Senior Manager, Marketing Operations & Strategy

Senior Manager, Marketing Operations & Strategy

Location: Gliwice, Poland

About ESAB

Founded in 1904, ESAB Corporation is a premier global leader in connected fabrication technology and gas control solutions. Our history of innovative products, workflow solutions, and the ESAB Business Excellence operating system enables our purpose of Shaping the World We Imagine™. We’re looking for an exceptional operations leader to join our Global Marketing Communications team based in Gliwice, Poland.

The Role

This is a senior marketing operations leadership role. The Senior Manager, Marketing Operations & Strategy serves as the operational right hand to the Vice President of Global Marketing, ensuring the entire Marketing Communications department runs with precision, visibility, and momentum. You will own the systems, processes, resources, and financial infrastructure that allow a high‑performing global marketing team to do its best work – and you will do it with minimal oversight, maximum initiative, and a genuine passion for making complex organizations operate better. You will manage a small team based in India – one focused on day‑to‑day financial execution, one on project and request management – and you will serve as the connective tissue between the VP and the department’s four core sub‑functions: Product Marketing, Creative, Digital (website, paid media, analytics, content, and social), and regional Marketing Communications teams across North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East, India, and Asia Pacific. This role reports directly to the Vice President of Global Marketing.

What You’ll Own

• Department Operations & Strategy

  Own the architecture, governance, and adoption of Wrike, the department’s enterprise project management platform – ensuring every team uses it effectively, workflows are optimized, and the system provides real‑time visibility into workload and project status across the global team. Serve as the operational liaison to the heads of Product Marketing, Creative, Digital, and regional Marketing Communications teams – maintaining daily contact, identifying operational friction, and driving solutions independently before escalating only what the VP needs to know. Keep the VP fully informed through concise, well‑structured updates – shielding them from noise while ensuring nothing of consequence goes unaddressed. Anticipate needs, surface risks, and bring proposed solutions – not just problems.

• Resource Management

  Monitor and manage workload distribution across the global team, using time‑tracking data to prevent overallocation and protect against burnout. Build and maintain resource models that translate historical actuals into accurate project estimates, giving stakeholders and business partners realistic timelines and delivery schedules. Produce regular operational reporting – project throughput, team utilization, capacity trends – and use that data to drive continuous improvement in how the department plans and executes work.

• Financial Management

  Manage the full financial operating cycle for the Global Marketing Communications department: receiving invoices, creating and processing purchase orders, tracking actuals against budget, and coordinating with the VP through monthly reforecasting to keep spend on target. Own the department’s budget tracking infrastructure, including integration with SAP and Medius. Develop and present quarterly and annual reporting on department output, financial performance, efficiency gains, and initiative‑level impact – translating operational data into insights that demonstrate the function’s value to senior leadership.

• Team Leadership

  Directly manage two India‑based team members responsible for day‑to‑day financial processing and project request management, respectively. Coach, develop, and provide clear direction to ensure both reports are effective, growing, and well‑integrated into the broader global team.

Who You Are

• Are highly proactive – you identify what needs to happen and move on it before being asked.
• Communicate naturally and warmly – you enjoy conversation, thrive in brainstorming sessions, and know how to bring people along rather than just manage them to a deadline.
• Are a creative problem‑solver who can sit with ambiguity, think through options, and bring well‑reasoned recommendations to the table.
• Operate with a high degree of autonomy while keeping your manager appropriately informed – you know the difference between what needs visibility and what you should simply handle.
• Are comfortable presenting to senior leaders and skilled at translating operational complexity into clear, data‑backed narratives.
• Take genuine satisfaction in improving how things work – not just completing what’s in front of you.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing, Business Administration, Communications, Finance, or a related field.
• 7+ years of progressive experience in marketing operations, project management, or a senior operational leadership role within a marketing, marketing communications, or corporate communications function.
• Demonstrated experience managing people and leading cross‑functional initiatives across global teams.
• Proven track record of owning budget management, financial tracking, and operational reporting at a department level.
• Deep expertise with enterprise project management platforms (Wrike strongly preferred); familiarity with SAP, Medius, or comparable ERP systems.
• Strong data fluency – able to build and interpret operational dashboards, utilization reports, and financial models; Power BI experience a plus.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English; additional languages welcome.
• High emotional intelligence and interpersonal effectiveness – this role requires daily relationship‑building across functions, cultures, and time zones.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Enjoy building, optimizing, and owning operational systems that enable teams to perform at their best.
• Thrive in dynamic environments where priorities evolve and ambiguity is viewed as an opportunity to create structure and drive clarity.
• Love collaborating with a broad range of stakeholders and influencing across functions and levels of the organization.
• Are energized by solving complex challenges that span multiple teams and require both strategic thinking and hands‑on execution.
• Seek a broad, impactful role with the opportunity to shape processes, ways of working, and organizational effectiveness.