• Manage the 3rd party channel management technology
• Serves as SME internally for any questions or troubleshooting related to the channel management technology
• Build and maintain requirements for channel management technology in order to meet changing marketing and business priorities
• Build, communicate, and maintain best practices and processes for implementation and maintenance of channel management technology

Direct Marketing Operations

• Build, communicates, and maintains a process flow for the data personalization, lettershopping, and testing, and mail drop for direct mail
• In partnership with print production manager and vendors, reviews and processes to meet business needs
• Manages 3rd party vendors to business needs and contractual SLAs

Marketing Technology Management

• Lead the administration of sales and marketing operational systems, including but not limited to 3rd party software providers and proprietary software tools
• Develops and recommends how content should be organized and filed for efficient and effective retrieval

Contract Compliance

• Oversee governance of all client Marketing SOWs and brand refresh calendar; run routine audits to verify delivery of planned vs. actual

Financial Management

• Intakes and processes vendor invoices
• Tracks marketing expenses against budget, reports variances

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree Required in Marketing, Advertising, Communications, Business or equivalent
• 8-10 years of marketing operations experience, either client or agency side
• Demonstrated knowledge of marketing operations management, project management, and resource management skills
• Demonstrated knowledge of the creative development and production processes for a wide range of marketing mediums (print, collateral, direct marketing, email, online advertising, digital content, site, social)
• Must have extensive experience in project management platforms (Wrike, Workfront, Aprimo, Monday.com); knowledge of Wrike a plus

• Demonstrated expertise as a data-driven and metrics-focused marketing operator in order to determine resourcing, prioritization, budgeting and ROI
• People management / supervisory experience
• Demonstrated expertise leading and managing 3rd party vendors
• Experience with marketing channel management technology
• Experience supporting marketing technology such as a digital library, PIM, DAM, or CMS a plus
• Experience with B2B email platforms (Marketo, Pardot, etc) a plus
• Proven ability to define process and affect change in complex and rapidly changing environment

• Proven ability to communicate with precision in person and through great reporting and simple presentation
• Exceptional people skills in order to build strong and meaningful relationships across functions

• Excellent interpersonal, teambuilding, and communication skills
• Detail-oriented and positive working attitude
• Strong organizational and time management skills
• Must be able to meet deadlines while multi-tasking in a fast-paced environment
• Must be self-motivated and proactive
• High proficiency in Microsoft Office
• PMI or PMP certification a plus

• This is a hybrid position with both remote and in-office workdays

Core Competencies Required:

Teamwork/Collaboration: Support team members by establishing effective interpersonal relationships, and cross functional partnering

Partners across organizational boundaries - Reaches out and to work with associates outside of own department to achieve objectives. Anticipates effects of own area's actions and decisions on other associates and departments; influences others to support individual and team objectives.

Job Knowledge: - Clearly demonstrates a good grasp of key job functions, relevant terminology, technical processes and standards

Has achieved a satisfactory level of technical and professional skill or knowledge in position related areas; keeps up with current developments or trends in area of expertise; understands and uses knowledge, solutions, and capabilities to achieve results.

Customer Experience: Communicate effectively with customers, advocate customer needs and initiate resolution

Takes action to meet customer needs and concerns -

Considers how actions or plans will affect customers; responds quickly to meet customer needs and resolve problems; avoids over commitments; responds to customer requests in a timely manner to satisfy customer needs.

Company Profile:

Safe-Guard Products International is the leading provider of branded vehicle protection products in the finance and insurance space to the automotive, RV, marine and motorcycle/powersports industries. We are a proud partner to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), top retailers, and independent agents across the United States and Canada. In nearly thirty years, we have grown to power a client roster of over 50 leading protection brands and protect over 16 million consumers under Safe-Guard contracts. Our success is driven by over 700 employees, who serve over 12,000 dealers and support contract holders across the U.S. and Canada.

Safe-Guard continues to experience dynamic growth and has earned a stellar reputation from our clients, dealers, and peers by providing: 1) the highest quality protection products in the industry, 2) a broad platform of branded product, technology, marketing, and training solutions, and 3) an unwavering commitment to uncomplicated care and customer service.

EOE Statement:

Safe-Guard Products International is an equal opportunity employer and gives consideration for employment to qualified applicants without regard to age, race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, marital status, disability or protected veteran status, or any other status or characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.