Sr. Manager, Marketing Operations & Planning

Marketing brings our brand to life through deep expertise and an authentic love for pets. The team is dedicated to delivering personalized experiences for our consumers, supported by best-in-class, data-driven marketing capabilities.

The work spans key areas including Loyalty, Customer Analytics & Research, Brand Experience & Creative, and Omni-Channel Marketing. Each team member brings a unique perspective, working together to create meaningful and engaging experiences for both pets and pet parents.

Collaborative Work Environment: At Pet Smart, teamwork and connection are core to how we thrive. This role is based at our Phoenix Home Office, with an expectation of working a minimum of four days in the office each week. In a standard work week, associates may work up to one remote “flex day” (with leader approval). Our hybrid approach is designed to foster strong collaboration while also supporting flexibility and individual success.

The Sr. Manager, Marketing Operations & Planning leads the orchestration of Marketing’s role within Pet Smart’s Commercial Calendar, an enterprise planning process integrating Merchandising, Merchandise Planning & Allocation, Digital, and Marketing.

This role sits at the center of Pet Smart’s Marketing organization, which includes Loyalty, Customer Analytics & Research, Brand Experience & Creative, and Omni-Channel Marketing. It is accountable for ensuring cross-functional alignment, planning rigor, and execution readiness across key commercial milestones, with a strong emphasis on planning, effective recapping, and communication.

Operating within a highly matrixed environment, this leader drives enterprise integration, informs strategic decision‑making, and ensures Marketing plans are cohesive, insight‑driven, and aligned with business priorities.

Core Responsibilities

Enterprise Commercial Calendar Coordination

• Lead coordination of Commercial Calendar milestones within Marketing, in strong partnership across teams
• Ensure Marketing presentations & inputs for Commercial Calendar milestones are complete & high‑quality, with an active role in developing and consolidating content for later milestones, in partnership across Marketing & Digital team partners
• Represent Marketing in Commercial Calendar forums, gaining clarity as needed and then synthesizing key takeaways to effectively cascade to cross‑functional partners & Marketing teams
• Proactively & effectively lead coordination across Marketing teams to ensure adherence to the Commercial Calendar timelines

Lead Marketing Hindsight Processes

• Lead the quarterly hindsight process across Marketing, working with all cross‑functional Marketing partners to gather and effectively summarize results and learnings
• Synthesize cross‑channel performance, customer insights, and campaign outcomes into clear, actionable insights
• Translate learnings into recommendations that can inform future Commercial Calendar planning and marketing strategies
• Own the Weekly Business Recap for Marketing that pulls together key customer insights & marketing insights for each week

Campaign Planning & Strategic Briefing

• Lead development of strategic briefs for quick‑turn and category‑level campaigns aligned to commercial priorities
• Partner across channel & creative teams to pull together effective marketing plans & recap performance for these campaigns
  
  Effectively gather inputs from cross‑functional Merchandising & Digital teams to drive briefs & plans

Ongoing Improvement & Opportunity Identification

• Contribute to the evolution of team scope and capabilities over time, proactively identifying gaps and opportunities across operations & planning processes within Marketing
• Recommend solutions and team growth needs to address additional opportunities, with scope expected to expand to include direct people management as function grows

Qualifications

• 8–10+ years of experience in marketing operations, strategic planning, or related roles within complex, matrixed organizations
• Proven experience leading integrated planning processes across multiple marketing disciplines
• Strong strategic mindset paired with disciplined operational execution
• Excellent…