Around 8 years or more of experience in media, communication and content, including senior client-side responsibility, with ownership of a budget and accountability for business outcomes from an activation plan.
Experience leading brand growth in a competitive, fast-moving consumer market, ideally food, pet food or other fast-moving consumer goods.
Deep working knowledge of the French media landscape, including media players, negotiation dynamics, retail and retail media environments, and French consumer behavior.
Fluent French and confident professional English, with the ability to operate in an international matrix while advocating for the local market.
Ability to build brands and deliver commercial performance across the full funnel.
Fluency in organic and creator-led growth alongside paid media, and understanding of how creative quality drives media efficiency.
Comfort with marketing mix modelling, incrementality and experiment design, and ability to interrogate models critically.
Practical experience applying AI across targeting and planning, buying, creative production and measurement, with judgment about where it adds value.
Ability to form and communicate a clear position, collaborate, and lead partners and colleagues with empathy and motivation.
Care about pets and the people who love them, reflected in the quality standards applied to the work.
Responsibilities
Own French media investment end to end, determining budget sufficiency, allocation across brands and audiences, quarterly investment, and expected returns; build and defend the investment case using competitive share of voice, category dynamics, platform reach and frequency thresholds, and visibility costs.
Recommend investment allocation across the portfolio and channels, including where to over-invest and where to stop spending.
Use marketing mix modelling, incrementality testing and causal measurement to shift investment toward demonstrably effective activity and communicate results in business terms.
Prepare quantified investment recommendations for the annual strategy cycle and in-year re-forecasting, and take accountability for them.
Design integrated paid media architecture across brands and channels, translating the global brand frame into a French market strategy.
Develop retail media as a growth driver, connecting Grocery and Specialized channels, including pet shops and veterinary clinics, across the consumer journey.
Apply data enrichment and AI-mediated optimization with partners and platforms.
Own audience strategy, including first-party data, segmentation, overlap control, personalization and compliant data practices in the French and European context.
Set and enforce platform standards for mobile-first native formats, attention and viewability, brand safety and creative specifications by placement.
Lead media negotiation and commercial terms in the French market.
Own organic growth in France across social platforms, communities, reviews and ratings, with targets.
Build and direct the creator and influencer ecosystem, including selection, briefing, rights, disclosure and measurement.
Run day-to-day social governance covering sentiment, trending topics, responses and escalation.
Develop social commerce as a revenue path, assessing what fails, scales and warrants further investment.
Set and uphold France's creative effectiveness standards for distinctive, branded and emotionally resonant work built for each platform.
Direct the content supply chain with creative and content partners, ensuring local relevance, speed, volume and cost per asset, and use AI where it improves or accelerates the work.
Connect brand communication and media so creative ideas and distribution are designed together.
Build a French content and learning library so campaigns can use prior learning.
Lead the full French agency ecosystem across media, digital, eCommerce, content and creators as one operating model.
Establish partner routines, follow-ups and briefing standards, giving partners context and clarity while holding them accountable for outcomes.
Set partner quality and service standards and review rhythms, and decisively address performance issues.
Develop joint business plans with global platforms, covering commercial value, early access to capabilities and betas, and structured test-and-learn commitments.
Represent France as country champion in the global company and participate as an equal partner with Global Brand Directors and global partners.
Align French commercial, category, shopper and eCommerce teams so communication investment supports commercial realities.
Grow capability within the team, among partners and across the wider French organization, and support others' development.
Description
The ROLE
France is one of Affinity's most important growth markets. We are not looking for someone to run media plans in it. We are looking for the person who will grow our brands in it.
This role owns the full communication engine for France: how much we invest, where we invest it, what we say, how the work gets made, and what it returns. Paid, owned and earned. Brand and performance. Grocery and Specialized. From the first impression to the basket, and from the basket to a lasting bond between a French household and our brands.
You will be empowered accordingly. Global brand teams set the growth frame and the brand truth; you decide how France wins inside it. You build the budget, you set the strategy, you direct the partners, and you own the result. That is the deal: real ownership, real room to act, real accountability.
What you will own
01Media Investment Strategy
Own the French media investment end to end: how much is sufficient, against which brands and audiences, in which quarters, and what it has to return. Build and defend the sufficiency case with evidence rather than convention: competitive share of voice, category dynamics, minimum reach and frequency thresholds per platform, and the cost of being invisible.
Recommend the allocation logic across our portfolio and channels, where we deliberately over-invest to win, and where we stop spending.
Use marketing mix modelling, incrementality testing and causal measurement to move money towards what demonstrably works, and to prove it in the language the business speaks.
Bring a clear, quantified investment recommendation into the annual strategy cycle and into in-year re-forecasting, and stand behind it.
02Full Funnel Strategy
Design the integrated paid architecture across brands & channels, translating the global brand frame into a French strategy that reflects how this market actually shops, chooses and buys.
