PPWR One Demand Programme Manager (2-year Assignment)

PPWR One Demand Programme Manager (2-year Assignment)

At Mars, we have been making brands that put smiles on people’s faces and creating better moments for millions of people in the UK for over 90 years, and we want to be able to do the same for the next 100 years.  That is why we are reinventing our category today, to better represent our business tomorrow.

The One Demand PPWR Programme Manager role, reporting into the PPWR Programme Director, is responsible for coordinating the One Demand functions and Cluster’s approach to PPWR compliance. The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) is a regulation designed to reduce packaging waste by setting binding EU wide rules on packaging reduction, recyclability, reuse, and recycled content across the full packaging lifecycle.  This role will bring together the One Demand functions in the region (Customer, Sales, Marketing) and our markets and Clusters, to bring visibility and clarity of the One Demand compliance roadmap across the business and drive execution across all Markets to ensure timely business compliance to PPWR. In addition, the role will lead the One Demand PPWR communications and engagement agenda, ensuring stakeholders across Functions, Clusters and Markets are informed, aligned, and prepared to successfully deliver the changes required for PPWR compliance.

What are we looking for?

We are seeking an experienced senior programme manager with a proven track record of leading complex, cross-functional projects and programmes with a broad range of stakeholders and high level of ambiguity.

The ideal candidate will bring operational excellence and a passion for driving results in a dynamic environment, ideally in a demand-facing contexts.

Key Qualifications:

·       Extensive Project Leadership experience: Demonstrated success in managing and delivering complex, high-impact projects on time and within scope. Experience leveraging existing governance and synchronising processes and creating new governance structures, where required. Leading proactive risk management in highly ambiguous setting.   Leveraging and coaching the project team through chosen project management tools, including Agile, to deliver the best outcome for the business.

·       Interdependency Management: Ability to identify and assess interdependencies at a large-scale Programme level, clearly demonstrated expertise in interdependency management, including mapping, tracking, and resolving cross-programme impacts with minimal noise.

·       Team Leadership & Influence: Proven ability to lead, inspire, and align cross-functional teams, fostering collaboration and accountability to achieve project goals, across multiple functions and markets.

·       Perspective & Proactive: Able to provide a broad perspective to help join the dots of the impact of PPWR across the organisation (e.g. break functional silos) able to proactively drive understanding and enable speed of decision making with key stakeholders.

·       Digital-First Mindset: Proficient in leveraging digital project management tools, dashboards, and collaboration platforms to enhance visibility, streamline workflows, and support data-informed decisions.

·       Resilience & Agility: Self-motivated and decisive, with the ability to navigate ambiguity, adapt quickly to change, and maintain momentum in a fast-paced, evolving environment.

·       Communication & Change Leadership: Strong communication and stakeholder engagement skills, with experience translating complex topics into clear, audience-relevant messaging. Proven ability to develop communication plans, influence stakeholders at all levels, and drive understanding, alignment, and adoption during large-scale transformation programmes.

What will be your key responsibilities?

As a senior programme manager, you will lead x-functional meetings and forums to enable key PPWR deliverables, creating and standing up the One Demand structure (resources and forums) to deliver to PPWR at a programme level from Factory to Customer, including market co-pack. Your responsibilities will include:

·       Executive Communication: Create programme dashboard to track and communicate progress, highlight risks and capture benefits.  Shape and deliver clear, concise project updates and recommendations to senior leadership (e.g. ODLT, Functional LTs) and governance forums. Ensure clear process for timely follow up of agreed actions within One demand team.  Lead the One Demand PPWR communications and training plan, ensuring consistent, timely and audience-appropriate communication of programme priorities, decisions, milestones, risks, and required training and actions across Clusters, Markets and One Demand functions

·       Stakeholder Engagement & Change Communications: In partnership with Corporate Affairs colleagues, develop communication materials and engagement activities to build awareness, understanding and readiness for PPWR changes, ensuring consistent messaging across our business and clear feedback mechanisms. Ensure leaders are equipped with clear messages and materials to effectively cascade updates across their organisations.

·       Governance: Guide project teams through business governance, including escalation processes, and balance quality, risk, timing, cost and resource to support sound decision-making.  Define and align any additional governance, including identifying and aligning the organisational structure required to oversee programme tracking, decision-making, and resource recommendations to successfully implement all phases of PPWR.

·       Leadership of x-function One Demand Meetings & Forums: lead and facilitate x-functional One Demand teams to shape and align approach to deploy PPWR across all Markets, ensuring one-voice output and action plan. Driving visibility of progress against KPIs, highlighting deviations and facilitating discussions towards compliance.  Ensure regular learning reviews are conducted and shared, pivoting our approach based on key insights.

·       Lead Working Groups for PPWR Deliverables: Project manage PPWR projects, leading x-functional working groups to deliver to PPWR compliant solutions for Market Co-pack, harmonised strategy to win with customers, protect distribution and minimise NQCs and impact to CSL.  Lead coordination of development and deployment of One Demand market activation toolkits/guidelines and facilitation of Cluster/Market feedback to capture ongoing needs to enable clear Customer communication and Clusters have all enablers to execute PPWR changes with their customers.

·       Risk & Feasibility Management: Lead robust risk and issue management process, ensuring clear accountability for resolutions, track proactive mitigations and corrective actions, ensure senior leaders are clear on the evolving risk profile of the programme, escalating for decisions or support to minimise business impact.    Leverage S&OP+ to balance PPWR compliance alongside innovation, ensuring priorities and recommendations are communicated to all relevant stakeholders.

What can you expect from Mars?

• Work with diverse and talented Associates, all guided by The Five Principles.

• Join a purpose-driven company, where we’re striving to build the world we want tomorrow, today.

• A strong focus on learning and development support from day one, including access to our in-house Mars University.

• An industry-competitive salary and benefits package, including a company bonus.

Mars is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable adjustments for individuals with disabilities, long-term health conditions, or who are neurodiverse during the application and recruitment process. To request reasonable adjustments, complete our Reasonable Adjustment Request Form here.