As Product Owner, you will lead the strategy, roadmap, design, delivery, and ongoing evolution of Mars’ Distributor Management Solution (DMS). You will partner with cross-functional teams across Sales, Route-to-Market, Supply Chain, Finance, Data, Technology, and local markets to build an integrated platform that improves distributor operations and strengthens sell-in to sell-out visibility.
Role Overview
You will own DMS for Mars’ Distributor and Indirect Route-to-Market ecosystem, translating business priorities into scalable global capabilities. The role emphasizes end-to-end product responsibility, global standardization with appropriate localization, and the integration of DMS with core enterprise systems and data platforms.
Responsibilities
- Define and own the DMS product vision, strategy, and multi-year roadmap aligned with global Route-to-Market and Sales transformation priorities.
- Translate business strategy and market needs into scalable global technology capabilities.
- Continuously assess emerging technologies, industry trends, and evolving distributor operating models to shape the future product roadmap.
- Own end-to-end DMS capabilities, including distributor onboarding, order management, secondary sales, inventory, pricing and schemes, claims, returns, credit/collections, and distributor performance.
- Drive standardization of core capabilities while enabling appropriate localization for different markets and Route-to-Market models.
- Manage the product backlog, epics, features, and user stories, including prioritization and release planning.
- Drive seamless integration between DMS, ERP, Retail Execution/SFA, TPM, B2B Commerce, Supply Chain, Finance, and enterprise data platforms.
- Establish reliable visibility across sell-in, distributor inventory, sell-out, retailer orders, and product availability.
- Partner with architecture and engineering teams to ensure scalable, secure, and reusable technology solutions.
- Develop AI-enabled capabilities such as smart replenishment, demand sensing, stock-out prediction, inventory optimization, anomaly detection, and next-best-action recommendations.
- Enable proactive exception management and increasingly automated distributor operations.
- Establish trusted distributor data to support analytics and AI-driven decision-making.
- Partner with regional and market teams to understand local distributor processes, regulatory requirements, and business needs.
- Lead product pilots, market deployments, localization, and capability adoption.
- Drive harmonization and reuse across markets while minimizing unnecessary customization.
- Establish product governance and mechanisms for capturing and prioritizing market feedback.
- Serve as the key technology product partner for Sales, Route-to-Market, Supply Chain, Finance, and Distributor Operations.
- Manage relationships with technology vendors, implementation partners, and internal engineering teams.
- Facilitate product governance and communicate roadmap, priorities, dependencies, risks, and product performance to senior stakeholders.
Requirements
- 8-10+ years of experience in Product Management, Sales Technology, Route-to-Market, Distributor Management, or related CPG capabilities.
- Strong understanding of CPG indirect distribution models, including distributors, wholesalers, sub-distributors, and traditional/general trade.
- Experience with DMS, SFA/Retail Execution, ERP, B2B Commerce, TPM, or related sales platforms.
- Proven experience defining product strategy and managing complex global product roadmaps and backlogs.
- Experience delivering technology products across multiple countries and diverse Route-to-Market models.
- Strong understanding of APIs, integration, data platforms, analytics, cloud technologies, and modern product architecture.
- Exposure to AI, GenAI, and agentic capabilities applied to Sales and Route-to-Market is preferred.
- Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence across business, technology, regional, and market organizations.
- Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or equivalent advanced degree preferred.
Key Success Measures
- Distributor and market adoption
- Secondary sales visibility and data quality
- Distributor inventory accuracy
- Product availability and reduction in stock-outs
- Order cycle time and fulfillment performance
- Distributor productivity and operational efficiency
- Global solution adoption and reduction of local technology fragmentation
- User satisfaction and product experience
- Business value delivered through automation and AI-enabled capabilities
Product Mission
Build a connected and intelligent Distributor Management ecosystem that provides end-to-end visibility from sell-in to sell-out and enables distributors and sales teams to make faster, smarter, data-driven decisions.
Leadership Capabilities
- Product Mindset: Focuses on business outcomes and user value rather than technology delivery alone.
- Strategic Thinking: Connects DMS capabilities to broader Sales and Route-to-Market transformation.
- Global-to-Local Leadership: Balances enterprise standardization with legitimate market requirements.
- Customer Centricity: Understands the needs of distributors, sales teams, retailers, and business stakeholders.
- Influence Collaboration: Leads effectively across complex global and cross-functional organizations.
- Innovation: Identifies opportunities to leverage data, AI, and automation to reinvent distributor operations.
Compensation and Benefits
- Pay range: USD 134,400 - 184,800 per year
- Variable pay
- Medical and dental benefits
- 401(k) participation
- Paid time off benefits
Location and Work Style
Chicago, IL (onsite)
