Senior Director Category Management Marketing

The Senior Director, Category Management and Sourcing - Marketing leads a team responsible for managing category management and strategic sourcing needs for Marriott’s Global Procurement Department, with a specific focus on the Marketing category. This role will be responsible for leading a team to drive best-in-class category management and strategic sourcing across marketing verticals including media, creative, production, experiential, partnerships, print, influencers, and others. The Senior Director drives adherence to and communication of Marriott procurement policies and processes, leads a team of procurement professionals, serves as the primary point of escalation for issues, delivers effective communications at all levels (including to executive leadership), and leads cross-functional teams on marketing procurement initiatives. As a key member of the Global Procurement team, this leader will partner closely with corporate, continent, Marketing, and Finance leaders to develop and execute marketing procurement strategies, enhance supplier governance, and drive responsible sourcing and financial sustainability. The ideal candidate will possess deep expertise in marketing category management, agency ecosystem optimization, media contract negotiation, and regulatory compliance. This leader must demonstrate exceptional leadership skills and have a proven track record of managing geographically dispersed teams in a highly matrixed environment. This role offers the opportunity to drive and execute marketing category strategies and strategic sourcing and contribute to the success of Marriott’s 30+ brands across 10,000+ hotels in 138+ countries.

CANDIDATE PROFILE

Education and Experience

Required
•    BA/BS
•    15 years of business, legal, and/or procurement experience. Deep technical knowledge of marketing category management and strategic sourcing in the hospitality or other consumer-facing sector.
•    Demonstrated ability to create marketing procurement strategy and implement change while managing a geographically dispersed team in a highly matrixed cross-discipline environment.

Preferred
•    Masters in Business Administration or Juris Doctor.
•    Marketing consulting experience
•    Proven ability to lead and develop a high-performing team focused on marketing procurement..

CORE WORK ACTIVITIES 

•    · Act as a procurement business partner to the Global Marketing, Brand and Loyalty disciplines, providing guidance on marketing category management, strategic sourcing, policy and risk management.
•    · Establish, continuously refine, and implement category management and sourcing strategies for marketing procurement, ensuring alignment with discipline partners’ priorities, and brand and campaign objectives
•    · Identify and present all cost take-out levers for stakeholder consideration, including competitive sourcing, demand management, insourcing vs outsourcing, specification change, process change, and governance improvement.
•    · Analyze marketing spend, agency performance, etc. to identify opportunities for consolidation and rationalization of marketing suppliers, including creative and media agency rosters.
•    · Lead negotiation of large-scale marketing supplier agreements, ensuring improved transparency, performance metrics, and cost efficiency.
•    · Work with Marriott’s Law department to uplift Master Service Agreements and Statements of Work to align with modern marketing strategies.
•    · Serve as subject matter expert of Marriott’s Media Agency of Record agreement and own relationship with Marriott’s Media Agency of Record.
•    · Develop strategies to manage and optimize marketing supplier relationships, ensuring quality, innovation, and cost-effectiveness.
•    · Recommend new marketing sourcing strategies, process and governance improvements, and agency models to support evolving marketing needs.
•    · Develop timelines and organize teams to implement sourcing strategies and initiatives.
•    · Provide thought leadership and end-to-end ownership of sourcing events for major marketing initiatives.
•    · Develop and implement effective internal tracking mechanisms and measurements to monitor the competitive bidding process.
•    · Leverage strong analytical and communication skills to lead and assist others in managing all aspects of competitive bids, including analyzing and scoring multiple proposals, creating corresponding business cases (including financial reports), and presenting clear and concise summaries of recommended options.
•    · Develop training programs and awareness initiatives to ensure procurement teams and stakeholders understand and adhere to policies and governance frameworks.
•    · Implem