Job Description:

The Sr Manager Retail & Service Quality Global develops and deploys the strategy for retail store and café quality governance and ensures value through targeted standardization and digital enablement for retail approaches today and different business models such as franchise for the future. Working incredibly closely with the retail and experience businesses (Hotel Chocolat, Ethel M, Turin and M&M's Retail), this role will develop and nurture standards, tools and capabilities to enable efficient risk management and capitalize on opportunities to drive consumer experience through data and insights brought to action.

The role serves as the Segment Product Owner for our unified Digital Retail applications. This critical role bridges the gap between Retail Operations and Quality & Food Safety (QFS). The global position will be responsible for leading the rollout of the digital application with the Business Units, overseeing technical compliance, managing hardware infrastructure (such as iPads, IoT gateways with temperature control sensors), and governing the quality checklist framework. By driving standardization, establishing operational KPIs, and fostering a strong collaborative Community of Practice (CoP), the job holder will ensure that every chocolate boutique and café delivers an exceptional, compliant, and food-safe experience for our consumers.

What are we looking for?

• Minimum of a bachelor's degree in food science, quality management, or a closely related field. Advanced degree preferred.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in retail operations, quality assurance, or compliance management - ideally within the food, beverage, café, or hospitality sector.
• Proven track record in multiple-Site governance.
• Strong knowledge of QFS and regulatory requirements with hands-on experience in food retail /hospitality.
• Knowledge in IoT systems, SaaS applications, and GenAI. Experience in setting up digital templates and inspection systems is preferred
• Demonstrated ability to define operational KPIs, structure data, define dashboards, analyze and interpret data, generate executive reports and provide input with call for action to management reviews.
• Strong knowledge of project management tools with demonstrated capability to manage complex, multi-site digital rollouts while maintaining a high standard of regulatory and internal compliance.

What would your key responsibilities be?

Project Management & Compliance:

Global Rollout: Accountable for the successful deployment and continuous scaling of the digital retail solution across all Mars-owned, franchised, and licensed chocolate stores and cafés. Partner with digital functions for the digital application to be fully integrated with the Mars systems landscape (i.e., data lake, SSO, PowerBI, etc.) and remains fully operational.

Compliance Assurance: Ensure the Digital Retail Application complies with all corporate policies. Spearhead risk management (including Vendor Cyber Risk, Enterprise Architecture, Data Architecture, Security Architecture, Digital Privacy Impact, and AI Risk/Impact Assessments) and approval processes for all enabled functionalities and use cases. Ensure that all system settings remain fully compliant with FDA and other food safety regulatory requirements,.

Continuous Improvement (CI): Own and maintain the central Digital Retail CI log. Proactively gather feedback and improvement requests, prioritize development activities in cooperation with the vendor, and align the roadmap with corporate goals.

Governance:

KPI Management & Reporting:Define and track key performance indicators (KPIs) to govern the quality, completion rate, and frequency of brand inspections. Build workflows to track corrective actions through to resolution. Compare brand performance, identify common issues, and drive continuous improvement (CI).

Quality Management Review (QMR): Act as the ultimate governing instance for mandated inspections. Ensure deviations are followed up systematically by each brand and directly report consolidated retail quality performance metrics to the Segment

Retail Operating System

Template Management: Lead the harmonization of inspection protocols across brands and the operating concepts (e.g., boutique retail-only vs. complex operations containing cafés, ice cream, baked goods, etc.). Support brands in maintaining harmonized Quality & Food Safety (QFS) inspection templates. Ensure templates are built with advanced scoring systems (e.g., chapter scores) to facilitate benchmarking across brands.

Document Control: Ensure correct document folders and resources are properly assigned to, and segregated by, the respective brands within the application.

IoT Sensor Monitoring: Define and monitor system performance KPIs specifically for automatic temperature control sensors, proactively flagging structural issues, data gaps, or sensor failures.

Dashboard Support: Support brand product owners with the creation of insightful dashboards that drive operational visibility at both the regional and executive levels.

Hardware & IoT Infrastructure Management:

Sensor & Gateway Procurement: Manage the purchasing, assignment, and configuration of IoT Gateways and Sensors across brands and stores. Map physical hardware accurately to digital stores in the system.

Retail Hardware Deployment: Direct the initial purchase and rollout of hardware (tablets, gateways, sensors) to support the application's implementation in stores, establishing a smooth transition for brand owners to manage future replacement cycles. Partner with IT to enable rollout and management of hardware in stores.

Financial Oversight (Cross-Charging): Establish and execute annual internal cross-charging (x-charge) mechanisms to allocate hardware and sensor costs back to the respective brands.

Contract, Budget & License Management :

Vendor Relations: Manage the strategic relationship with the platform provider (Mitti). In cooperation with commercial and legal partners, establish and manage Master Services Agreements (MSA), Statements of Work (SOW), Purchase Orders (PO), and direct annual licensing payments.

License Audit & Governance: Own the central user directory. Conduct regular audits of user licenses, manage SSO setup, configure role-based permissions, and archive inactive accounts to maintain cost-efficiency.

Budget Ownership: Lock in the annual licensing budget across brands, ensuring accurate billing, x-charges to brands, and reporting.

Community of Practice (CoP), Onboarding & Training

Training Stewardship: Develop and keep all digital application training materials, user guides, and standard operating procedures (SOPs) accurate and up to date.

Onboarding & Training: Ensure new associates undergo all required training prior to utilizing the system. Empower brand administrators through structured, high-level training to cascade end-user proficiency down through their respective organizations.

Community of Practice (CoP): Build and manage a vibrant digital Community of Practice (CoP), leading regular alignment and collaboration calls with Brand Managers to share best practices.

Technical Support Structure

Escalation Support: Serve as the central tier-2 support anchor. Resolve complex or escalated application issues for brand owners, liaising with internal IT services or the external vendor's engineering support when needed.

The base pay range for this position at commencement of employment is between the range listed below, however, base pay offered may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including but not limited to job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total compensation package for this position will include variable pay, medical and dental benefits, participation in 401k plan, and paid time off benefits. Details of participation in these benefit plans will be provided if an applicant receives an offer of employment.

The pay range shown is applicable to all US locations listed within the job posting:USD 153,600.00 - USD 211,200.00