Brand Marketing Director

Merrell is seeking a Global Brand Marketing Director to lead the launch of the company’s first global brand platform, “It Starts Outside.” This role shapes the brand’s cultural relevance, performance credibility, and emotional storytelling across sport, lifestyle, and apparel.

Primary Duties

Global Brand Strategy & Point of View

• Define and own Merrell’s global brand marketing strategy across Hike, Trail Run, Lifestyle, and Apparel.
• Architect a clear brand POV that connects performance credibility with cultural relevance and lifestyle expression.
• Build strategic priorities, guardrails, and decision frameworks that guide regions, agencies, and internal teams.
• Act as a senior thought partner to executive brand and commercial leadership, shaping long‑term brand direction and category bets.

Integrated Campaign & GTM Leadership (Global + US)

• Own the development and delivery of integrated global campaigns that challenge category norms and redefine what the outside—and Merrell—means in modern culture.
• Lead U.S. integrated campaign planning and execution as the model market, ensuring excellence across DTC, wholesale, retail, media, digital, and experiential.
• Define campaign architecture, messaging frameworks, and seasonal storytelling systems that scale globally while enabling local relevance.
• Make clear tradeoffs across initiatives, timelines, and investments to maximize impact and speed.
• Establish clear campaign documentation, calendars, and milestone tracking across global teams.

Strategy, Insights & Commercial Impact

• Translate consumer, shopper, cultural, and competitive insights into differentiated brand and campaign strategies.
• Partner with Global Insights, Merchandising, and eCommerce to connect brand strategy to product priorities, hero stories, and commercial outcomes.
• Own campaign KPIs and brand health metrics; evaluate performance across sell‑through, brand equity, and ROI.
• Apply learnings rigorously to optimize future strategies, investment allocation, and executional effectiveness.

Cultural Relevance, Partnerships & Brand Heat

• Drive brand heat through culturally relevant moments, partnerships, and community‑led activations aligned to Merrell’s brand pillars.
• Lead global brand moments that sit at the intersection of sport, performance and culture – from athlete‑storytelling and community experiences to global brand films and cultural partnerships that generate brand heat and relevance.
• Stay ahead of cultural, category, and media trends to continuously evolve how consumers experience Merrell.

Team & Enterprise Leadership

• Lead, develop, and inspire a high‑performing team of brand marketers, setting a high bar for strategic thinking, creative excellence, and accountability.
• Architect the future operating model for global brand marketing at Merrell – establishing new ways of working, new creative standards, and a shared global language.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, quality and accountability across global and regional teams.
• Create clarity, guiding and aligning cross‑functional partners (Creative, Media, PR, Retail, Digital, eComm, Merchandising) through compelling storytelling, strong direction and decision‑making.
• Build scalable ways of working that improve speed, consistency, and impact across global marketing execution.

Knowledge, Skills And Abilities Required

• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or equivalent experience preferred.
• 10+ years of experience in brand or integrated marketing within global consumer brands.
• Proven experience leading global, cross‑functional marketing initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to lead brand transformation, evolving legacy brands while preserving core credibility.
• Track record of challenging category norms and elevating brand relevance through bold, insight‑led ideas.
• Demonstrated ability to translate strategy into high‑impact creative execution.
• Strong understanding of consumer behavior, cultural trends, and global markets.
• Fluent in marketing analytics, including sell‑through, brand metrics, and campaign performance.
• Comfort leading through ambiguity and change, setting direction and momentum in fast‑moving environments.
• Strong commercial acumen with experience connecting brand investment to growth and ROI.
• Exceptional communication and storytelling skills; strong executive presence with ability to influence C‑suite level leadership.
• Experience managing complexity in fast‑paced, high‑growth environments.

Working Conditions

Normal office environment. Some travel required.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Wolverine Worldwide, Inc. is committed to creating a company that is as diverse as our consumers. We value the differences in one another and believe our differences make us stronger. Our diverse and inclusive corporate culture starts with the recruitment process. We are committed to being an equal opportunity employer. We aim to create equal opportunities for our associates, customers, and suppliers regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other legally protected characteristic.

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed and are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills which may be required.

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