Vice President of Marketing
Enterprise Commercial Leadership | Transforming Growth Across a $10B Food & Protein Business
The Opportunity
Wayne-Sanderson Farms is seeking an accomplished and visionary marketing executive to serve as Vice President of Marketing, reporting directly to the Chief Commercial & Supply Chain Officer.
This role represents a unique opportunity to shape the commercial future of one of the nation's largest vertically integrated food companies. As a key member of the enterprise leadership team, the Vice President of Marketing will influence how the organization transforms market insights, customer demand, innovation, and product strategy into profitable growth and long-term competitive advantage.
The successful candidate will lead a broad and highly visible organization spanning Brand Management, Product & Category Management, Insights & Analytics, Corporate Communications, and R&D/Culinary Innovation. This executive will play a pivotal role in optimizing portfolio performance, accelerating value-added growth, strengthening brand equity, and ensuring commercial strategies are aligned with operational capabilities across the enterprise.
This is an opportunity for a business leader who excels at operating at the intersection of strategy, execution, innovation, and cross-functional influence in complex manufacturing and supply chain environments.
Key Leadership Priorities
Drive Enterprise Growth Strategy
Lead the development and execution of marketing, category, and portfolio strategies that accelerate profitable growth while enhancing product mix, customer value, and market position.
Partner with executive leadership to identify opportunities for innovation, commercial expansion, and long-term value creation across both commodity and value-added product portfolios.
Shape the Future of the Portfolio
Provide strategic leadership across the product lifecycle, from innovation and commercialization through optimization and portfolio management.
Balance customer needs, market opportunities, and operational realities to ensure products are positioned for sustainable growth, profitability, and scalability.
Accelerate Value-Added Innovation
Champion innovation efforts that strengthen competitive differentiation and create additional value across the business.
Lead the integration of marketing, R&D, culinary innovation, operations, and sales to bring new products and solutions to market efficiently and successfully.
Transform Insights into Competitive Advantage
Build and elevate enterprise capabilities in market intelligence, consumer insights, category analytics, and commercial decision support.
Leverage data-driven insights to inform pricing, portfolio strategy, investment decisions, and growth initiatives across the organization.
Strengthen Brand and Market Presence
Lead enterprise brand strategy, positioning, communications, and marketing execution across all channels.
Ensure the organization's brands maintain relevance, consistency, and differentiation while supporting strategic business objectives.
Serve as a Strategic Enterprise Partner
Collaborate closely with Commercial, Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, and Customer teams to align demand creation with supply realities and business objectives.
Act as a trusted advisor to senior leadership on market trends, customer dynamics, portfolio strategy, and growth opportunities.
Lead and Develop a High-Performing Organization
Build and inspire a high-performing, multifunctional team while developing future leaders and strengthening organizational capabilities.
Create a culture of accountability, innovation, agility, and collaboration that supports enterprise growth objectives.
What Success Looks Like
The Vice President of Marketing will be recognized for:
- Accelerating profitable growth across the portfolio
- Expanding value-added products and solutions
- Improving portfolio mix and margin performance
- Building world-class commercial and marketing capabilities
- Elevating enterprise insights and strategic decision-making
- Strengthening brand differentiation and customer relevance
- Developing a strong leadership bench and succession pipeline
- Enhancing collaboration across Commercial, Operations, and Supply Chain functions
Qualifications & Experience
Executive Leadership Experience
- 15+ years of progressive leadership experience within food manufacturing, protein, consumer packaged goods, or related industries
- Proven success leading marketing, category management, product strategy, commercial excellence, or business leadership functions
- Experience influencing enterprise strategy and operating effectively within complex, matrixed organizations
- Demonstrated track record of driving profitable growth, portfolio optimization, and value-added innovation
Commercial & Strategic Expertise
- Deep understanding of product commercialization, category strategy, branding, and market development
- Strong financial acumen with experience managing performance through a P&L lens
- Ability to translate market opportunities into executable business plans and measurable results
- Experience partnering closely with Operations, Supply Chain, Finance, and Sales organizations
Preferred Experience
- Poultry, protein, food manufacturing, agriculture, or other vertically integrated industries
- Commodity and value-added product portfolios
- USDA or highly regulated manufacturing environments
- Innovation, R&D, and product development leadership
Leadership Capabilities
- Enterprise mindset with the ability to balance strategic vision and operational execution
- Exceptional executive presence and communication skills
- Strong organizational leadership and talent development capabilities
- Collaborative, influential leadership style capable of driving alignment across diverse stakeholder groups
- Data-informed and results-oriented decision maker
Education
- Bachelor's degree required
- Master's degree or MBA preferred
Why Wayne-Sanderson Farms
Wayne-Sanderson Farms is one of the largest poultry producers in the United States, serving customers across retail, foodservice, and international markets. With a commitment to operational excellence, innovation, and sustainable growth, we offer executives the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on a large-scale, vertically integrated enterprise.
As Vice President of Marketing, you will help shape the future direction of our portfolio, brands, and commercialization strategy while partnering with a talented leadership team focused on delivering long-term growth and value creation.
We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
Skills Required
- 15+ years of experience in food manufacturing, protein, or related industries
- Senior leadership experience across marketing, product, or commercial strategy
- Demonstrated success driving margin improvement, portfolio optimization, and value-added growth
- Deep experience partnering with Operations and Supply Chain
- Bachelor's degree in Marketing, Communications, Business, or a related field
- Experience in poultry or broader protein environments
- Experience in USDA-regulated environments
- Experience overseeing R&D and innovation functions
- Experience across both commodity and value-added businesses
- Strong financial acumen and P&L understanding
- Strategic, commercially oriented leadership style
- Ability to align market demand with operational reality
- Confident decision-making in complex, commodity-driven environments
- Strong executive presence and influence across peers and leadership
- Data-driven, results-oriented mindset
- Master's degree
Wayne-Sanderson Farms Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Wayne-Sanderson Farms and has not been reviewed or approved by Wayne-Sanderson Farms.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is often characterized as fair or competitive for the local area, especially for entry-level plant roles. Overtime opportunities and shift premiums can materially improve take-home pay where available.
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Affordable Benefits — Benefits are frequently described as affordable, with health and dental coverage viewed as a relative strength of the overall package. The breadth of options is often positioned as a meaningful offset to the baseline wage for many roles.
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Retirement Support — The retirement program is positioned as a standout feature, with automatic enrollment and a dollar-for-dollar match on the first 4% of pay. External recognition of the plan’s design reinforces perceptions of a strong retirement offering.
Wayne-Sanderson Farms Insights
What We Do
Wayne-Sanderson Farms is an industry leader and the nation’s third-largest poultry producer, serving customers, consumers and communities with integrity, leadership and responsible farm, workplace and business practices. With a diverse portfolio of products, a strong operating culture and an industry-leading workforce of more than 26,000 people, Wayne-Sanderson Farms owns and operates 23 fresh and further-processing facilities across Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Texas. Wayne-Sanderson Farms produces affordable, high-quality poultry products for retail, foodservice, restaurant, industrial and institutional segments under the brand names of WAYNE FARMS® fresh and prepared chicken; SANDERSON FARMS® fresh chicken; COVINGTON FARMS® fresh and frozen chicken; PLATINUM HARVEST® premium fresh chicken; CHEF’S CRAFT® gourmet chicken; and NAKED TRUTH® premium chicken. For more information. visit our website at http://www.waynesandersonfarms.com
