Senior Brand Director, Kerrygold

Job Title: Senior Director of Brand Marketing

Function: Ornua Foods North America, Marketing

Reports to: Chief Marketing Officer, Americas

Location: Evanston, Illinois

Position Type: Full-Time

Schedule: Standard business hours

Direct Reports: Brand Marketing and Innovation leaders

Ornua (meaning “new gold”) is Ireland’s largest exporter of Irish dairy products, proudly bringing the unique taste of Irish dairy to the world since 1961.

Are you an experienced brand and innovation leader ready to shape the growth of Kerrygold and the Ornua Foods North America portfolio?

Ornua is seeking a Senior Director of Brand Marketing to lead its brand marketing and innovation teams and turn consumer opportunities into profitable, sustainable growth.

WHY THIS ROLE IS VALUABLE

Reporting to the Chief Marketing Officer, Americas, the Senior Director of Brand Marketing has overall accountability for brand strategy, portfolio performance and the innovation agenda for Ornua Foods North America, with Kerrygold at its core. The role connects long-term brand building with near-term commercial results, owning brand and portfolio P&L performance, market share and brand equity.

This leader sets the annual and long-range growth agenda, directs marketing and innovation investment, and leads the Brand Marketing and Innovation leaders and their teams. Working with Sales, Finance, Insights, R&D, Supply Chain, PMO and global partners, the Senior Director makes strategic tradeoffs, aligns priorities and ensures that brand plans and the innovation pipeline deliver measurable business outcomes.

What You Will Be Responsible For

Strategy

• Brand Strategy Development: Lead the development and implementation of comprehensive brand strategies to achieve annual and long-range business objectives. Define where the brand competes, how it wins, and how it scales across key categories, channels, and consumer opportunities.
• Annual and Long-Range Planning: Lead annual brand planning and support long-range strategic planning for the portfolio, translating business priorities into clear growth roadmaps, resource allocation choices, and measurable action plans.
• Market, Consumer and Competitive Analysis: Analyze category, shopper, consumer, customer, and competitive data to identify trends, market dynamics, unmet needs, and profitable growth opportunities. Translate insights into actionable strategies that strengthen brand relevance and commercial impact.
• Portfolio Strategy and Lifecycle Management: Develop and execute portfolio strategy, including product mix, innovation priorities, lifecycle management, packaging, assortment, and renovation opportunities.
• Channel, Customer and Distribution Strategy: Ensure brand strategy aligns with distribution, customer, channel, and expansion priorities. Partner with Sales and commercial teams to identify and prioritize growth opportunities across key customers, channels, and occasions.
• LATAM Go-To-Market Strategy: Develop the expansion play book on where to play and how to win with clear prioritization and sequencing of initiatives
  
  

Business Management

• P&L and Business Performance Ownership: Own brand performance across revenue, margin, market share, growth objectives, and overall business health. Balance growth, profitability, brand equity, and long-term value creation.
• Pricing, Packaging and Assortment Strategy: Lead pricing, packaging, promotional, and assortment strategy in partnership with Finance, Sales, Category Management, and Customer teams. Ensure decisions support brand positioning, channel strategy, margin objectives, and consumer value perception.
• Go-to-Market Strategy: Lead go-to-market planning and sell-in of new products in collaboration with PMO, Marketing, Sales, Category, Finance, and Supply Chain. Define success metrics, align commercial teams, and adjust tactics as needed to deliver business results.
• Budget and Investment Management: Manage brand budgets, marketing investments, and resource allocation to maximize ROI, commercial value, and long-term business impact. Make tradeoff decisions across competing priorities and investment opportunities.
• Performance Tracking, KPIs and Governance: Establish and monitor business, brand, consumer, and marketing effectiveness metrics. Build dashboards, reporting processes, and governance routines that improve transparency, accountability, and decision-making. Provide regular performance updates, insights, and recommendations to senior leadership.
• Innovation Priorities and Investment Management: Manage innovation priorities, pipeline investments, and budgets to ensure resources are aligned against the highest-value growth opportunities.
• Innovation and Portfolio Performance: Establish performance metrics and success criteria, continuously monitor innovation and portfolio performance, and recommend actions to improve business outcomes.
• LATAM Marketing Execution: Leverage and re-purpose OFA & Global Marketing tools to build brand awareness / equity, best in class commercial / retail materials, innovation pipeline, social / digital support, etc. for low cost / high ROI entry approach
  
  

Innovation

• Consumer-Led Innovation Strategy: Develop and lead a consumer-insight-driven innovation strategy that identifies unmet and underserved consumer needs while aligning with market dynamics, competitive trends, brand priorities, and financial objectives.
• End-to-End Innovation and Commercialization: Lead the end-to-end innovation process from strategy and concept development through commercialization, including product design, channel strategy, pricing, packaging, forecasting, and market launch execution.
• Global Innovation Collaboration: Collaborate with Global Innovation Team to drive the prioritization, scaling, localization, and consistency of innovation development, while adapting global platforms and ideas to meet U.S. market needs.
• Stage-Gate Governance and Investment Decisions: Direct stage-gate governance and investment decision-making, evaluating strategic fit, market opportunity, consumer demand, competitive landscape, sales potential, profitability, commercial risk, resource requirements, and timing.
• Cross-Functional Innovation Execution: Partner cross-functionally to move concepts from insight through commercialization, ensuring clear ownership, sound decision-making, and strong execution.
• Key Customer Innovation Support: Provide innovation support for key customers and translate customer and market needs into actionable growth opportunities.
  
