Business Strategy Manager

PepsiCo; Reading; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading global food and beverage company is seeking a Strategy Manager to join its UK BU Strategy and Transformation team. The role involves supporting long-term enterprise strategy, partnering with senior stakeholders, and driving governance of transformation initiatives. The ideal candidate should possess strong analytical, communication, and project management skills, with a results-oriented mindset.

Qualifications

• Results oriented strategic thinker with a bias for action.
• Strong understanding of external data sets.
• Ability to communicate and influence effectively at all levels.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to drive an agenda autonomously.
• Knowledge of PepsiCo & UKBU business system.

Responsibilities

• Support the long-term enterprise strategy of UK BU.
• Partner with senior stakeholders for data and analytics implementation.
• Drive governance of UK BU Strategy & Transformation change agenda.
• Identify and accelerate delivery initiatives aligned with strategic vision.

Skills

Strategic problem solving

Excellent analytical skills

Communication

Project Management

Team player

Job description

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Overview

PepsiCo UK is home to some of the world's most loved food and drink products. Making every day favourites like Walkers, Doritos and Quaker, to name a few! We have a fantastic reputation for developing and launching products that our consumers love. We pride ourselves on being a great place to work and have recently been voted a Top Employer for the sixth year in a row. On a larger scale, PepsiCo produces the world's largest portfolio of billion‑dollar food and beverage brands, including 22 product lines that each generates more than $1billion in annual retail sales.

What you'll be doing:

• Strategic Problem Solving: Evaluate performance and analyse future opportunities utilising an array of data sources. Frame problems, test choices and develop a solution. Inform the long‑term strategic agenda of the UK BU with an emphasis on commercial priorities
• Diagnose: Frame the problem to solve, capture/map the current state and internal/externals comparisons and benchmarks
• Analytics: Understand key drivers through data across fragmented and disparate sources (eg external Nielsen / Kantar / ONS / IGD data & internal financial performance)
• Design: Develop solutions in partnership with cross‑functional teams and business leaders, find opportunities to enable growth and/or drive productivity/efficiency in the end‑to‑end value chain, prioritise and align on roadmap of actions across time horizons with key stakeholders
• Plan & Execute: Drive the execution of initiatives in accordance with approved plans and targets, resolve bottlenecks and track performance against set milestones and goals/criteria. This can include both co‑ordination of initiatives led by others or direct responsibilities
• Influence & Communication: Facilitate data‑based decision making through clear and well‑articulated business proposals. Collaborate and partner closely with cross‑functional initiative leads to ensure successful realization of UK BU goals, and develop comprehensive and cohesive change plans
• Project Management: Drive governance & portfolio management of UK BU end‑to‑end Strategy initiatives and integrated roadmap for successful and timely delivery (business case, status, timeline, milestones, risks, resources, investment and capabilities). Organise and direct both internal and external resources to successfully perform targeted tasks.
• Maintain an external mindset, including staying on top of consumer, competitive, and macroeconomic/geopolitical trends and developments
• Execute against time‑sensitive requests from UK BU Strategy & Transformation VP and aligned by UK BU GM/UK Exec

Responsibilities

We are looking for a Strategy Manager to join and play an integral part in the broader UK BU Strategy and Transformation team, contribute to a range of critical and impactful business priorities. Key responsibilities of the broader team include the following:

• Support the long‑term enterprise strategy of UK BU to deliver sustainable, profitable growth and drive the end‑to‑end business transformation (PSP)
• Partner with the UK Exec and relevant senior & cross‑functional stakeholders in UK BU and Europe Sector to ensure successful implementation of data and analytics capability
• Act as the internal consulting team and business partner to UK BU and Exec team
• Drive governance of UK BU Strategy & Transformation change agenda providing full BU oversight with clear execution & resourcing plans and key metrics across the strategic pillars
• Identify, integrate and accelerate the delivery of initiatives and priority programs which drive top‑line acceleration and/or bottom‑line delivery in line with UK BU Strategic Vision and Transformation agenda (e.g., end‑to‑end transformation, capability and change management, business processes, organisational efficiency & effectiveness, holistic cost management & productivity)

Qualifications

• Strategic problem solving & results oriented strategic thinker who demonstrates a bias for action with a can‑do approach to work
• Strong understanding of external data sets and how they can be knitted together
• Excellent analytical skills, strong critical thinking and problem‑solving skills
• Influence & Communication: Ability to communicate, collaborate, and influence effectively at all levels of the BU & Sector organisation and drive business decisions
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including presentation skills (ability to create presentations and present in a clear and succinct manner to senior audiences)
• Team player with the ability to excel in an agile, collaborative, ambiguous environment demonstrating strong people skills, flexibility and willingness to take on diverse tasks
• Good knowledge of the PepsiCo & UKBU business system and opportunities/challenges, as well as the UK operating environment (consumer, channel, macros, competitors)
• Project Management: Ability to drive an agenda autonomously with strong prioritisation skills - requires working in a highly‑matrixed organisation, handling competing priorities and connecting the dots across multiple large‑scale initiatives that have interconnecting impact across functions