Vice President of Brand Strategy and Marketing

Vice President of Brand Strategy and Marketing:

At CAVA Support Centers we love what we do, and we try and make every day as fulfilling as the last. Our Support Center needs fanatics in tech, marketing, human resources, finance, operations, supply chain, and store development to support our growing brands.

We foster a culture built on five core values: 

• Positivity – Every one of us can change someone’s day for the better.   
• Transparency –We use transparency to help us make decisions through open dialogue
• Humility – We can always find ways to improve.
• Fanaticism – We are passionate about the opportunity to turn every guest into a fanatic.
• Thoughtfulness –We go above and beyond for our guests, our teams and communities. 

The Role:

The VP of Brand Strategy and Marketing will lead the team responsible for developing, implementing, and advancing the strategy, experience, voice, campaigns, and capabilities of our brands and our business lines. This role requires a digitally savvy brand leader who will identify guest and campaign insights to create stories that engage with our community and elevate CAVA’s mission, brand, and products. This is an opportunity to create guest-centric, culturally relevant, and memorable strategies and tactics that engage customers at every touchpoint.

The success of the work will be measured primarily through sales performance, NPS, brand awareness, frequency, and ROAS, with the long-term goal of increasing loyalty and brand visibility. Guest centric strategists with a pulse on culture and with disciplined metrics-driven decision making, balanced with the desire for breakthrough creative ideas will be successful and happiest in this role. 

Who you are:

• You must thrive in a complex, fast-paced, high pressure, growth environment. You gain energy from the opportunity to be part of a fast-growing and entrepreneurial business that has humble roots with infinite growth potential.
• You are equally a strategist and a storyteller with a tenured and successful portfolio of building awareness and igniting consumer action. You have a positive track record in leading brand strategy, building new ways of working and problem solving, inspiring and influencing your team and cross-functional teams, and working with executive and board-level leaders.
• You are fluent in brand financials and business metrics with a strong ability to glean actionable insights from sales and performance data and apply insights towards the development of compelling marketing strategies and briefs.
• You are curious about customers, culture, and competitors and envision the future by identifying areas of opportunity for innovation and team development. You are keeping up with the evolving digital and social media landscape and understand what it takes to mobilize consumers in this complex media environment.
• You are exceptionally skilled at driving a vision across the organization, you seek to develop relationships that enable success, and you proactively and creatively lead teams through problem-solving with a positive attitude.
• With an entrepreneurial and founder mindset, you are a resourceful self-starter who is willing to take on tasks outside of the role with a strong work ethic and adaptability towards change.

What You’ll Do:

• In alignment with Enterprise Key Initiatives, author marketing strategy briefs and annual/seasonal plans designed to meet sales goals and KPIs, and report regularly on progress against goals to leadership.
• Extract actionable insights from consumer research, business, and campaign performance data to understand the needs of the guest, the opportunities in the business, and in marketing effectiveness.
• Develop editorial programming and content strategy in partnership with media, channel strategists and creative vision team.
• Set measurable marketing performance goals, KPIs, and learning plans, and track performance, applying learnings to future work.
• Lead Brand Strategy and Marketing function by authoring and executing end to end brand marketing plans and campaigns across the full spectrum of owned, earned, physical and digital, experiential, and paid channels.
• Lead PR function by developing multi-disciplinary communications strategies for business, consumer, and internal audiences that advance and protect the organization’s corporate and executive reputation and enhance CAVA’s connection with our consumers.
• Lead Brand Partnerships function by proactively identifying opportunities for external partnerships that strengthen brand equity and loyalty.
• Lead Customer Experience (CX) team towards achieving high-performance metrics and identify opportunities for customer service and operational improvements as we scale the business.
• Lead the Project Management function to proactively identify process improvements for marketing planning and implementation, while seamlessly executing all projects end to end on time and on budget.
• Lead your overall team towards high-performance and ignite talent by mapping developmental roles and assignments for self and members of your team. Provide coaching to enable your team to hit performance goals and maximize their potential.
• Be a steward of our brands, ensuring all channels execute content in alignment with brand vision and standards.
• Effectively manage relationships with external marketing agencies, working collaboratively to deliver compelling results.
• Establish collaborative relationships within the marketing organization and with cross-functional leaders and experts across Data & Analytics, Media, Creative, Social, Enterprise Strategy, Tech, Culinary Innovation, Operations, Sourcing, and others.
• Own and steward the brand marketing and campaign budget.
• Drive the team to keep themselves abreast of industry trends and how they can be developed CAVA. Continuously think of new and out-of-the-box ways to improve our brand strategies to drive business results. Research and implement new techniques and technologies that help drive brand marketing, communications, and CX.
• Attract, recruit, coach, and retain top talent within your 7+ person team
• Takes ownership of departmental results, while fostering a culture of accountability among teams.

The Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree required, MBA a plus
• 10+ years of brand marketing, brand management, marketing communications, or advertising experience
• Must have experience in food, hospitality, retail, e-commerce, CPG, or direct-to-consumer, with a customer-first strategy
• Must have experience managing a team of 3+ people towards high performing achievements
• Must have experience working with agility in a high-pressure environment.
• Experience working for both a large enterprise and either a start-up or high-growth organization is a plus.
• Experience growing a brand/company from early-stage to strong market presence and significant revenue is a plus.
• Strong ability to develop collaborative relationships with multiple partners from executive to junior levels.
• Hands-on experience developing and executing integrated marketing campaigns
• Experience utilizing data and measurement to drive decisions
• Experience in PR/communication strategy and media planning
• Experience building & championing new marketing disciplines and teams
• Equally analytical and creative
• Detail-oriented and organized
• A proactive problem solver with a strong work ethic
• Ability to react quickly to new information and inspire teams to do the same

 Physical Requirements:

• Ability to maintain a stationary position to be able to operate a computer and other office equipment
• Must be able to identify, analyze and assess details
• For certain positions, must be able to occasionally move or transport items up to 50 pounds
• Ability to communicate with others and exchange information accurately and effectively
• Constantly positions self and move about to support ordinary restaurant or food production support or office operations, as applicable
• Ability to work in a constant state of alertness and in a safe manner  

What we offer: 

• Competitive salary, plus bonus and long-term incentives*
• Unlimited PTO, paid parental leave, plus paid opportunities to give back to the community
• Health, Dental, Vision, Telemedicine, Pet Insurance plus more!
• 401k enrollment with CAVA contribution
• Company-paid STD, LTD, Life and AD&D coverage for salaried positions*
• Free CAVA food
• Casual work environment
• The opportunity to be on the ground floor of a rapidly growing brand

*Indicates qualifying eligible positions only

CAVA – Joining “A culture, not a concept”

As an equal opportunity employer, CAVA considers applicants for all positions without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, age, height, weight, marital status, sexual orientation, familial status, genetic information, or any other characteristic or protected classes as defined by federal, state, or local law.

Vice President of Brand Strategy and Marketing:

At CAVA Support Centers we love what we do, and we try and make every day as fulfilling as the last. Our Support Center needs fanatics in tech, marketing, human resources, finance, operations, supply chain, and store development to support our growing brands.

We foster a culture built on five core values: 

• Positivity – Every one of us can change someone’s day for the better.   
• Transparency –We use transparency to help us make decisions through open dialogue
• Humility – We can always find ways to improve.
• Fanaticism – We are passionate about the opportunity to turn every guest into a fanatic.
• Thoughtfulness –We go above and beyond for our guests, our teams and communities. 

The Role:

The VP of Brand Strategy and Marketing will lead the team responsible for developing, implementing, and advancing the strategy, experience, voice, campaigns, and capabilities of our brands and our business lines. This role requires a digitally savvy brand leader who will identify guest and campaign insights to create stories that engage with our community and elevate CAVA’s mission, brand, and products. This is an opportunity to create guest-centric, culturally relevant, and memorable strategies and tactics that engage customers at every touchpoint.

The success of the work will be measured primarily through sales performance, NPS, brand awareness, frequency, and ROAS, with the long-term goal of increasing loyalty and brand visibility. Guest centric strategists with a pulse on culture and with disciplined metrics-driven decision making, balanced with the desire for breakthrough creative ideas will be successful and happiest in this role. 

Who you are:

• You must thrive in a complex, fast-paced, high pressure, growth environment. You gain energy from the opportunity to be part of a fast-growing and entrepreneurial business that has humble roots with infinite growth potential.
• You are equally a strategist and a storyteller with a tenured and successful portfolio of building awareness and igniting consumer action. You have a positive track record in leading brand strategy, building new ways of working and problem solving, inspiring and influencing your team and cross-functional teams, and working with executive and board-level leaders.
• You are fluent in brand financials and business metrics with a strong ability to glean actionable insights from sales and performance data and apply insights towards the development of compelling marketing strategies and briefs.
• You are curious about customers, culture, and competitors and envision the future by identifying areas of opportunity for innovation and team development. You are keeping up with the evolving digital and social media landscape and understand what it takes to mobilize consumers in this complex media environment.
• You are exceptionally skilled at driving a vision across the organization, you seek to develop relationships that enable success, and you proactively and creatively lead teams through problem-solving with a positive attitude.
• With an entrepreneurial and founder mindset, you are a resourceful self-starter who is willing to take on tasks outside of the role with a strong work ethic and adaptability towards change.

