Corporate Planning Assistant Manager

Wafna; Santa Fe Springs (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Wafna is seeking a senior corporate planning leader to accelerate transformation initiatives across the organization. You will guide strategic programs, collaborate with division and regional teams, and drive measurable improvements in business operations.

The role requires strong leadership, program management experience, and excellent communication with executives. A hands-on and hands-off approach will be used as needed to deliver results within a dynamic environment.

Qualifications

• Must have proven experience managing corporate planning or transformation initiatives.
• Ability to design and oversee complex programs across multiple functions.
• Strong change-management and stakeholder engagement skills are essential.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with executive presence.
• Track record of delivering projects on time and within scope.

Responsibilities

• Lead or support initiatives to transform business management and administrative operations.
• Define project scope, plans, resources, and oversee implementation.
• Provide timely updates and facilitate project meetings and reviews.
• Chair round-table discussions to gather feedback and resolve conflicts.
• Collaborate with regional teams on group-wide initiatives.
• Deliver end-to-end project management including scoping, estimates, and deployment.
• Monitor execution of deliverables and report progress to leadership.
• Manage multiple stakeholders and emphasize readiness and impact assessments.
• Develop data-driven recommendations and drive implementation of solutions.
• Lead project teams and mentor staff to achieve goals.

Skills

Management experience

Corporate planning

Change management

Stakeholder management

Project management

Leadership

English communication

Japanese-English bilingual

Job description

The objective of the Corporate Planning Division is to enhance the business infrastructure and accelerate the transformation project in order to accomplish the entire company goal in both the short term and the long term. While maintaining a big-picture perspective, every member in the Corporate Planning Division must be able to take actions to plan, execute, and lead measures on a hands-on basis as needed. It will also be expected to possess advanced interpersonal management skills to communicate and collaborate with various stakeholders and to use creativity to evolve the organization.

Essential Job Functions:

• Lead (or support, depending on the situation) some of the initiatives to transform business management and administrative operations and drive continuous improvement.
• Define scope and requirements of projects: develop project plans, ensure effective functioning of projects, define resourcing required, and supervise implementation.
• Provide timely and accurate updates to all project-related documents and facilitate project meetings.
• Responsible for chairing various round table discussions to solicit feedback, resolve conflicts, and foster open communication to help with the execution of corporate planning initiatives.
• Participate as a core member in the development of group-wide management and regional collaboration initiatives.
• Execute the above measures on a hands-on and hands-off basis, depending on the situation.
• Report to Director of Corporate Planning Div.
• Develop and execute activities related to end-to-end project management, including project plans and estimates, scoping, and requirements through implementation and deployment.
• Proactively monitor, manage, and report on the execution of deliverables.
• Collaborate with a matrixed project team, division management, and branch management to identify impacted stakeholders and assess the change impact and readiness needs.
• Lead project team members (direct and indirect) to deliver on the different components/ workstreams, including quantitative and qualitative business models.
• Develop fact-based recommendations and drive implementation of recommended solutions.
• Analyzes key metrics and advises business stakeholders on ways to improve and optimize the services and programs.
• Responsible for the supervision of direct management reports as well as employees. Demonstrate a high degree of leadership, initiative, and integrity to cultivate and develop subordinate staff. Promote the training and development of support staff for employee improvement and advancement. Create an atmosphere where employees and management strive for the joint team goal.

Knowledge, Skills and Ability:

• Knowledge and experience in management and business operations.
• Extensive knowledge and experience in the area of corporate planning and corporate management.
• Working knowledge of initiatives and an understanding of the impact on the organization
• Strong business process re-engineering skills to include change management experience and the ability to articulate processes at varying degrees of granularity to different audiences.
• Broad knowledge of technology-related initiatives and an understanding of the impact on the organization of such initiatives.
• Have a proven track record of serving the business or project in a management position.
• Global awareness and language skills to communicate effectively and efficiently with global teams and various stakeholders.
• Team-oriented approach with the ability to take initiative, prioritize, and manage multiple tasks simultaneously to meet client expectations and deadlines across multiple projects.
• Strong ability to manage complex projects, and multiple stakeholders and articulate the dependencies and interrelationships.
• Ability to understand and liaise with top management direction.
• Ability to decisively execute business process transformations as needed and with a realistic viewpoint, without being constrained by existing systems and structures.
• Ability to provide leadership that positively motivates people in the company/organization.
• Ability to be flexible and adaptable in unpredictable situations.
• Ability to communicate with and influence all levels of staff toward change (to include executive management).
• Be widely trusted, direct, and truthful, with the ability to establish and maintain effective relationships and gain confidence.
• Ability to speak, write, and read English.
• Bilingual in Japanese/ English is a strong plus.