Senior Marketing Manager, KSA & MEA

Role overview

Strategic planning and commercial partnership

• Partner with general managers, Finance, and commercial leaders to turn business plans and priorities into KSA and MEA activation roadmaps.
• Define activation priorities across distributors, customers, channels, launches, sponsorships, events, and trade programmes.
• Set governance and operating disciplines that support consistent delivery and local market needs.
• Align marketing with revenue growth, sell-out, customer acquisition, market development, and channel expansion.
• Use market feedback, distributor insight, performance analysis, and commercial impact to prioritise requests and inform business plans.

Market activation and localisation

• Lead trade marketing, distributor activation, key customer programmes, launch activation, promotions, and market development initiatives.
• Lead KSA trade resources and senior MEA trade marketing leads, ensuring ownership, delegated decisions, and local execution.
• Translate campaigns, propositions, sponsorship assets, and brand toolkits into practical market plans.
• Adapt regional brand and campaign platforms to local language, culture, channels, and customer needs while maintaining brand consistency.
• Support regional transitions, launches, and sponsorships with local execution, customer engagement, and sales enablement.
• Share market learnings with Brand, Product Marketing, Digital, and Intelligence teams.

Leadership and investment management

• Lead and develop KSA and MEA activation and trade marketing teams, setting accountability across markets and channels.
• Own activation planning, investment governance, and performance measurement.
• Monitor budgets, activation impact, campaign effectiveness, and marketing ROI; optimise future priorities using data and insights.
• Identify execution risks, market gaps, and capability needs and recommend improvements.

Education and experience

• Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Business Administration, Commercial Management, or a related discipline is required.
• MBA or advanced business degree is preferred.
• 10+ years leading trade marketing, customer activation, commercial marketing, channel marketing, or market development in complex multi-market environments.
• Strong commercial acumen, ideally including P&L management.
• Demonstrated success partnering with general managers and senior commercial leaders to translate strategy into measurable activation plans and outcomes.
• Experience leading teams across markets and influencing stakeholders in a matrixed organisation.
• Experience managing marketing investments, agencies, distributor activation budgets, and performance measurement.
• KSA, GCC, Middle East, or Africa experience is strongly preferred; automotive, lubricants, industrial, B2B distribution, or FMCG experience is advantageous.

Knowledge and capabilities

• Expertise in trade marketing, distributor activation, customer engagement, channel development, and integrated marketing planning.
• Ability to turn general manager priorities into activation roadmaps, launch plans, and execution standards.
• Strong financial, analytical, and performance management capability, including budget discipline, investment governance, and ROI measurement.
• Strong leadership, communication, influencing, and stakeholder management across multicultural teams and markets.
• Ability to balance regional standards with local market, customer, and cultural requirements.
• Professional fluency in English is required; Arabic capability is a strong advantage.

Working conditions and travel

• The work environment is hybrid, with regular interaction across commercial, marketing, and functional teams.
• Regular travel across KSA and MEA may be required for market visits, customer engagement, distributor reviews, events, and leadership meetings.
• Travel is at least 50%, depending on business needs.
• The role operates in a fast-paced, matrixed global organisation across cultures and time zones and must comply with applicable Environment, Health and Safety requirements.