Director Tentpole & Sports Marketing

Director Tentpole & Sports Marketing

We're looking for a marketing leader to own major sports, cultural, and tentpole moments, turning live event energy and fandom into meaningful brand growth. This role leads end to end strategy for marquee occasions—championship seasons, major sporting events, and cultural moments—expanding usage occasions and driving incremental consumption at scale. Reporting to the Senior Director, Seasons and Tentpole Marketing, the Director will have primary responsibility for architecting tentpole annual operating plan, portfolio and P&L delivery, and activation plan. You'll build fully integrated sports occasion platforms across product, retail, media, promotions, partnerships, and experiences, ensuring programs are consumer relevant, customer ready, and commercially impactful. Working closely with Sales, R&D, agencies, and cross functional partners, you'll help shape innovation, activation, and execution for the moments that matter most to consumers.
Top 5 Core Responsibilities / Outcomes Expected
Business Delivery: Deliver annual operating plan through strategic planning and adaptive, entrepreneurial problem solving
3Y Growth Vision: Establish clear tentpole growth vectors and pipeline development to enable predictable and consistent growth – consumer-oriented
Portfolio Management: Further sports/occasion-based portfolio focused against productivity, commercial value, and incrementality
Big Idea Platforms: Translate tentpole consumer behaviors (timing, rituals, jobs‑to‑be‑done) into portfolio, activation, and communication big idea platforms
Activation: Breakthrough portfolio activation plans – inclusive of away from home tentpole moments (i.e., Final Four, Olympics, etc.…)
Other Applicable Scope Defining Dimensions
Self-starter with high degree of personal initiative
Ability to manage people and lead cross-functional teams
Knowledge, Skills & Abilities
Strategy & Comms Development: Translate insights into actionable strategies to accelerate profitable growth across the full marketing mix
General Management Leadership: Bring holistic business knowledge and curious, problem-solving approach to developing strategic annual marketing plans.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Lead and collaborate with cross-functional team of R&D, finance, operations, sales, category management, & external agency partners
Analytical Thinking: Lead actionable insights from analysis of market data, competitor intelligence, and consumer research to deliver business objectives.
Structured Thinking: Ability to structure ambiguity and communicate across all levels of the organization – including senior leadership.
Consumer Oriented: Ability to translate consumer data into insights, into strategies and actions to drive conversion.
Experience & Education
Bachelor's Degree required, MBA or equivalent marketplace experience preferred
10+ years' experience in Marketing, Strategy and/or General Management
The Hershey Company is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The policy of The Hershey Company is to extend opportunities to qualified applicants and employees on an equal basis regardless of an individual's race, color, gender, age, national origin, religion, citizenship status, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, transgender status, physical or mental disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other categories protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.