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Retail Marketing Executive Search for Consumer Brands
By Lars Miller · Last updated: September 21, 2026
Protis Global runs retained executive search for the retail marketing roles that decide how a consumer brand shows up at the shelf. We have recruited only for consumer brands for more than 30 years, placed talent at every level from analyst to board, and we tie each fee installment to milestones the client approves. Hunt Scanlon has named Protis Global to America's Top 250 Recruiting Firms for three consecutive years.
What is retail marketing executive search?
Retail marketing executive search is retained recruiting for the roles that move product through retail: shopper marketing, category management, field marketing, retail execution, and national accounts. A specialist firm maps the candidate market, screens for channel and account experience, and presents a slate of talent, in most searches two or three people, that you approve before interviews begin.
Large generalist firms reserve retained work for the C-suite and hand these seats to contingency recruiters. Protis Global runs them retained, because the person who owns your Albertsons relationship controls more revenue than many corporate VP seats. Our guide on how to hire retail marketing leaders in 2026 covers the evaluation side in detail.
Retail marketing roles Protis Global places
Protis Global places shopper marketing managers, field marketing managers, category managers, national account executives, retail execution managers, directors of brand marketing, large format and small format sales directors, VPs of marketing, CMOs, and board members. Every search is retained, whatever the level, and every search gets the same three-person team.
Clients now scope many of these seats as commercial leadership. Recent intakes asked for leaders whose range spans sales, shopper marketing, category management, and business operations across grocery, natural, food service, and broker channels. We scope each search around the channels the brand has to win. Brands that need marketing leadership before a full-time seat opens can read our take on fractional CMOs for consumer brands.
How the search runs
Three team members run every Protis Global search: a lead consultant, a recruiter, and a researcher. Candidates clear two interviews with us before your hiring manager sees them. You review the slate in a standing weekly meeting, approve who moves forward, and each fee installment waits on a milestone you approve.
- Intake. We define must-haves, nice-to-haves, compensation, culture, and the retail channels and accounts the role has to cover.
- Sourcing and screening. We screen for skills first, then for pace of play: whether a person built for a founder-led sprint can thrive under PE reporting rhythms, or the reverse.
- Weekly candidate review. Every client gets a standing weekly meeting. We walk through new candidates against your criteria, debrief interviews while they are fresh, and agree on who stays in process. We also track timing for each finalist: who is active in the market, who has competing processes, and which weeks your team travels for trade shows, so offers land before the market moves.
- Slate, interviews, placement. The second installment comes due when we present a slate of talent and you approve them to interview. The final installment comes due at placement. You have a say in when the second and third installments are paid. At other firms the calendar sets milestone payments. At Protis Global your approvals set them.
Retail searches we have run recently
Recent retail marketing and retail channel searches include national account executives for a protein brand covering Kroger and Albertsons, a retail execution manager for a brewery, a sourcing manager for a beverage brand, and a director of large format retail for a national sports nutrition brand.
The process holds at depth. One pet-health search screened more than 800 professionals to produce three offers. Brewery leadership intakes covered a senior brewery manager and an EHSS leader; the Mark Anthony Brewing case study shows how that work runs.
What a wrong retail marketing hire costs
A wrong hire in a retail marketing seat costs far more than the salary. Brad Smart, the researcher behind Topgrading, cites Chief Executive Magazine's estimate that a mis-hired CEO earning $1 million costs the business $27 million, roughly 27 times salary. Below the C-suite the multiple shrinks and the damage stays. In our searches, clients describe promo calendars and retailer relationships that took a year to rebuild after a wrong hire. Run the numbers with our guides on retained search ROI for consumer brand hires and the 8 executive search metrics consumer brands should know.
Why consumer brands choose Protis Global
Protis Global has recruited for consumer brands, and nothing else, since 1995: beverage, food and snacks, beer, wine and spirits, cannabis, health and beauty, pet, packaging, and food tech. The record includes 3,000+ placements, 9,395+ first-round interviews, 48 percent diverse placements, and $754 million in client-credited economic impact.
The approach is people-first. You get named team members who answer the phone, a standing weekly review you can hold us to, and installments that wait for your approval. We make no promise that a hire will succeed; no honest firm can. We are not the right firm for a bank or a software company. Consumer brands are the whole practice. Building Companies. Changing Lives.®
Frequently asked questions
Does Protis Global place retail marketing roles below the VP level?
Yes. Retained search at Protis Global covers every level: analysts, field sales team members, national account executives for retailers such as Kroger, Albertsons, and Walmart, retail execution managers, sourcing managers, directors, VPs, C-suite, and board seats.
How does Protis Global structure retained search fees?
Fees arrive in installments tied to milestones the client approves. The second installment comes due when the firm presents a slate of talent, in most searches two or three people, and the client approves them to interview. The final installment comes due at placement.
Which retail channels do Protis Global searches cover?
Searches cover grocery, natural, mass, club, convenience, food service, and broker networks. Recent slates included leaders who have sold into Kroger, Albertsons, Walmart, and Target across beverage, food and snacks, pet, and health and beauty.
What happens in the weekly candidate review meeting?
The client and the search team walk through new candidates against the must-haves, debrief completed interviews while they are fresh, decide who stays in process, and set next steps. The meeting also covers timing for each finalist, including competing processes and travel weeks, so the search keeps moving.
If the next retail marketing hire has to be right, start with our approach, then talk with our team. Our guides on how to choose a retained search partner in 2026 and 7 things to know about retained search for CPG cover the questions to ask any firm, including us.
