Brand Protection Manager Jobs in Illinois (NOW HIRING)

The Director, Brand Protection will be responsible for protecting the integrity of Wolverine Worldwide’s portfolio of brands by identifying, investigating, and mitigating threats such as unauthorized online sales, gray market distribution, counterfeits, and minimum advertised pricing ("MAP") violations. Leveraging data analytics, marketplace intelligence, and digital monitoring tools, the Director develops, implements, and monitors the Company’s brand and marketplace integrity strategies and policies across the organization.

• Develop and lead brand protection strategies that strengthen marketplace trust, protect brand integrity, and support business growth.
• Partner with senior executives, brand presidents, and sales, DTC, wholesale, and Legal teams to align on and execute brand protection strategies and policies.
• Oversee implementation and enforcement of MAP and marketplace integrity policies across all brands, including monitoring for violations and coordinating appropriate remedial actions with brand leadership and Legal.
• Develop and manage data‑driven dashboards and KPIs to provide visibility into compliance, marketplace activity, and seller behavior, and to establish benchmarks for online brand representation.
• Lead analysis of marketplace and pricing activity across digital channels, transforming complex datasets into actionable insights, trends, and early warning signals that inform enforcement priorities.
• Identify, implement, and manage digital monitoring tools and technologies to detect unauthorized sellers, policy violations, and intellectual property infringement, strengthening overall program coverage.
• Identify unauthorized or unknown retailers and partner with Legal, third‑party providers, and brand teams to develop and execute enforcement strategies.
• Educate and support brand and sales teams to ensure clear understanding of policies and drive consistent compliance across retail partners.
• Prepare and communicate data‑driven recommendations and executive‑level summaries for senior management, including both standard and customized reporting on compliance performance.
• Build, lead, and develop a high‑performing brand protection team, setting clear priorities and providing ongoing coaching, feedback and professional development.
• Perform other duties as required/assigned by manager.

• 10+ years in brand protection, investigations, e‑commerce/marketplace operations, data analytics, supply chain, corporate security, compliance, or a related field.
• Experience with e‑commerce practices, including affiliate networks, aggregator sites, SEM, MAP policies, online commerce and shopping ecosystems.
• Excellent project management skills.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.
• Strong analytical skills and attention to detail.
• Strong qualitative and quantitative skills to make impactful business decisions and lead cross‑functional teams.
• Analytically driven while having an innovative and strategic way of looking at the business.
• Self‑motivated, flexible, and adaptable to client & organizational changes.
• Ability to work independently and cohesively as a team member.
• Strong proficiency in Microsoft Office, including Excel and PowerPoint, and experience leveraging AI tools such as Copilot.
• Proficiency with data analysis and visualization tools (e.g., advanced Excel, Power BI, or Tableau) to translatelarge datasets into actionable insights.

Normal office environment. Some travel may be required. Wolverine Worldwide has a flexible, hybrid work schedule, with three days in office and two days remote.

Wolverine Worldwide, Inc. is committed to being an equal opportunity employer. We aim to create equal opportunities for our associates, customers, and suppliers regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other legally protected characteristic.

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed and are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties and skills which may be required.