Job Description:
As our Sales Director East Africa at Mars, you will lead our East Africa Sales organization to drive sustainable, profitable growth across core markets, including Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. You will own the customer and distributor agenda, oversee end-to-end commercial operations and P&L delivery for the Mars Snacking portfolio, and act as a pivotal enterprise leader representing East Africa on the Africa Business Team and Sales Leadership Forum. Bringing an enterprise mindset, you will partner cross-functionally to convert customer and shopper insights into impactful route-to-market strategies while inspiring and developing an agile, high-performing team.
What are we looking for?Ideally, you’ll have 15–20 years of commercial and sales leadership experience within Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), with a proven track record in distributor management, customer partnerships, sales execution, and route-to-market (RTM) strategy across diverse African markets.
A completed university degree is required; an MBA or relevant post-graduate business qualification is strongly preferred.
Proven track record in full P&L ownership, financial acumen, and resource allocation across Traditional Trade, Modern Trade, and D-Commerce channels.
A strong, values-led people manager with proven experience in recruiting, mentoring, and developing diverse teams, succession planning, and driving high associate engagement.
A strategic thinker with strong negotiation, stakeholder engagement, and collaborative leadership capabilities who embodies an enterprise-first perspective.
Strategic Growth: Lead the formulation and execution of short- and long-term sales strategies across East Africa (with a key focus on Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania) to deliver category and market share growth for Mars Snacking.
Distributor & Customer Agenda: Strengthen strategic partnerships with distributors and retail customers, implementing optimized route-to-market, cost-to-serve, and category solutions across all retail channels.
P&L & Performance Ownership: Maintain full accountability for East Africa P&L delivery, managing Net Sales Value (NSV), Gross Margin, Controllable Contribution, and operational resource efficiency.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner closely with Strategic Demand, Supply, and Marketing teams to embed shopper and trade partner insights into integrated commercial plans and demand forecasts.
People & Team Leadership: Lead, inspire, and develop a team of 17 Associates (including 5 direct reports), fostering an inclusive, high-performance culture and building a robust talent pipeline for the region.
Enterprise Governance: Represent East Africa on the Africa Business Team and Sales Leadership Forum, contributing to broader Sub-Saharan Africa strategic initiatives, peer learning, and best-practice sharing.
Work with over 130,000 diverse and talented Associates, all guided by the Five Principles.
Join a purpose driven company, where we’re striving to build the world we want tomorrow, today.
Best-in-class learning and development support from day one, including access to our in-house Mars University.
An industry competitive salary and benefits package, including company bonus.
Skills Required
- 15–20 years of commercial and sales leadership experience within FMCG
- Experience in distributor management, customer partnerships, sales execution, and route-to-market strategy across African markets
- Completed university degree
- MBA or relevant postgraduate business qualification
- Full P&L ownership, financial acumen, and resource allocation experience
- Experience across Traditional Trade, Modern Trade, and D-Commerce channels
- Experience recruiting, mentoring, developing teams, succession planning, and driving associate engagement
- Strong negotiation, stakeholder engagement, strategic thinking, and collaborative leadership 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.
