Brand Manager

Build your career at Sazerac! With almost 400 years of rich history, Sazerac Company has thrived as an independent, American family-owned company with operations in the United States and around the world. Since the 2000s, Sazerac has averaged double digit growth every year! Sazerac Company produces and markets the most award-winning bourbons and whiskeys in the world, including Buffalo Trace, Pappy Van Winkle, Eagle Rare, Blanton’s, and Sazerac Rye. Additionally, Sazerac owns many popular brands across a range of spirits, including Fireball, Southern Comfort, Seagram’s V.O., Myers’s, Goldschläger, Parrot Bay, 99 Brand, and Platinum Vodka. 

We’re proud of our award-winning culture and distilleries. Our Louisville office has been named one of the “Best Places to Work in Kentucky” four times, and our Buffalo Trace Distillery has earned the title of “world’s most award-winning distillery” through the dedication of our craftsmen for well over 200 years. Whether you’re a recent graduate or an experienced professional, Sazerac provides extraordinary opportunities for growth with competitive salaries and benefits in an exciting, entrepreneurial industry.

As a Brand Manager, you will own the strategy and commercial performance of our Ready-to-Drink brands, leading cross-functional teams to accelerate growth, strengthen brand equity, and deliver business results. This role emphasizes innovation, portfolio growth, and business ownership while developing future marketing talent through coaching and mentorship.

Lead Brand Strategy & Business Performance

• Own the strategic direction and commercial performance of one or more RTD brands, balancing long-term brand equity with short-term business results.
• Develop annual business plans that deliver volume, revenue, market share, and profitability objectives.
• Translate consumer, customer, and marketplace insights into growth strategies and actionable business plans.
• Monitor brand performance, identify opportunities and risks, and recommend actions to achieve business objectives.

Lead Innovation & Portfolio Growth

• Own the innovation pipeline for your brands, developing a multi-year innovation roadmap aligned with consumer trends, category opportunities, and business strategy.
• Identify whitespace opportunities across flavors, formats, occasions, packaging, and adjacent categories to drive incremental growth.
• Lead innovation from insight through commercialization, partnering across R&D, Operations, Finance, Supply Chain, Procurement, Regulatory, and Sales.
• Build compelling business cases for innovation investments, evaluating market opportunity, financial returns, and strategic fit.
• Manage stage-gate processes to ensure projects are delivered on time, within budget, and against business objectives.
• Evaluate post-launch performance and apply learnings to strengthen future innovation efforts.
• Partner with Commercial and Shopper Marketing teams to develop launch strategies that maximize customer adoption and consumer trial.

Operate as a Business Owner

• Manage brand forecasts, budgets, and marketing investments to maximize return on investment.
• Influence pricing, promotional strategy, portfolio decisions, and resource allocation.
• Partner closely with Finance to evaluate business performance and improve profitability.
• Collaborate with Sales to support annual planning, customer presentations, retailer programs, and commercial execution.
• Work with Operations and Supply Chain to ensure innovation and brand initiatives are supported by production and inventory readiness.

Lead Cross-Functional Teams

• Serve as the cross-functional leader for major business initiatives, aligning stakeholders around shared priorities.
• Build strong partnerships across Sales, Finance, Operations, R&D, Consumer Insights, Shopper Marketing, Supply Chain, and external partners.
• Influence without authority to remove obstacles and drive execution.
• Champion consumer-centric decision making throughout the organization.

Build the Brand

• Ensure all consumer-facing activity reinforces the brand positioning and supports business objectives.
• Provide strategic direction for creative development, packaging, digital content, shopper marketing, and consumer activation.
• Partner with our internal agency to develop compelling creative that builds awareness, trial, and loyalty.
• Ensure brand standards remain consistent across all touchpoints.

Develop Talent & Build Capability

• Coach and mentor Associate Brand Managers through regular feedback, project leadership, and career development.
• Build organizational capability by sharing best practices in innovation, commercial thinking, and brand management.
• Create opportunities for Associates to take increasing ownership while providing coaching and support.
• Foster a collaborative, high-performance culture built on accountability, curiosity, continuous improvement, and learning.
• Help onboard and develop new members of the marketing organization while strengthening cross-functional collaboration.

Required Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, or a related field.
• At least 5+ years of progressive experience in Brand Management, Marketing, Innovation, or Commercial Leadership, preferably within consumer products.
• Experience within beverage alcohol, Ready-to-Drink (RTD), consumer packaged goods (CPG), beer, wine & spirits, or adjacent consumer industries.
• Demonstrated success leading brand strategy and delivering measurable business results, including growth in volume, revenue, market share, or profitability.
• Experience leading cross-functional projects and influencing stakeholders across Sales, Finance, Supply Chain, Operations, R&D, and external agency partners.
• Strong analytical and financial acumen, including experience with forecasting, budget management, business case development, and ROI analysis.
• Experience utilizing syndicated data sources such as Circana, NielsenIQ, IRI, Numerator, or consumer panel data to drive business decisions.
• Experience working with advertising, media, creative, digital, or shopper marketing agencies.

Preferred Experience

• Experience developing and executing innovation pipelines, portfolio strategy, or commercialization roadmaps
• Experience presenting business recommendations to senior leadership.
• Experience coaching, mentoring, or developing early-career marketing talent.
• Experience working in highly matrixed organizations with multiple cross-functional stakeholders.

Culture and Benefits:

Sazerac offers a comprehensive compensation and benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, 401K, paid time off, and more. These benefits may vary depending on location and work type. Learn more about how we support our employees here.

The annual salary range for this role is $135,000- $200,000. Final compensation will be based on relevant experience, qualifications, geographic location, and internal pay equity considerations.

Sazerac is committed to equality of opportunity without regard to race, color, religion, national or ethnic origin, veteran status, age, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, genetic information, physical or mental disability or any other legally protected status.

What’s Next:

After you apply, a recruiter will review your application and reach out to qualified candidates. Selected candidates will follow our interview process, which may include a phone screen, hiring manager interview, and panel interviews with business leaders. There may be additional steps or assessments throughout the process dependent on the position. Applicants who are not selected to move through the process, at any stage, will be notified via email.

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