Make retail media a genuine growth driver, connecting Grocery and Specialized (pet shops and veterinary clinics) into one continuous consumer journey.
Unleash the power of data enrichment and AI-mediated optimisation with partners and platforms.
Own audience strategy end to end: first-party data, segmentation, overlap control, personalisation, and rigorous, compliant data practice in the French and European context.
Set and enforce the platform golden rules, mobile-first native formats, attention and viewability standards, brand safety, creative specification per placement.
Lead negotiation and commercial terms in the French market with real command of the players.
03Organic, Social & Community
Own our organic presence in France as a growth channel with targets: social platforms, communities, reviews and ratings, etc.
Build and direct the creator and influencer ecosystem: selection, briefing, rights, disclosure, measurement, held to the same standard of rigour as paid.
Run a day-to-day social governance rhythm covering sentiment, trending topics, response and escalation.
Develop social commerce as a real revenue path, with a clear view of what fails, what scales and what deserves investment next.
04Creative & Content Excellence
Creatives are half of the game to be won: Set the creative effectiveness bar for France and defend it: distinctive, unmistakably branded, emotionally true to the bond between people and their pets, and built for the platform it runs on.
Direct the content supply chain with our creative and content partners, ensuring local relevance, speed, volume and cost per asset, using AI where it makes the work better or faster.
Bridge brand communication and media so that idea and distribution are designed together rather than sequentially.
Build a French content and learning library so that every campaign starts from what we already know.
05Partner Leadership
Lead the full agency ecosystem in France: media, digital, eCommerce, content, creator, as one operating model.
Build routines & follow-ups, and set briefing standards: give partners clarity, context and room to think, then hold them to outcomes.
Set the quality bar, the service standards and the review rhythm; escalate and correct decisively, and without drama, when performance slips.
Unlock joint business plans with the global platforms: commercial value, early access to new capability and betas, and structured test-and-learn commitments.
06Leadership & Influence
Act as the country champion for France in the global company: an equal partner in dialogue with Global Brand Directors and global partners.
Bring the French commercial, category, shopper and eCommerce teams with you, so that communication investment and commercial reality reinforce each other.
Grow capability around you in your team, in your partners, and in the wider French organisation, and always make others better.
What we are looking for
The person who succeeds here will most likely bring:
Proven ownership of a market
Around 8 years or more in media, communication and content, including senior client-side responsibility. You have owned a budget and been accountable for a business outcome caused by an activation plan.
Experience leading brand growth in a competitive, fast-moving consumer market, ideally food/ petfood or broader fast-movers.
Genuine command of France
Deep working knowledge of the French media landscape: the players, the negotiation dynamics, the retail and retail media environment, and how French consumers actually behave.
Fluent French and confident professional English; comfortable operating in an international matrix without losing the local argument.
Brand and performance in one head
Demonstrated ability to build brands and deliver commercial performance at the same time, across the full funnel.
Real fluency in organic and creator-led growth alongside paid, and in how creative quality drives media efficiency.
Evidence-led by instinct
Comfortable with marketing mix modelling, incrementality and experiment design; able to interrogate a model rather than accept its output as given.
Practical experience applying AI across targeting/planning, buying, creative production and measurement, with a clear sense of where it adds value and where it does not.
The leadership character
You form a view and take a position. You are direct, you are collaborative, and you can hold both at once.
You lead partners and colleagues with empathy & motivation, and you make the people around you better.
You care about pets and the people who love them, and it shows in the standard you hold the work to.
What we offer
Hybrid working model
Flexible working hours
Ticket Restaurants
Pension plan
Fully equipped gym
Breakfast and fresh fruit
Affinity University platform: professional development opportunities for employees at different stages of their careers, acknowledging diverse career paths
Pet-friendly office
Celebrations and fun
If you don't meet every single point above, don't rule yourself out. We value diverse backgrounds and career paths, and every application is reviewed thoughtfully.
We cultivate an inclusive culture that celebrates diversity. We firmly believe that embracing a variety of perspectives is integral to both our company's success and the strength of our team. That's why we are committed to providing equal opportunities for all.
Our company
Affinity Petcare is more than an international petfood company. For more than 60 years, we have been dedicated to nourishing healthy bonds between dogs, cats and people, to make the world a better place.
We are very proud of our innovative brands, which include Ultima, Advance, Brekkies, Nature's Variety, Nature's Menu, Natural Trainer, Libra and more. Today, over 1,200 professionals work towards this purpose from Barcelona, Paris, Milan and London, alongside four production sites through which we supply the 70+ countries where our brands are present.
So, what are you waiting for? Join our team and leave your footprint.
Want to know more about us? Follow us on LinkedIn for the latest updates and job opportunities, and on Instagram to see life at Affinity and hear from our team. @affinitycareers