Senior Strategy Lead

Let's Write Africa's Story Together!

Old Mutual is a firm believer in the African opportunity and our diverse talent reflects this.

Job Description

In this role, the successful candidate will lead the day-to-day operation of the Strategy Office and act as the principal deputy to the Head of Strategy. The role converts enterprise ambition into an integrated strategy agenda, ensures the quality and coherence of strategy development and execution, and provides senior leaders with rigorous, commercially grounded insight for decision-making. It leads the annual strategy cycle, coordinates enterprise strategic priorities, and develops a high-performing internal strategy capability.

Critical Objectives and Responsibilities:

Strategy development / thought leadership

• Lead the development, refresh and articulation of enterprise strategy, ensuring alignment between long-term ambition, financial plans, customer outcomes, competitive positioning and execution priorities.

• Analyse the organisation's wider operating environment and draw conclusions about the impact of economic, regulatory, technology, customer and competitive developments on strategic choices.

• Frame complex strategic questions, develop hypotheses and guide the team through rigorous analysis to produce clear options, recommendations and executive-ready conclusions.

• Identify emerging threats, opportunities and strategic inflection points; recommend whether these should be addressed through organic growth, capability development, partnerships, M&A or other strategic responses.

• Lead periodic reviews of business unit strategies and strategic portfolios, testing coherence, differentiation, value creation potential and alignment to enterprise ambition.

• Build areas of expertise and reusable strategic assets within the Strategy Office, including market perspectives, scenario frameworks, benchmarks and strategic playbooks.

• Bring an outside-in perspective to senior leadership by maintaining strong knowledge of the insurance industry, adjacent sectors, technology shifts and global best practice.

Strategy planning and organisational alignment

• Own the integrated annual strategy process on behalf of the Head of Strategy, from framing and strategic choices through to final Executive and Board documentation.

• Translate enterprise strategy into a clear architecture of strategic priorities, outcomes, measures and accountabilities.

• Ensure alignment between enterprise strategy, business unit plans, functional strategies and major transformation programmes.

• Maintain the enterprise strategy calendar and governance cadence, ensuring strategic decisions are taken at the right forums and translated into action.

• Help leaders understand enterprise strategic goals and how their priorities and decisions contribute to delivery.

Strategic performance and execution oversight

• Oversee the enterprise strategic KPI and priority monitoring cycle, synthesising performance, risks, dependencies and corrective actions for the Head of Strategy and senior leadership.

• Challenge progress against strategic commitments and identify where intervention, reprioritisation or escalation is required.

• Ensure strategy execution reporting focuses on outcomes and value delivered rather than activity alone.

• Partner with Finance and business leadership to connect strategic performance to financial and operational performance.

Strategic networking and stakeholder focus

• Build trusted relationships with senior leaders and key Group functions, acting as a credible thought partner on strategic questions.

• Evaluate the effectiveness of the Strategy Office's stakeholder network and create connections that accelerate enterprise priorities.

• Understand differing stakeholder needs and tailor analysis, recommendations and engagement without compromising strategic integrity.

• Represent the Strategy Office positively and credibly in senior internal and external engagements.

Problem solving, research and analysis

• Process and distil diverse qualitative and quantitative information to understand problems fully and identify the few issues that matter most.

• Challenge assumptions and data quality; triangulate internal and external evidence before drawing conclusions.

• Lead scenario, benchmarking, portfolio, market and financial analyses to support major strategic decisions.

• Encourage lateral thinking and constructive challenge, building on the ideas and expertise of others.

• Use AI and emerging technologies proactively to improve analytical depth, speed, knowledge management and team effectiveness.

Communicating and influencing

• Communicate complex strategic issues with clarity and confidence across seniority levels, from technical working sessions to Exco and Board-level synthesis.

• Own or quality-assure executive, Board and strategy materials, ensuring a clear storyline, evidence-based argument and explicit decision ask.

• Persuade and influence through evidence, commercial judgement and stakeholder insight; challenge views openly and constructively.

Leadership, talent and team effectiveness

• Lead, coach and develop the Strategy team, setting high standards for analytical rigour, pace and executive communication.

• Allocate work across the Strategy Office based on enterprise priorities, capability and capacity.

• Provide constructive feedback, create development opportunities and build succession depth.

• Maintain team resilience and focus during periods of ambiguity, pressure and organisational change.

• Act for the Head of Strategy where delegated and ensure continuity of the Strategy agenda.

Experience, knowledge and skills required:

• Relevant postgraduate or tertiary qualification in Commerce, Finance, Economics, Actuarial Science, Engineering, Strategy or a related discipline; MBA or equivalent is advantageous.

• Typically 8+ years of relevant experience in corporate strategy, management consulting, financial services, insurance, corporate finance, transformation or related fields, including experience leading complex strategic workstreams.

• Strong commercial, quantitative and financial acumen; insurance or broader financial-services experience is strongly advantageous.

• People leadership experience and evidence of coaching and developing high-performing talent.

Key measures of success include the following:

• Enterprise strategy is coherent, differentiated, understood and translated into clear priorities.

• Annual strategy and planning cycles are delivered to a high standard and on time.

• Senior leadership receives concise, decision-useful strategic insight and challenge.

• Strategic priorities are actively monitored, with risks and dependencies surfaced early.

• The Strategy Office is recognised as a trusted, high-performing enterprise capability.

The Recruitment Process:

• TA Interview: This will be a discussion with our Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist to give you an understanding of our business, our culture & values and more context on the role. It will also allow us the opportunity to get to know you more and ensure OMI can meet your career aspirations.

• Panel Interview: This will be with 2 members of the Senior Leadership of the Hiring Team and 1 member of the HC Leadership Team.

• Final Interview with the Leadership Team.

• Technical & Psychometric Assessments: These will happen concurrently with Vetting through an external service provider & we will also trigger Internal Verification.

• Final Feedback.

All About OMI:

https://www.oldmutual.co.za/about/old-mutual-insure/

Please note that, unfortunately, we cannot accept any applications after the closing date

 

Skills

Leadership, People Leadership, Strategic Insights, Strategy Execution

Competencies

Balances Stakeholders

Builds Effective Teams

Business Insight

Communicates Effectively

Customer Focus

Drives Results

Financial Acumen

Manages Complexity

Education

Bachelor of Commerce (BCom): Finance, Economics (Required), NQF Level 9 – Masters

Closing Date

11 September 2026 , 23:59

The appointment will be made from the designated group in line with the Employment Equity Plan of Old Mutual South Africa and the specific business unit in question.

The Old Mutual Story!