Digital Merchandiser & Graphic Designer - Petcare (Canada)

<div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><p style="text-align:left"><b>Job Description:</b></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><p>The <b>Digital Merchandiser &amp; Graphic Designer</b> plays a critical part in bringing the iconic <b>Mars Petcare</b> 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—<i>A Better World for Pets</i>—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.</p><br /><p>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.</p><br /><h3>This is a <b>hybrid role</b> based out of our Canadian head office in <b>Bolton, Ontario</b>. Flexibility is a key enabler—empowering associates to make choices that support both business outcomes and personal needs, including remote work.</h3><p><b> </b></p><h1><b>What are we looking for?</b></h1><br /><ul><li>Post-secondary education in Graphic Design, Digital Marketing, eCommerce, Marketing, or a related field.</li><li>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).</li><li>Strong technical proficiency in Adobe Creative Cloud (particularly Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign) with a portfolio demonstrating commercial layout, typography, photo retouching, and product staging.</li><li>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.</li><li>Strong proficiency navigating key vendor and content management platforms (e.g., Amazon Vendor Central, Salsify, Syndigo, Walmart Supplier One)</li><li>Familiarity or hands-on experience with digital shelf analytics and benchmarking tools such as <b>Profitero</b> and <b>NIQ Digital Shelf</b> for tracking digital store health and competitive performance.</li><li>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).</li><li>Strong analytical mindset with the ability to translate digital shelf scorecards and conversion metrics into actionable visual and catalogue enhancements.</li><li>Proven project management skills, meticulous attention to detail, and a commitment to maintaining high visual standards and brand compliance on tight deadlines.</li></ul><h1> </h1><h1><b>What will be your key responsibilities?</b></h1><br /><p><b><u>Digital Shelf &amp; Content Managemen</u>t:</b></p><br /><ul><li>Own the end-to-end management, maintenance, and syndication of digital product catalogues across major pureplay, omnichannel, and pet-specialty retail platforms.</li><li>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)</li><li>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.</li><li>Ingest, transform, and enrich raw product data from ERP, PLM, or DAM systems into Salsify, utilizing formulas, inheritance rules, and bulk-import workflows.</li><li>Serve as the dedicated subject matter expert for Salsify, Amazon Vendor Central, and Walmart Supplier One.</li><li>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.</li><li>Drive &#34;Perfect Digital Store&#34; execution across retail partners, continuously optimizing search visibility, taxonomy, category placement, nutritional search attributes, and content completeness.</li><li>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.</li></ul><br /><p><b><u>Graphic Design &amp; AI Content Creation:</u></b></p><br /><ul><li>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&#43; / Enhanced Brand Content (EBC).</li><li>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.</li><li>Maintain complete brand consistency across all touchpoints, adhering strictly to Mars Petcare brand visual identities, regulatory labeling standards, and retailer technical specifications.</li><li>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.</li><li>Adapt and localize national brand campaign assets and packaging graphics into commercial, click-worthy digital retail banners and point-of-sale assets.</li></ul><p><b> </b></p><p><b><u>Content Strategy &amp; Optimization:</u></b></p><br /><ul><li>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.</li><li>Implement A/B testing on visual assets (e.g., packaging angles, benefit badges, flavor descriptors) to determine optimal creative resonance and conversion uplift.</li><li>Collaborate with internal Brand, Consumer Experience, and agency partners to align on asset briefing, content syndication timelines, and digital shelf best practices.</li><li>Monitor competitor activities, pet industry trends, and retailer algorithmic shifts to recommend proactive creative and merchandising optimizations.</li><li>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.</li><li>Leverage real-time SEO grading features to perform on-page optimization—including keyword density, meta descriptions</li><li>Manage the &#34;human-in-the-loop&#34; approval pipeline, reviewing AI-generated drafts from Genrise and Writer AI for absolute factual accuracy, compliance, and claims validation before pushing live</li></ul><p> </p><p><b><u>dComm Analytics &amp; Reporting</u>:</b></p><br /><ul><li>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.</li><li>Track and report on &#34;Perfect Digital Store&#34; scores to pinpoint SKU-level optimization opportunities, prioritizing PDP image refreshes and copy enhancements.</li><li>Translate digital shelf scoring insights into data-driven design recommendations and merchandising action plans that improve discoverability and add-to-cart conversion.</li><li>Lead total dComm digital shelf scorecard reporting every period and support monthly business reviews with cross-functional commercial partners.</li><li>Liaise with Global dComm team for best-in-class strategy and measuring content with focus on content completion and effectiveness scorecard.</li></ul><h1> </h1><h1><b>What can you expect from Mars?</b></h1><br /><ul><li>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: <i>A Better World for Pets</i>.</li><li>Pet-friendly office culture, celebrating our four-legged family members.</li><li>Best-in-class learning and development support from day one, including access to our in-house Mars University.</li><li>An industry-competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package, including company bonus.</li></ul><p> </p><p>#LI-Hybrid</p><p>#LI-SL1<br /></p><p style="text-align:inherit"></p><p style="text-align:inherit"></p>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.