What You’ll Do:

• In alignment with Enterprise Key Initiatives, author marketing strategy briefs and annual/seasonal plans designed to meet sales goals and KPIs, and report regularly on progress against goals to leadership.
• Extract actionable insights from consumer research, business, and campaign performance data to understand the needs of the guest, the opportunities in the business, and in marketing effectiveness.
• Develop editorial programming and content strategy in partnership with media, channel strategists and creative vision team.
• Set measurable marketing performance goals, KPIs, and learning plans, and track performance, applying learnings to future work.
• Lead Brand Strategy and Marketing function by authoring and executing end to end brand marketing plans and campaigns across the full spectrum of owned, earned, physical and digital, experiential, and paid channels.
• Lead PR function by developing multi-disciplinary communications strategies for business, consumer, and internal audiences that advance and protect the organization’s corporate and executive reputation and enhance CAVA’s connection with our consumers.
• Lead Brand Partnerships function by proactively identifying opportunities for external partnerships that strengthen brand equity and loyalty.
• Lead Customer Experience (CX) team towards achieving high-performance metrics and identify opportunities for customer service and operational improvements as we scale the business.
• Lead the Project Management function to proactively identify process improvements for marketing planning and implementation, while seamlessly executing all projects end to end on time and on budget.
• Lead your overall team towards high-performance and ignite talent by mapping developmental roles and assignments for self and members of your team. Provide coaching to enable your team to hit performance goals and maximize their potential.
• Be a steward of our brands, ensuring all channels execute content in alignment with brand vision and standards.
• Effectively manage relationships with external marketing agencies, working collaboratively to deliver compelling results.
• Establish collaborative relationships within the marketing organization and with cross-functional leaders and experts across Data & Analytics, Media, Creative, Social, Enterprise Strategy, Tech, Culinary Innovation, Operations, Sourcing, and others.
• Own and steward the brand marketing and campaign budget.
• Drive the team to keep themselves abreast of industry trends and how they can be developed CAVA. Continuously think of new and out-of-the-box ways to improve our brand strategies to drive business results. Research and implement new techniques and technologies that help drive brand marketing, communications, and CX.
• Attract, recruit, coach, and retain top talent within your 7+ person team
• Takes ownership of departmental results, while fostering a culture of accountability among teams.

The Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree required, MBA a plus
• 10+ years of brand marketing, brand management, marketing communications, or advertising experience
• Must have experience in food, hospitality, retail, e-commerce, CPG, or direct-to-consumer, with a customer-first strategy
• Must have experience managing a team of 3+ people towards high performing achievements
• Must have experience working with agility in a high-pressure environment.
• Experience working for both a large enterprise and either a start-up or high-growth organization is a plus.
• Experience growing a brand/company from early-stage to strong market presence and significant revenue is a plus.
• Strong ability to develop collaborative relationships with multiple partners from executive to junior levels.
• Hands-on experience developing and executing integrated marketing campaigns
• Experience utilizing data and measurement to drive decisions
• Experience in PR/communication strategy and media planning
• Experience building & championing new marketing disciplines and teams
• Equally analytical and creative
• Detail-oriented and organized
• A proactive problem solver with a strong work ethic
• Ability to react quickly to new information and inspire teams to do the same

 Physical Requirements:

• Ability to maintain a stationary position to be able to operate a computer and other office equipment
• Must be able to identify, analyze and assess details
• For certain positions, must be able to occasionally move or transport items up to 50 pounds
• Ability to communicate with others and exchange information accurately and effectively
• Constantly positions self and move about to support ordinary restaurant or food production support or office operations, as applicable
• Ability to work in a constant state of alertness and in a safe manner  

What we offer: 

• Competitive salary, plus bonus and long-term incentives*
• Unlimited PTO, paid parental leave, plus paid opportunities to give back to the community
• Health, Dental, Vision, Telemedicine, Pet Insurance plus more!
• 401k enrollment with CAVA contribution
• Company-paid STD, LTD, Life and AD&D coverage for salaried positions*
• Free CAVA food
• Casual work environment
• The opportunity to be on the ground floor of a rapidly growing brand

*Indicates qualifying eligible positions only

CAVA – Joining “A culture, not a concept”

As an equal opportunity employer, CAVA considers applicants for all positions without regard to race, color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, age, height, weight, marital status, sexual orientation, familial status, genetic information, or any other characteristic or protected classes as defined by federal, state, or local law.