Retail Marketing Manager (Maternity Cover)

🔝 Reports to: Marketing Director EU

📑Fixed-term contract until February 2017

📍 EMEA HQ, Geneva, Switzerland

👩‍💻🏡 Hybrid mode (2 days/week home-office)

📆 Start date: at the earliest convenience

OUTGROWN YOUR OWN BACKYARD? COME PLAY IN OURS.

At Columbia Sportswear, we’re as passionate about the outdoors as you are. And while our gear is available worldwide, we’re proud to be based in the Pacific Northwest, where natural wonders are our playground.

Every product we make and every task we undertake is inspired by the famous words of our founder Gert Boyle: “It’s perfect. Now make it better.” As pioneers of relentless improvement, we are constantly evolving

Discover a world of diversity within our team of 700+ across 13 European countries, united by the common goal of elevating Columbia to the pinnacle of outdoor brands in Europe. Our omnichannel approach seamlessly integrates Columbia and Sorel brands' engaging in-store and online experiences.

We believe the outdoors is ours to protect and strive to keep our planet healthy. We believe in empowering people to experience the outdoors to the fullest.

And we believe in you.

ABOUT THE POSITION

We are looking for a Retail Marketing Manager to join our European Marketing team in Geneva on a temporary contract until February 2027.

In this role, you will lead the retail marketing strategy across our European retail ecosystem, covering Partner Stores (franchise), Columbia-owned outlets, and shop-in-shops or concessions within our wholesale partners.

Your mission will be to ensure a consistent and effective omnichannel retail marketing approach, connecting brand initiatives with the realities of our retail network and supporting the expansion of Columbia’s retail footprint across Europe, including new store openings and key flagship projects.

You will manage a small team of 3 marketing enthusiasts and act as the key link between Retail, Brand Marketing, Sales, and our global teams in the US, ensuring our retail marketing initiatives support both brand visibility and commercial performance.

HOW YOU’LL MAKE THE DIFFERENCE

Build and lead the seasonal retail marketing calendar

• Develop and execute the retail marketing activation calendar for Europe, ensuring alignment with brand campaigns, commercial priorities, and retail operations.
• Translate high-level marketing initiatives into concrete retail activations across stores and partner networks.
• Ensure a consistent omnichannel approach across outlets, partner stores, concessions and shop-in-shops.

Support Columbia’s retail expansion across Europe

• Play a key role in supporting new store openings and major retail projects, including flagship locations and strategic partner stores.
• Collaborate with retail, sales and marketing teams to ensure strong retail visibility and impactful launch activations.
• Contribute to the development of scalable retail concepts that can support our growing retail network.

Act as the voice of Retail Marketing

• Maintain strong collaboration with global retail and brand marketing teams in the US, ensuring the needs of the European retail network are represented.
• Work closely with European business leaders to ensure marketing initiatives support retail performance.
• Facilitate information sharing, best practices and synergies across teams.

Lead and prioritize within the retail marketing scope

• Manage and develop a team of 3 retail marketing specialists.
• Provide clear direction and priorities to support business objectives and retail growth.
• Act as a key decision-maker when it comes to prioritizing projects and allocating resources.

Manage the retail marketing budget

• Oversee the European retail marketing budget, including outlets and retail activation programs supporting wholesale partners.
• Evaluate investments, negotiate with partners and ensure marketing spend delivers measurable impact.

YOU ARE

• An experienced Retail Marketing professional who understands how marketing supports store performance.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, international environment with multiple stakeholders.
• Highly collaborative, able to build strong relationships with both store teams and senior leaders.
• Structured and pragmatic, able to prioritize initiatives and make clear decisions.
• A strong communicator capable of influencing partners across functions and regions.

YOU HAVE

• Around 8+ years of experience in Retail Marketing, ideally within an international brand.
• Experience working with retail networks, including owned stores, franchises, or wholesale retail environments.
• Exposure to omnichannel retail marketing strategies.
• Experience managing marketing budgets and prioritizing investments.
• Strong collaboration skills and the ability to work with diverse stakeholders across marketing, retail and sales.
• Experience leading or mentoring team members.

PERKS & BENEFITS

🎁 Significant discounts on Columbia and Sorel products

🌍 Soft mobility policy (Geneva office only)

🧘‍♀️ Pilates and yoga classes on our premises, and running groups or sports activities

📚 Unlimited access to LinkedIn Learning

📖 A monthly Learning Hour for training, discovery and learning

👩‍🏫 Unlock your potential: access to in-house training courses (feedback, leadership, Insights®...)

🌈DEI initiatives to exchange and strengthen our involvement around these themes

ABOUT THE CULTURE

• At Columbia Sportswear, we value an inclusive and open culture that emphasizes the absence of barriers between team members. We are committed to fostering a sense of belonging by encouraging personal connections at all levels, which creates a cohesive and supportive work environment.
• Team members serve as ambassadors for our brand, finding motivation in being part of an organization dedicated to activities they are passionate about. This dedication reflects our commitment to building a team that takes pride in our products and values.
• We offer the opportunity to work for a US-based company within a multicultural environment, where your job has an impact across different countries.
• Our "Always Be Learning" culture of continuous learning enables our employees to identify and develop skills that will enable them to continue to grow within the company.
• "Unlock Your Potential" is the spirit that characterizes our vision of employees' development: to offer them opportunities to grow, in their job, in their team or even to change jobs completely. We grow our people to grow our business.

To learn more about us and our culture, visit our page on Welcome To The Jungle: https://bit.ly/49bl1i5

ABOUT THE HIRING PROCESS

1️⃣ Ready to unlock your potential at Columbia Sportswear Company? Apply now to help us connect active people with their passion! The hiring team will review your application in the following weeks.

2️⃣ If your application is selected: a 30-45mn introductory interview with our Talent Acquisition Team to talk about yourself, your motivations and the role

3️⃣ Interview with the hiring manager + case study

4️⃣ Final interview with the main stakeholders

5️⃣ Your unique strengths align perfectly with our team: we are thrilled to extend you an offer!

This job description is not meant to be an all-inclusive list of duties and responsibilities, but constitutes a general definition of the position's scope and function in the company.