Portfolio & Innovation Manager, Pet Nutrition, Southeast Asia
Location: Sun Tower Building, Jatujak Bangkok
Job Purpose
The Portfolio & Innovation Manager is to transform the way Mars Pet Nutrition approaches innovation to better serve unmet pet, pet parents and customer needs in existing and emerging category space.This team leads Portfolio Range Optimization & SEA Innovation projects from concept to post launch to support SEA business growth ambition. The role is a part of the Cat Portfolio marketing team, which leads iconic brands like Whiskas® and Sheba ® which are leading brands across SEA.
What You'll Do
You will need to uphold enterprise perspective to ensure pet, pet parents and customer unmet needs are fulfilled through total Mars portfolio. Tracks progress of innovation vs Target. They need to be proactive, have presence and be willing to move across functions and hierarchies to deliver innovation as per aligned timeline.
Key Responsibilities
1. Portfolio strategy & Innovation Leadership
- Define SEA brand Innovation strategy & 3-year pipeline In line with global framework and SEA growth ambition.
- Represents Brand team as innovation project leader to deliver the aligned business and project objectives, within the agreed timeline.
- Responsible end to end innovation projects from proposition (scope, technology, positioning), resource prioritization, market launch strategy (pricing, skus, trade channel, marketing launch plan), scaling of Innovation across SEA, post launch monitoring and evaluation.
- Drive portfolio management by leading portfolio range optimization strategies that ensure alignment with market needs, delivering sales performance and P&L objectives.
- Ensure close working relationship with SEA and global brand team to ensure Innovation strategy and plans are aligned with Brand strategies.
- Establishing strong engagement across a variety of cross functional experts - SEA and global marketing and consumer insights team, Activity Management, Local market demand team, R&D, Finance, Science and regulatory team to navigate through ambiguity and challenges to ensure projects are delivered according to aligned timing and objectives.
- Lead continuous project management improvement with activity manager and other relevant stakeholders.
- Be the functional expert of QUEST & PPM for SEA market.
2. Consumer & Market Insight
- Be the organization's voice of the pet parent—grounding decisions in deep insight, trends, and competitive intelligence.
- Partner with CMI/Marketing & Local market team to identify innovation opportunities.
- Build a culture of test-and-learn, rapidly validating innovation ideas across markets.
3. Multi-Market Leadership & Stakeholder Influence
- Represent SEA in global Innovation projects and deploy relevant global Innovations.
- Act as the integrator across markets: ensuring alignment, codifying best practices, and uplifting capability across marketing teams.
- Influence local GMs, E-Commerce leaders, and cross-functional partners to land brand choices with speed and consistency.
- Build strong relationships with Global Brand Teams to ensure SEA needs are visible, resourced, and reflected in global workstreams.
4. Governance, Compliance & Principle-Led Leadership
- Uphold Mars Five Principles—ensuring responsible marketing, product claims governance, digital safety, and regulatory alignment.
- Champion the High-Performing Culture mindset across the region through clarity, prioritisation, and disciplined follow-through.
Context and Scope
- Report to the Head of Cat Portfolio and works closely with the country cross-functional team (Market demand team/ Supply/ R&D/ Finance/ Science and Regulatory) and Global marketing innovation team.
- Works in partnership with marketing brand team to drive recommendations relevant for their portfolio
- This role requires excellent stakeholder management to deliver aligned Innovation projects and translated into actionable Innovation building blocks.
What We're Looking For
- Bachelor's Degree /MBA in Marketing field. Business development, project management.
- At least 6 years of working experience in FMCG, or consumer product-related product development experience.
- Proven success managing brands across multiple markets with diverse consumer and retail landscapes.
- Strength in Project Management, portfolio management, and commercial understanding.
- Demonstrated leadership without authority—able to influence, inspire, and align cross-functional teams.
- Passion for pets, pet parents, and improving the lives of animals in SEA.
- Fluent communication in English
