Senior Brand Manager

Senior Brand Manager

Job Title: Senior Brand Manager

Department: Brand

Reports to: Vice President of Marketing

Location: Baltimore, Maryland

Job Summary

The Senior Brand Manager is the strategic product leader for LifeStraw’s 2–3 highest-revenue product categories. Reporting to the VP of Marketing, this role owns go-to-market strategy, brand positioning, and cross-functional coordination for the core portfolio. The SBM manages a small team, including the Product Marketing Specialist and the Brand Operations Manager, and serves as the primary marketing liaison to the Sales team, Amazon, and Ecommerce. This role owns and provides oversight on execution of the go-to-market process, including innovation, GTM planning, and commercialization of products within assigned channels, and partners with the Content & Social Specialist/Manager to ensure all social media campaigns for their portfolio are strategically aligned and running smoothly. The SBM owns the strategy and execution of their product lines across all sales and marketing channels, is fluent in creative (understanding photo and video asset needs), and has experience running both top-of-funnel awareness and conversion-specific product campaigns.

This is a player-coach role: the SBM sets product strategy and portfolio priorities while ensuring the team delivers the assets, insights, and coordination that Sales and channel partners need to hit revenue targets, directly impacts LifeStraw’s multi-million-dollar growth trajectory.

Key Responsibilities

Product & Portfolio Strategy

• Own positioning, competitive strategy, and go-to-market plans for LifeStraw’s top product categories (e.g., Personal Straw, Go Series, Home Pitcher lines).
• Develop differentiated messaging by channel: outdoor/adventure positioning for REI and specialty retail vs. home health/convenience positioning for Target, Walmart, and mass retail.
• Lead product launch planning end-to-end, from positioning brief through creative development, sales sell-in materials, and retail execution.
• Partner with Product Development to translate consumer insights and market trends into actionable product pipeline recommendations.
• Build and maintain competitive intelligence across hydration, water filtration, and adjacent categories (Brita, PUR, Hydro Flask, CamelBak).
• Own and provide oversight on execution of the GTM process,including innovation, go-to-market strategy, and commercialization efforts for new and existing products within assigned channels, ensuring a seamless path from product development to retail/digital shelf.
• Own the end-to-end strategy and execution of assigned product lines across all sales and marketing channels, from retail and DTC to digital and in-store, ensuring cohesive positioning and commercial impact at every touchpoint.

Sales & Channel Partnership

• Serve as the primary marketing liaison to the Sales organization, including National Account Managers (Outdoor/REI, Retail/Target/Walmart), Amazon, International Sales, and regional team members.
• Provide Sales with product positioning briefs, competitive battle cards, buyer presentations, and retailer-specific sell sheets.
• Partner with the Head of DTC to ensure product messaging and brand assets support DTC conversion and site merchandising.
• Coordinate with the Amazon team on A+ content strategy, brand store updates, and listing optimization for core SKUs.

Digital Marketing & Paid Media

• Own and oversee paid digital media strategy for assigned product categories, including Meta (Facebook/Instagram) ads, TikTok ads, and digital retail media (Instacart, Walmart Connect, Target Roundel, Amazon Sponsored Ads).
• Develop channel-specific paid media briefs and coordinate with external agencies or internal resources to execute campaigns that support retail sell-through and DTC conversion.
• Partner with the Content & Social Specialist/Manager to ensure organic and paid social strategies are aligned, and that product portfolio campaigns have coordinated social support across all platforms.
• Monitor paid media performance (ROAS, CPA, CTR, etc) and optimize spend allocation across digital retail channels and social platforms to maximize revenue impact.
• Plan and execute both top-of-funnel brand awareness campaigns and conversion-specific product campaigns across digital, social, and retail media channels, ensuring a full-funnel approach that drives both brand equity and measurable sales results.

Team Leadership

• Directly manage the Product Marketing Specialist and the Brand Operations Manager, setting priorities, providing coaching, and ensuring execution quality.
• Establish clear workflows between the team and the Creative team to ensure creative briefs are strategic, timely, and actionable.
• Bring creative fluency to the role: understand photo and video asset needs across channels, provide clear creative direction in briefs, and evaluate whether creative output meets strategic and commercial objectives for assigned product lines.
• Collaborate with the VP of Marketing on budget allocation, annual planning, and organizational development.

Performance & Insights

• Establish KPIs for product marketing effectiveness: launch performance, retail sell-through, brand awareness, and channel partner satisfaction.
• Use data and market research to inform product strategy and creative direction.
• Report to VP of Marketing on portfolio performance, competitive landscape, and strategic recommendations.

What We’re Looking For

• 8–10+ years of brand management or product marketing experience, ideally in CPG, outdoor, hydration, or mission-driven consumer brands.
• Proven ability to own a product portfolio P&L or go-to-market strategy across multiple retail channels.
• Experience serving as the marketing partner to Sales teams; comfortable presenting to retail buyers and creating sell-in materials.
• Strong leadership skills with experience managing 2–4 direct reports.
• Data-fluent: comfortable with retail analytics, market research, and performance dashboards.
• Demonstrated digital marketing experience, specifically paid media across Meta, TikTok, and digital retail channels (Instacart, Walmart Connect, Target Roundel). Ability to build, manage, and optimize campaigns that drive retail and DTC performance.
• Passion for sustainability and social impact, with the ability to integrate LifeStraw’s mission into product storytelling.
• Creative fluency: understands photo and video asset needs across retail, digital, and social channels. Able to write effective creative briefs and evaluate creative output against strategic objectives.
• Proven experience running both top-of-funnel brand awareness campaigns and conversion-specific product campaigns across digital, social, and retail media channels.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business, or related field.
• MBA or equivalent experience preferred.

Essential Physical Demands and Typical Working Conditions

Physical demands include bending, carrying, pushing-pulling, reaching, sitting, standing, walking and extremes of temperature and humidity, as well as travel between physical locations. Hazards include stairs and communicable diseases.