Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Employment type: Full-time
Salary: AED 30,000-35,000 per month (total package)
About Pechka
Pechka is a Dubai food brand built on Russian and Eastern European home-style cooking. We started with pies baked to family recipes. Today we have a café and bakery in Dubai Marina, delivery and pickup from Dubai Marina, Business Bay and Arjan, and our own production facility supplying wholesale and B2B customers, including retail chains.
Customers order through our website and app (with a rewards programme) and through Talabat, Deliveroo, Careem, Noon, Keeta and Instashop. We also cater corporate and private events, and Pechka Market delivers Eastern European groceries alongside our food.
The role
You will own the Pechka brand and make sure it feels the same everywhere: in the café, in delivery, on packaging, on social media, at events and pop-ups, and on supermarket shelves. You will lead a team of three (digital and SEO, delivery-platform marketing, content and community) plus freelancers, reporting directly to the owner. You will work closely with the FMCG manager, sales, kitchen, production and operations.
What you’ll do
Brand
- Develop the brand platform: positioning, values, story, audiences, personality and tone of voice in English and Russian
- Shape the brand architecture across Pechka, Pechka Market, catering and the production range, and own naming and positioning of new lines
- Maintain the visual identity and brand book, and approve all layouts: menus, packaging, signage, website, app, advertising and B2B materials
- Act as creative director: brief and sign off photographers, designers and agencies
- Write brand standards for partners and franchisees
- Study customers and the market to understand how Pechka is perceived and where to go next
Content and social
- Plan and run photo and video shoots for dishes, catering and products
- Create content hands-on: short videos (Reels, TikTok), social graphics, banners, menus and presentations
- Own Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Telegram, including content plans, community replies and user-generated content
PR, events and pop-ups
- Work with media and pitch stories (family recipes, seasonal launches, new products)
- Select, brief and measure bloggers and influencers
- Build partnerships and take part in cultural, charity and community projects
- Organise tastings, launches, masterclasses and celebrations such as Maslenitsa
- Help run pop-up stores: concept, stand design, range and pricing, logistics, promotion and results
- Own the brand’s reputation, including crisis communications
Products, menu and pricing (with kitchen and production)
- Propose new dishes and products based on sales, feedback and trends
- Plan seasonal menus and launches a year ahead (Maslenitsa, Easter, Ramadan, New Year)
- Run tastings, keep costings current, control food cost and margin
- Propose prices for each channel, allowing for commissions and retailer margins
Packaging and retail
- Own packaging concept, design, suppliers and cost for delivery, catering and retail
- Work with the FMCG manager to meet UAE labelling and product registration requirements
- Define how the brand looks on shelf and in B2B: labels, catalogues, buyer presentations and trade-show stands (e.g. Gulfood)
Delivery platforms and direct orders
- Manage relationships with platform account managers and keep menus, photos, descriptions and prices accurate
- Approve platform ads and promotions, measure returns and stop what doesn’t pay
- Track ratings, cancellations and complaints and fix causes with operations
- Run advertising on social media, Google and with influencers; grow orders through our own website and app; oversee SEO and Google Business Profiles
Reviews, loyalty and CRM
- Organise replies to reviews on Google and delivery platforms in English and Russian
- Handle complex customer cases and turn repeat complaints into fixes
- Run the loyalty programme (tiers, cashback points, welcome and birthday offers, gift cards, promo codes) and track its economics
- Build email, SMS and WhatsApp communications: segments, trigger flows and win-back campaigns
- Track retention, order frequency, average order value and churn
Catering
- Build the catering offer with the kitchen and sales, prepare sales materials, and generate leads through digital channels, outreach and venue partnerships
Budget and team
- Own the marketing budget across all business lines and report monthly on spend and results
- Lead and develop the marketing team and freelancers
Note: negotiations with retail chains and B2B clients are handled by the FMCG manager and sales team and are not part of this role.
Your first 90 days
- Month 1: a brand audit across every touchpoint, an audit of the loyalty programme, and meetings with key internal teams and platform account managers
- Month 2: first fixes (consistent menus, photos and prices across channels, a review-response routine, a 12-month seasonal calendar, refreshed catering materials)
- Month 3: the brand concept for the coming years and a 12-month marketing plan with budget, targets and loyalty plan, plus a proposal for team structure
What you bring
- 5+ years in brand management or marketing, including 3+ years in food (restaurants, delivery, catering, FMCG) or at a branding agency with food clients
- Proven experience creating or developing a brand concept (positioning, brand platform, visual identity, brand book), with portfolio examples
- Experience running a loyalty programme and CRM marketing: mechanics, economics, segmentation, email, SMS and WhatsApp, retention analysis
- PR experience across media, influencers and events
- Hands-on video and graphics skills (CapCut, Premiere Pro or similar; Figma, Photoshop, Illustrator or Canva) and the ability to prepare and check print-ready files
- A trained eye for design and photography, and a palate the team can trust at tastings
- Team leadership experience and a track record of working with freelancers, agencies and sales teams
- Strong commercial skills: costings, margin, pricing, ROI and loyalty economics in Excel or Google Sheets
- A calm, fair approach to handling customer complaints
- Multilingual: fluent English is required. Professional-level Russian is a strong advantage, as our brand communicates in both English and Russian
Nice to have
- Experience with a rebrand or launching a new brand or sub-brand
- Experience with delivery platforms (Talabat, Deliveroo, Careem, Noon, Keeta, Yandex Eda, Wolt, Glovo)
- Experience with Brevo or similar email and messaging platforms
- Retail packaging development
- Pop-up and off-site sales experience
- Knowledge of Russian and Eastern European cuisine
- Arabic
What we offer
- AED 30,000-35,000 per month (total package)
- UAE employment visa
- Medical insurance
- Paid annual leave
How to apply
Send your CV and portfolio to [email protected] with the subject “Head of Brand & Marketing”. Include 3-5 pieces of work with results in numbers (brand concepts, campaigns, launches, packaging, and videos or graphics you made yourself). In a short cover note, tell us how you see the Pechka brand today and what you would change first.
