Job Description:
Mars: Where your Tomorrow Starts Today!
Mars is a family-owned business that has been making products for people and their pets for more than 100 years. We’re behind some of the best loved brands in the world including MARS®, SNICKERS®, EXTRA®, NUTRI GRAIN®, COCO POPS®, PRINGLES®, PEDIGREE®, WHISKAS®, BEN’S ORIGINAL ® MASTERFOODS ® and ROYAL CANIN® ORIJEN® ACANA® . We are dedicated to making a positive impact on people and the planet.
Join us in building a sustainable future where people, communities, and the planet can truly thrive.
About the role: This role will be working for our Mars Snacking segment
Role Title: Customer Development Head
Location: Melbourne, Vic
Hours: Full-time
Reporting to: Customer Development Director
We are seeking a dynamic, strategic, and high-performing commercial leader to join us as the Customer Development Head – Cereals for one of our biggest National retail customers (Coles).
In this pivotal role, you will champion our Breakfast Growth Agenda and take full P&L accountability for a highly significant portfolio.
Operating in a collaborative, customer-facing capacity, you will drive the joint growth agenda and build influential, multi-layered relationships across Coles to deliver sustainable, mutually beneficial category growth.
Key Responsibilities
- Strategic Leadership: Develop and execute short- and long-term customer strategies for Coles Group that optimize profitability, maximize sales revenue, and align with company, customer, and category objectives.
- P&L & Trade Management: Oversee full P&L and trade investment budgets to drive maximum return on investment (ROI), ensure compliance, and achieve revenue optimization.
- Winning Relationships: Establish and nurture influential, multi-layered partnerships within Coles Group, driving the customer agenda through shopper-, channel-, and category-centric solutions.
- Category Captaincy: Leverage category leadership principles to establish Mars as a trusted category advisor, guiding assortment, pricing, merchandising, and promotional strategies.
- Forecasting & Execution: Deliver highly accurate and timely sales forecasts using both consumption and shipment metrics. Oversee the successful, flawless launch of new product innovations in the marketplace.
- Team & Cross-Functional Influence: Inspire and support the broader Coles Group customer development team (9 associates) while collaborating cross-functionally with Customer Marketing, Category, and Supply chain teams to ensure flawless operational execution.
What You Will Bring
We are looking for an ambitious commercial leader with a proven track record of driving growth with major grocery retailers.
To be successful in this role, you will bring:
- Degree-level qualification (or equivalent professional experience) is preferred.
- Extensive sales and key account management experience within the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector, preferably managing major Australian retailers
- Proven expertise in negotiation, high-value joint business planning (JBP), P&L management, and revenue/trade investment optimization
- Strong ability to translate shopper and category insights into winning commercial actions that secure category captaincy and drive mutual growth
- Outstanding communication and relationship-building skills, with a demonstrated ability to navigate complex negotiations, overcome objections, and manage conflict with a positive, resilient mindset
- Business Acumen & Perspective: Understanding the broader macro-environment and future market trends to drive future-proof plans
- Comfortable making strategic decisions in a fast-paced environment.
- Core Technical Skills: Expert-level capabilities in Selling, Negotiation, Customer Execution, and Building Winning Relationships.
Why you’ll love working for Mars:
· Purpose: Help craft beloved brands with a legacy of over 100 years of local manufacturing making products that people and pets will love all while helping to build a more sustainable future.
· People: A culture that values your contributions, fosters leadership, and recognises the impact you make. Your work truly matters here.
· Development: Shape your career with personalised development and real opportunities to grow from day one.
· Enjoy a team and business environment that is invested in helping you manage and grow your energy for work and life.
Skills Required
- Extensive sales and key account management experience within the FMCG sector
- Experience managing major Australian retailers
- Expertise in negotiation
- Experience with high-value joint business planning
- P&L management experience
- Revenue and trade investment optimization expertise
- Ability to translate shopper and category insights into commercial actions
- Strong communication and relationship-building skills
- Experience navigating complex negotiations, objections, and conflict
- Business acumen and understanding of market trends
- Ability to make strategic decisions in a fast-paced environment
- Degree-level qualification or equivalent professional experience
- Expert-level selling, negotiation, customer execution, and relationship-building capabilities
Mars Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Mars and has not been reviewed or approved by Mars.
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Healthcare Strength — The benefits package is positioned as comprehensive, with broad medical coverage and additional protections like life insurance and short- and long-term disability. Mental health support is emphasized, including free mental health services and wellbeing programming under initiatives such as Mars Be Well.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave is highlighted as market-leading in the U.S., with an example of 18 weeks fully paid for both parents. Additional family-related leave types such as sick time for caregiving and bereavement leave are also described as part of the overall package.
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Retirement Support — Retirement offerings are described as strong, including 401(k) matching (with a 6% match cited) and pension plans in some cases. The broader package also references retirement savings options and contributions aligned to local market practice, supporting long-term financial security.
Mars Insights
What We Do
For more than a century, Mars, Incorporated has been driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. This idea is at the center of who we have always been as a global, family-owned business. Today, Mars is transforming, innovating and evolving in ways that affirm our commitment to making a positive impact on the world around us. Across our diverse and expanding portfolio of confectionery, food, and petcare products and services, we employ 133,000 dedicated Associates who are all moving in the same direction: forward. With $40 billion in annual sales, we produce some of the world’s best-loved brands including DOVE®, EXTRA®, M&M’s®, MILKY WAY®, SNICKERS®, TWIX®, ORBIT®, PEDIGREE®, ROYAL CANIN®, SKITTLES®, WHISKAS®, COCOAVIA®, and 5™; and take care of half of the world’s pets through our pet health services AniCura, Banfield Pet Hospitals™, BluePearl®, Linnaeus, Pet Partners™, and VCA™. We know we can only be truly successful if our partners and the communities in which we operate prosper as well. The Mars Five Principles – Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom – inspire our Associates to take action every day to help create a world tomorrow in which the planet, its people and pets can thrive.
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