Senior Marketing Manager, KSA & MEA

At Valvoline Global Operations, we're proud to be The Original Motor Oil, but we've never rested on being first. Founded in 1866, we introduced the world's first branded motor oil, staking our claim as a pioneer in the automotive and industrial solutions industry. Today, as an affiliate of Aramco, one of the world's largest integrated energy and chemicals companies, we are driven by innovation and committed to creating sustainable solutions for a better future.

The Senior Manager, Marketing serves as the strategic marketing business partner to the KSA and MEA businesses, translating business priorities, commercial plans, annual OGSMs and building blocks into integrated market activation plans.

Responsibilities

Strategic Market Activation Leadership & Business Planning

• Partner with the KSA and MEA General Managers, Finance and commercial leaders to translate business plans, OGSM and building blocks into clear KSA and MEA activation roadmaps.
• Maintain separate activation priorities, budget views and performance rhythms for KSA and MEA, ensuring each P&L receives visible marketing ownership.
• Define market activation priorities across distributors, customers, channels, product launches, sponsorships, events and trade programmes.
• Establish governance, decision rights and operating disciplines that enable consistent delivery across KSA and MEA while respecting local market requirements.

Commercial Partnership

• Serve as the primary marketing counterpart for KSA and MEA business priorities, ensuring marketing activity supports revenue growth, sell-out, customer acquisition, market development and channel expansion.
• Influence business planning by providing activation expertise, market feedback, distributor insights and performance analysis.
• Prioritise requests across KSA and MEA based on commercial impact, readiness, return on investment and alignment with the agreed business plan.
• Build trusted relationships with Commercial, Sales, Finance, distributors, key customers and regional marketing capability teams.

Trade, Channel & Customer Activation

• Lead the development and execution of KSA and MEA trade marketing, distributor activation, key customer programmes, product launch activation, promotions and market development initiatives.
• Provide leadership to KSA trade resources and senior MEA trade marketing leads, ensuring clear ownership, delegated decision-making and strong local execution.
• Ensure campaigns, product value propositions, sponsorship assets and brand toolkits are translated into practical market activation plans for KSA and MEA.
• Develop and Manage Marketing investment governance by ensuring activities are commercially justified, documented, approved and measured against agreed outcomes.

Integrated Marketing Excellence & Localisation

• Partner with EMEA Brand & Campaign Strategy, Product Marketing, Digital, Intelligence and COE teams to ensure KSA and MEA needs are reflected in regional plans.
• Ensure regional brand and campaign platforms are adapted appropriately for local language, culture, channel and customer requirements while maintaining brand consistency.
• Support major regional transitions, product launches and sponsorship activations with clear local execution plans, customer engagement and sales enablement.
• Feed market learnings back into Brand, Product Marketing, Digital and Intelligence teams to strengthen future propositions, campaigns and commercial priorities.

Leadership, Performance & Investment Management

• Lead, coach and develop the KSA and MEA market activation and trade marketing teams, creating clear accountability across markets and channels.
• Own activation planning, investment governance and performance measurement for KSA and MEA market activation activity.
• Monitor budget usage, activation impact, campaign effectiveness and return on marketing investment, using data and insights to optimise future priorities.
• Identify execution risks, market gaps and capability needs, recommending corrective actions and improvements to strengthen KSA and MEA activation performance.

Requirements

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business Administration, Commercial Management or a related discipline is required.
• MBA or advanced business degree is preferred.

Experience

• Significant experience leading trade marketing, customer activation, commercial marketing, channel marketing or market development in complex multi-market environments. (10+ years).
• Strong commercial acumen, ideally with management of P&L
• Demonstrated success partnering with GMs and senior commercial leaders to translate business strategy into measurable activation plans and commercial outcomes.
• Experience leading teams across different markets and influencing stakeholders in a matrixed organisation.
• Proven experience managing marketing investments, agencies, distributor activation budgets and performance measurement.
• Experience in KSA, GCC, Middle East or Africa markets is strongly preferred; automotive, lubricants, industrial, B2B distribution or FMCG experience is an advantage.

Knowledge, Skills and Capabilities

• Strong strategic marketing and commercial business acumen, with the ability to operate across different market maturity levels.
• Expertise in trade marketing, distributor activation, customer engagement, channel development and integrated marketing planning.
• Ability to translate GM priorities into practical marketing activation roadmaps, building blocks, launch plans and execution standards.
• Strong financial, analytical and performance management capability, including budget discipline, investment governance and ROI measurement.
• Strong leadership, communication, influencing and stakeholder management skills across multicultural teams and markets.
• Ability to balance regional standards with local market, customer and cultural requirements.
• Professional fluency in English is required; Arabic language capability is a strong advantage.