Digital Merchandiser & Graphic Designer - Petcare (Canada)

Job Description:

The Digital Merchandiser & Graphic Designer plays a critical part in bringing the iconic Mars Petcare portfolio (including beloved brands such as PEDIGREE®, IAMS®, CESAR®, WHISKAS®, SHEBA®, and TEMPTATIONS™) to life online across our digital commerce retailer websites. In addition to driving digital commerce excellence and category growth in service of our purpose - A Better World for Pets - this is a hybrid role bridging operational digital shelf management with hands-on visual content creation. The role leverages traditional graphic design expertise alongside modern Generative AI workflows to deliver engaging, pet-parent-centric, and high-converting digital shopping experiences.

The successful candidate will be responsible for maintaining a best-in-class digital shelf presence across key retail partners, including Amazon, Walmart, PetSmart, Instacart, etc. Concurrently, this individual will act as an in-house visual creator, designing and producing digital assets - including Product Detail Page (PDP) enhanced content, hero images, mobile-ready carousels, feeding guide infographics, and promotional banners - while leveraging analytics to optimize performance, drive conversion, and elevate brand equity.

This is a hybrid role based out of our Canadian head office in Bolton, Ontario. Flexibility is a key enabler - empowering associates to make choices that support both business outcomes and personal needs, including remote work.

What are we looking for?

• Post-secondary education in Graphic Design, Digital Marketing, eCommerce, Marketing, or a related field.
• 2 to 4 years of hands-on experience in digital merchandising, digital shelf management, and/or digital graphic design (CPG, pet specialty, agency, or retail experience preferred).
• Strong technical proficiency in Adobe Creative Cloud (particularly Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign) with a portfolio demonstrating commercial layout, typography, photo retouching, and product staging.
• Practical experience incorporating Generative AI creative tools (e.g., Adobe Firefly, Midjourney, Photoshop Generative Fill) to accelerate visual content concepting, pet lifestyle background staging, and asset variations.
• Strong proficiency navigating key vendor and content management platforms (e.g., Amazon Vendor Central, Salsify, Syndigo, Walmart Supplier One)
• Familiarity or hands-on experience with digital shelf analytics and benchmarking tools such as Profitero and NIQ Digital Shelf for tracking digital store health and competitive performance.
• Passion for pets and an understanding of pet-parent shopper journeys, claims, and pack-communication dynamics (e.g., life-stage nutrition, ingredient callouts, flavor varieties, feeding guidelines).
• Strong analytical mindset with the ability to translate digital shelf scorecards and conversion metrics into actionable visual and catalogue enhancements.
• Proven project management skills, meticulous attention to detail, and a commitment to maintaining high visual standards and brand compliance on tight deadlines.

 

What will be your key responsibilities?

Digital Shelf & Content Management:

• Own the end-to-end management, maintenance, and syndication of digital product catalogues across major pureplay, omnichannel, and pet-specialty retail platforms.
• Manage and optimize the end-to-end product data lifecycle within Salsify PXM, ensuring absolute data accuracy, consistency, and completeness across all digital touchpoints (customer site and brand-owned sites)
• Build, maintain, and publish optimized product content syndication channels to major retailer and e-commerce endpoints (e.g., Amazon, Walmart, etc.), ensuring strict compliance with unique retailer schemas.
• Ingest, transform, and enrich raw product data from ERP, PLM, or DAM systems into Salsify, utilizing formulas, inheritance rules, and bulk-import workflows.
• Serve as the dedicated subject matter expert for Salsify, Amazon Vendor Central, and Walmart Supplier One.
• Proactively audit listings, identify, troubleshoot, and resolve backend catalogue issues, including content errors, listing suppressions, broken variations, out-of-date packaging renders, and availability discrepancies.
• Drive "Perfect Digital Store" execution across retail partners, continuously optimizing search visibility, taxonomy, category placement, nutritional search attributes, and content completeness.
• Partner with Sales and Customer Marketing teams to ensure all new product innovations, seasonal multipacks, and promotional SKUs are launched on time with complete, retailer-compliant digital assets.

Graphic Design & AI Content Creation:

• Design and produce high-quality, mobile-optimized visual assets for Product Detail Pages (PDPs), including hero packaging imagery, benefit callout tiles, nutritional breakdown carousels, and Amazon A+ / Enhanced Brand Content (EBC).
• Leverage Generative AI creative workflows (such as Adobe Firefly and Midjourney) for rapid ideation, composite lifestyle backgrounds featuring dogs and cats, contextual feeding scenarios, and seasonal campaign variations.
• Maintain complete brand consistency across all touchpoints, adhering strictly to Mars Petcare brand visual identities, regulatory labeling standards, and retailer technical specifications.
• Manage and organize the internal digital asset management (DAM) system and master design files, ensuring cross-functional teams have easy access to approved, production-ready creative.
• Adapt and localize national brand campaign assets and packaging graphics into commercial, click-worthy digital retail banners and point-of-sale assets.

Content Strategy & Optimization:

• Develop and execute digital merchandising strategies that enhance the online pet-parent shopping journey and drive sales conversion across Pureplay, Omnichannel, and On-Demand Delivery channels.
• Implement A/B testing on visual assets (e.g., packaging angles, benefit badges, flavor descriptors) to determine optimal creative resonance and conversion uplift.
• Collaborate with internal Brand, Consumer Experience, and agency partners to align on asset briefing, content syndication timelines, and digital shelf best practices.
• Monitor competitor activities, pet industry trends, and retailer algorithmic shifts to recommend proactive creative and merchandising optimizations.
• Identify and close content gaps by translating Genrise generated briefs into actionable updates that serve human shoppers, AI assistants (e.g., Amazon Rufus), and autonomous buying agents simultaneously.
• Leverage real-time SEO grading features to perform on-page optimization - including keyword density, meta descriptions
• Manage the "human-in-the-loop" approval pipeline, reviewing AI-generated drafts from Genrise and Writer AI for absolute factual accuracy, compliance, and claims validation before pushing live

dComm Analytics & Reporting:

• Leverage Profitero and NielsenIQ (NIQ) to measure, audit, and benchmark digital shelf performance across key retail accounts, monitoring KPIs such as search rank, out-of-stock (OOS) rates, share of search, and content integrity.
• Track and report on "Perfect Digital Store" scores to pinpoint SKU-level optimization opportunities, prioritizing PDP image refreshes and copy enhancements.
• Translate digital shelf scoring insights into data-driven design recommendations and merchandising action plans that improve discoverability and add-to-cart conversion.
• Lead total dComm digital shelf scorecard reporting every period and support monthly business reviews with cross-functional commercial partners.
• Liaise with Global dComm team for best-in-class strategy and measuring content with focus on content completion and effectiveness scorecard.

 

What can you expect from Mars?

• Work with over 130,000 diverse and talented Associates, all guided by the Five Principles (Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency, and Freedom) and united by our purpose: A Better World for Pets.
• Pet-friendly office culture, celebrating our four-legged family members.
• Best-in-class learning and development support from day one, including access to our in-house Mars University.
• An industry-competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package, including company bonus.

The base pay range for this position at commencement of employment is expected to be between the below range CAD 71,111.00 - CAD 93,333.00. Please note: This job posting is for an existing vacancy. AI is used as a supporting tool in our recruitment process.