Director, Brand Management Bulgaria

Job Description Summary:

The Director, Brand Management – Bulgaria is the senior marketing leader and marketing subject‑matter expert for the Bulgarian market. Operating in a base‑market context, this role leads the development and execution of brand strategies across the portfolio by translating global and Europe OU direction into locally relevant, high‑impact marketing plans, despite lean budgets and limited local resources.
 

Reporting directly to the General Manager Bulgaria, the Director acts as a trusted strategic partner to the GM and the bottling partner (CCH), ensuring that brand, media, and activation plans are tightly integrated with commercial priorities, operational realities, and system capabilities. This role requires a mature, hands‑on leader who can prioritize ruthlessly, maximize impact, and inspire strong collaboration across functions and with CCH.
 

The GM retains full P&L accountability; the Director Brand Management manages and optimizes local DME within the guardrails agreed with the GM.

What You’ll Do for Us
 

1. Brand Strategy & Portfolio Leadership (Base Market Context)

• Lead the annual and multi‑year brand strategy for Bulgaria across all relevant trademarks.

• Translate global and Europe OU strategies into simplified, focused, and locally resonant brand plans that reflect Bulgarian consumer insights and market realities.

• Define clear brand priorities, roles, and activation choices, ensuring focus on the initiatives that matter most.

• Act as the primary marketing adviser to the GM, providing clear points of view on brand, consumer, and category opportunities.

2. Central Strategy Translation & Local Adaptation

• Act as the key interface between central teams and the Bulgarian market.

• Adapt centrally developed strategies, creative platforms, media frameworks, and toolkits into efficient and effective local executions.

• Ensure consistency with global brand standards while maximizing local relevance and impact.

• Make sound judgment calls on where to fully adopt, adapt, or simplify central initiatives in line with local constraints.

3. Integrated Marketing, Media & Activation Leadership

• Lead integrated planning across brand activation, media, digital, and customer‑relevant touchpoints.

• Manage the Media Manager to ensure smart, efficient media choices that maximize reach, quality, and ROI.

• Ensure brand plans are executable across channels and routes‑to‑market, given local scale and resources.

• Coordinate closely with Commercial and CCH teams to ensure strong in‑market activation.

4. System Leadership & Bottler Collaboration (CCH)

• Build a strong, trust‑based partnership with CCH, acting as their primary marketing counterpart in Bulgaria.

• Ensure system alignment on brand priorities, media investment, activation standards, and execution quality.

• Jointly prioritize initiatives with CCH to maximize system value and avoid unnecessary complexity.

• Lead aligned planning, performance reviews, and problem‑solving routines with the bottler.

5. Innovation & Commercialization

• Lead local activation of innovation and renovation initiatives, ensuring readiness across communication, media, claims, and execution.

• Partner with central teams to assess relevance and viability of innovations for the Bulgarian market.

• Ensure launch excellence while respecting local regulatory, operational, and commercial constraints.

• Conduct post‑launch reviews and embed learnings into future plans.

6. DME Stewardship & Operational Discipline

• Manage local DME (Direct Marketing Expenses) with strong discipline and ROI mindset, within guardrails set by the GM.

• Make pragmatic investment choices that balance brand building needs with base‑market scale realities.

• Ensure accurate planning, tracking, and forecasting of spend.

• Uphold full compliance with legal, claims, responsible marketing, and brand governance standards.

7. Performance Management & Insight‑Driven Decision Making

• Monitor brand and campaign performance across equity, penetration, share, NSR contribution, and media effectiveness.

• Use insights and data to inform prioritization, trade‑offs, and optimization decisions.

• Lead performance reviews and ensure course correction where needed.

• Act as the voice of fact‑based marketing decision making in the Bulgaria leadership team.

8. People Leadership & Capability Building

• Lead, coach, and develop Senior Managers, Managers, and the Media Manager within the Brand Management team.

• Build a small but strong team capable of delivering high impact with limited resources.

• Foster a collaborative, accountable, and resilient team culture.

• Actively develop marketing capabilities across brand fundamentals, media thinking, and execution excellence.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.

• 10–15 years of marketing or brand management experience within FMCG/CPG.

• Proven experience operating in base or smaller markets with constrained budgets and resources.

• Strong system leadership experience, with demonstrated ability to work closely with bottlers (CCH experience strongly preferred).

• Solid expertise in brand strategy, media, activation, and adaptation of central content.

• Mature leadership style with strong influencing, prioritization, and decision‑making skills.

• Fluent in English; Bulgarian preferred.

What We Can Do For You

• A senior, high‑impact marketing leadership role in a base market with strong system exposure.

• Direct partnership with the General Manager and bottler leadership.

• Opportunity to shape simplified, high‑impact marketing in a lean environment.

• Development platform toward broader marketing leadership roles across the Europe OU.

Confidentiality Notice

This job description outlines the general nature and responsibilities of the role. Duties may evolve based on business needs. All information is confidential and intended solely for internal hiring purposes within the Europe Operating Unit.

Skills:

Brand Architecture, Brand Positioning, Channel Management, Competitor Analysis, Consumer Segmentation, Creative Process, Digital Media Strategy, Group Problem Solving, Leadership, Marketing Goals, Marketing Strategies, Media Planning, Quantitative Research, Social Media Strategies, SWOT Analysis, Team Management

Location(s):

Bulgaria

City/Cities:

Sofia

Travel Required:

00% - 25%

Relocation Provided:

No

Job Posting End Date:

May 19, 2026

Our Purpose and Growth Culture:

We are taking deliberate action to nurture an inclusive culture that is grounded in our company purpose, to refresh the world and make a difference. We act with a growth mindset, take an expansive approach to what’s possible and believe in continuous learning to improve our business and ourselves. We focus on four key behaviors – curious, empowered, inclusive and agile – and value how we work as much as what we achieve. We believe that our culture is one of the reasons our company continues to thrive after 130+ years. Visit Our Purpose and Vision to learn more about these behaviors and how you can bring them to life in your next role at Coca-Cola.