  

Team Leadership

• Cross-Functional Leadership and Influence: Work closely with internal and external stakeholders, including Sales, Finance, R&D, Supply Chain, Category/Insights, PMO, agency partners, and executive leadership to drive brand and business initiatives. Influence across functions to align priorities, resolve ambiguity, and accelerate execution.
• Team Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness: Lead, coach, mentor, and develop direct reports and broader team members. Assess team capabilities, identify development opportunities, and build a collaborative, high-performance culture. Create processes, systems, and performance measures that improve execution, prioritization, and accountability.
• Executive Communications and Stakeholder Management: Lead executive communications and manage key stakeholders across OFNA and the wider Ornua Group.
  
  

What You Will Bring

• Strategic and commercial judgment that connects consumer needs and brand equity to profitable growth, with the confidence to make difficult portfolio and investment choices.
• Fluency in consumer-led innovation methods, including Design Thinking, concept testing and disciplined new product development, supported by a deep understanding of the U.S. retail environment.
• Strong financial and analytical capability across P&L management, business cases, margin, forecasting and ROI, using syndicated data, research and performance analytics to guide decisions.
• Executive communication, negotiation and stakeholder-management skills that align senior leaders, customers, agency partners and cross-functional teams around clear decisions.
• The ability to lead through other leaders, set direction in ambiguity and build a collaborative culture with high standards for performance, learning and accountability.
• A passion for high-quality food and brands, with sound judgment in balancing U.S. opportunities, brand integrity and wider Ornua Group priorities.
  
  

At Ornua, success is not just about what you do — it’s how you do it. You demonstrate our values by seeking new ideas, making things happen, showing care for your teammates, being your authentic self, and achieving great things together.

Experience And Requirements

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business Administration or a related field.
• At least 12 years of progressive CPG brand management, marketing, innovation or commercial leadership experience, including substantive responsibility across both brand marketing and innovation.
• At least five years of people leadership, including experience leading managers or functional leaders and developing multidisciplinary teams.
• Demonstrated accountability for brand, category or portfolio P&L performance, with a track record of growing sales, improving profitability and building brand equity.
• Proven success taking consumer-led innovation from strategy through commercialization and delivering integrated brand plans for consumer products sold through U.S. retail channels.
• Experience leading complex cross-functional initiatives and influencing executive stakeholders in a matrix organization.
• Willingness to travel domestically and internationally up to 20%.
• Authorization to work for any employer in the United States.
  
  

Desired Qualifications

• MBA or other relevant advanced degree.
• Food and beverage experience, particularly in dairy or premium consumer brands.
• Experience leading across multiple categories or channels and adapting global brand and innovation platforms for the U.S. market.
• Experience strengthening team capabilities, innovation governance and marketing effectiveness in a growing business.
  
  

WHY ORNUA?

Ornua is a purpose-driven, values-led co-operative creating value for Irish dairy farming families through our global operations. With 10 business units, 16 production facilities, and in-market teams across the world, we operate through two divisions — Ornua Foods, which markets our iconic consumer brands including Kerrygold and Pilgrims Choice, and Ornua Ingredients, which provides innovative, customized dairy ingredient solutions to our customers.

Our Values lie at the core of everything we do. Our five values encourage us to Seek and Embrace New Ideas, Make It Happen, Be Our True Selves, Show You Care, and Achieve Great Things Together.

We invest in our people and foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

Career progression opportunities, including global mobility.

Comprehensive benefits with region-specific offerings.

Dynamic Working policy supporting flexible hours and hybrid work options.

ORNUA VALUES AND COMPETENCIES

At Ornua, our Values guide how we work together and care for one another to achieve great things. Our five values encourage us to Seek and Embrace New Ideas, Make It Happen, Be Our True Selves, Show You Care, and Achieve Great Things Together.

• Curiosity: Encourages new thinking and uses consumer insight, experimentation and learning to improve the business.
• Ownership: Sets clear expectations, empowers leaders and takes accountability for quality, delivery and sustainable growth.
• Communicative: Makes priorities and decisions clear, communicates with candor and influences constructively at senior levels.
• Collaborative: Builds trust across teams, functions and cultures, resolves competing priorities and delivers shared outcomes.
  
  

DYNAMIC WORKING

Ornua’s Dynamic Working policy supports flexible hours and hybrid working, with three days per week in the office and a two-week-per-year Work From Anywhere option.

PAY RANGE: $165,150 - $201,850

This range represents the overall market pay rate for candidates who meet the necessary qualifications and experience requirements for this role. Actual compensation may vary based on factors such as experience, education, and performance.

Compensation And Total Rewards

Ornua offers a competitive salary and annual bonus opportunity. Total Rewards at Ornua Foods North America includes medical, vision and dental coverage, a 401(k), paid time off, maternity and parental leave, flexible working, fitness reimbursement, charitable donation support, complimentary Kerrygold products, free parking and secure bicycle storage, office snacks and drinks, reward and recognition programs, volunteering opportunities, and long-service awards.

About Ornua

Ornua is a dairy co-operative that sells dairy products on behalf of its Members, Ireland’s dairy processors and, in turn, Irish dairy farmers. Headquartered in Dublin, Ornua exports to markets around the world through its Ornua Foods and Ornua Ingredients divisions. Ornua Foods is responsible for the marketing and sales of consumer brands, including Kerrygold, while Ornua Ingredients serves food manufacturing and foodservice customers globally.

Would you like to make an impact? Apply today!

Ornua Foods North America Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local law.

Ornua is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you require an accommodation to complete the application or interview process, please contact Ornua People Services at 833-450-2385 or peopleservicesus@ornua.com.

This employer participates in E-Verify, a federal program that verifies the identity and employment eligibility of all persons hired to work in the United States. As part of the hiring process, information provided on your Form I-9 will be submitted to the E-Verify system. E-Verify compares your information to records maintained by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration. For more information about E-Verify, please visit www.e-verify.gov.