Job Description

INCLUSIVE BY DESIGN

At Zalando, our vision is to be inclusive by design. And this vision starts with our hiring - we do not discriminate on the basis of gender identity, sexual orientation, personal expression, ethnicity, religious belief, or disability status. You are welcome to leave out your picture, age, or marital status from your application. We only assess candidates on their qualifications and merit.

We want to provide you with a great candidate experience. Feel free to inform us of any accommodations you may need, so we can best support you throughout the hiring process.

do.BETTER - our diversity & inclusion strategy: https://corporate.zalando.com/en/our-impact/dobetter-our-diversity-and-inclusion-strategy

Our employee resource groups: https://corporate.zalando.com/en/our-impact/our-employee-resource-groups

THE ROLE & THE TEAM

The GTMM & Media Operations Team is a high-impact function dedicated to driving operational excellence, standardization, and efficiency across the entire marketing organization. Our mandate is clear: to enable Agile Execution & Optimisation by strengthening the foundational pillars of our marketing engine—our Processes, Marketing Partner and TechStack, and Operating Model.

As the Senior Marketing Operations Manager (focus Process Excellence & PMO), you will be the department's engine room, leading the end-to-end optimization of marketing processes. Your core objective will be to solve the "velocity gap" by re-engineering our campaign planning workflows to radically cut down end-to-end lead times and increase workflow and cost efficiencies. By identifying, building, and implementing standardized ways of working, project management methodologies, and automation capabilities, you will eliminate friction to ensure the department scales efficiently and future-proofs its.

WHAT WE'D LOVE YOU TO DO (AND LOVE DOING)

• Operating Model & Process Architecture: Design, document, and implement standardized, efficient marketing operational processes. You will dismantle internal bottlenecks and optimize critical campaign workflows to eliminate lengthy alignment loops and excessive approval rounds.
• Agile Enablement & Frictionless Velocity: Critically evaluate and challenge our current operational processes to remove "dead time" between approval gates. You will drive the shift away from rigid planning timelines toward flexible, faster-moving frameworks that allow teams to react quickly to market trends.
• The Centralized Marketing PMO: Establish and promote standardized project management methodologies, tools and best practices for cross-functional initiatives. Implement a centralized Marketing Operational Plan to serve as the single source of truth for all complex marketing projects and programs.
• Cross-Functional Stakeholder Orchestration: Serve as the core collaborative partner bridging functional silos across GTMM & Media, Creative and Design teams. You will enforce clear RACI frameworks, ensuring smooth team handoffs, clear project flow, and explicit expectation alignment.
• Innovation & Tooling Automation: Manage multi-functional projects related to process mapping and tool rollouts. Partner with our Senior MarketingTech Expert, Product and Tech teams to explore and integrate advanced automation and approved AI solutions into our workflow tracking to eliminate manual coordination friction.

WE'D LOVE TO MEET YOU IF

• You have 7+ years of relevant professional experience in Marketing Operations, Process Engineering, Operational Excellence, or leading a PMO within a large, matrixed, or fast-paced hyper-growth environment.
• You have a proven track record of mapping complex, fragmented workflows, identifying the root causes of operational drag, and implementing scalable solutions.
• You are comfortable with structural ambiguity and have an exceptional ability to manage concurrent, multi-functional projects with rigorous coordination and attention to detail.
• You possess strong coordination and relationship-building skills, with a demonstrated ability to influence leadership, manage diverse stakeholders, and navigate cross-functional alignments smoothly.
• You are a daring and strategic thinker who natively challenges the status quo and applies data-driven arguments to convince teams to break down silos and adopt new ways of working.
• Advanced expertise in enterprise project management architecture and workflow automation tools (e.g., Asana, Jira, Miro) is required.

OUR OFFER

Zalando provides a range of benefits, here’s an overview of what you can expect. Ask your Talent Acquisition Partner to learn more about what we offer.

• 27 days of holiday a year to start for full-time employees (+1 day for every calendar year up to 30 days)
• 2 paid volunteering days a year
• Employee shares programme
• 40% off fashion and beauty products sold and shipped by Zalando, 30% off Lounge by Zalando, discounts from external partners
• Relocation assistance available (subject to prior agreement)
• Family services, including counselling and support
• Health and wellbeing options (including Wellhub, formerly Gympass)
• Mental health support and coaching available
• Drive your development through our training platform and biannual peer-to-peer review

Learn all about Zalando and our values here: https://jobs.zalando.com/en/?gh_src=22377bdd1us