Group Strategy Manager

INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL VACANCY: GROUP STRATEGY MANAGER

CEF is a Schedule 2 state owned diversified energy company reporting to the Department of Mineral & Petroleum Resources. The Mandate of CEF is to contribute to the security of energy supply of South Africa and the Region through exploration, acquisition, development, marketing and strategic partnership. It is derived from the CEF Act (No 38 of 1977) and the Ministerial directives issued thereafter.

 JOB PURPOSE:

The Group Strategy Manager is responsible for leading the strategic planning process across the organization, ensuring alignment with long-term business goals, industry trends, and regulatory environments. This role involves formulating corporate strategies, evaluating market and business intelligence, analysis and driving strategic initiatives to ensure sustainable competitive advantage to achieve strategy and CEF Mandate delivery.

REQUIRED MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Honours Degree (NQF Level 8) in Business Administration/ Business Management /Economics or equivalent qualification.
• A minimum of 5 to 8 years experience in management of which 3 to 5 years must be at senior management within the energy sector, with a focus on corporate strategy, business development or strategic consulting.
• Experience within policy development and long-term strategic planning will serve as an added advantage.
• Experience working at group level with exposure to strategy and performance monitoring and evaluation will serve as an added advantage.
• Master’s Degree (NQF Level 9) in the relevant field will serve as an added advantage.

DESIRED ADDITIONAL SKILLS/ COMPETENCIES:

• Advanced knowledge of strategy development frameworks suitable for rapidly evolving energy landscape driven by various internal and external drivers.
• Strong understanding of current industry trends, market intelligence, regulatory compliance and market trend analysis relevant to the energy sector
• Extensive experience in corporate strategy, business development, or strategic consulting and the development of Annual Performance Plan.
• In-depth exposure in leading business stabilisation and turnaround as well as restructuring implementation activities
• Extensive strategic oversight monitoring and evaluation leading multidisciplinary teams.
• Experience in business transformation, digital strategy, and strategic execution.
• Collaborative leadership with the ability to work across teams and functions.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills
• Proven experience in policy development and long-term strategic planning and enterprise/organisational performance management.
• Effective reporting and presentation skills
• Solid financial and business acumen
• Critical thinking and performance management capabilities
• Experience in change management and negotiation
• Strategic thinking and sound decision-making ability
• Proven experience as a change agent, driving and managing transformation
• Service-oriented and high ethical standards and integrity in all professional dealings
• Solution-focused with a proactive, problem-solving attitude

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS:

Oversight and Strategic Direction to Subsidiaries

• Drive and lead the CEF Group corporate planning cycle to facilitate subsidiary management excellence in line with the Parenting Strategy.
• Lead the development of the CEF Group long term strategy development and scenario planning working closely with the CEF Board and EXCO.
• Lead the continuous external and internal environmental scanning and analysis to provide strategic guidance and recommendations on impact to the business and long-term plans.
• Lead and facilitate the flow of information for strategic planning across the Group and the adoption of the Objectives and Key Results methodologies.
• Lead the operationalisation of the CEF Group Africa Growth strategy working with the Business Development Team and other stakeholders to advance mandate delivery.
• Develop and implement the mechanism for the oversight of the Group strategy portfolio management.
• Facilitate the communication of the Group Corporate Plan to the subsidiaries  
• Provide guidance and oversight to subsidiaries regarding the compilation of strategic and operational plans aligned to the Group Corporate Plan 
• Interrogate subsidiary reporting submitted on a quarterly basis and alignment to Group strategy delivery and provide input towards reports for submission and presentation to the Minister on a quarterly basis 
• Lead the execution of the CEF Group Innovation Strategy and the associated short- and long-term objectives.
• Drive Group excellence through setting up best practice and continuous improvement initiatives & enhance strategies for sustainable competitive advantage across the Group 
• Reinforce process of constructive change and continuous improvement  and integration of strategy and performance management in the Group automated planning system.

Group Monitoring and Evaluation 

• Develop and implement a monitoring and evaluation system to provide real time and accurate gathering and dissemination of group wide strategic information.
• Develop and implement processes to drive the strategy monitoring and evaluation system
• Monitor and evaluate the execution of the CEF Group priority projects and set metrics 
• Perform analysis and interpretation of Group performance results
• Provide a dashboard for key stakeholders indicating the alignment of subsidiaries’ KPAs to individual subsidiary strategic plans 
• Prepare submissions and presentations to key stakeholders and make strategic recommendations to improve enterprise performance

Project Implementation Monitoring alignment to strategy delivery

• Oversee CEF's investment in subsidiary companies on projects for strategic alignment and delivery of mandate and alignment to the Group Growth Agenda.
• Participate on steering committees and other Workstreams for projects to gain insight and feedback into strategic priorities across the Group
• Facilitate the communication of projects between subsidiaries to enable sharing of project best practices and impact of delays on overall Group strategy.
• Monitor project implementation in alignment with the Corporate Plan deliverables and other key objectives.
• Requests regular updates on project delivery to inform strategy delivery.
• Prepare ad hoc status reports on priority projects delivery on request from key stakeholders

Support during Corporate Planning

• Act as a Strategic Lead and Contributor in the development of best practices and appropriate methodologies in strategy planning and execution 
• Actively participate in long range group planning in strategy, sales and marketing, group operations and group business partners within the global/local supply chain 
• Ensure development of appropriate programs that support the CEF Corporate Plan 
• Support subsidiaries with the development of strategic aligned with the Africa Growth Strategy.
• Ensure alignment of Group Corporate Plan strategic themes to individual subsidiary corporate plans.

Stakeholder relationship management

• Facilitate cross Group collaboration and stakeholder management 
• Develop strong relationships and engage extensively with other groups in relation to the end-to-end Strategy & Operations Planning processes 
• Maintain and foster relationships with the DMPR and participate in relevant DMPR committees to gain an understanding of shareholder requirements and to communicate on group performance updates 
• Manage relationships with the CEF Exco and individual Subsidiary Exco’s  
• Identify, initiate and foster strategic partnerships 
• Support the CEO and participate in the Audit Committee, CEO Forum and Board Audit Committee to provide assurance on subsidiaries projects  
• Support the Office of the CEF Group Chairman on various strategic initiatives and overall execution of the CEF Board annual strategy session.

Resource management

• Responsible for optimizing human resource allocation, ensuring workforce productivity, and fostering a high-performance culture within the division.
• This includes workforce planning, talent development, performance management, and employee engagement to achieve strategic objectives.
• Responsible for budget development and management

Shared Services management

• Establish streamlined processes and standardized operating procedures within the shared services to minimize duplication of effort, reduce costs, and enhance service quality across the portfolio.
• Set service level agreements (SLAs) with portfolio companies to define expectations around service quality, response times, and support levels.
• Conduct regular satisfaction surveys and performance reviews with portfolio companies to gather feedback, addressing concerns and identifying areas for improvement.
• Build a highly skilled shared services team capable of supporting multiple functions across different companies, providing ongoing training to ensure proficiency in specialized support areas.
• Encourage cross-functional collaboration and knowledge sharing within the shared services team to deliver a holistic, multi-faceted support approach to each portfolio company.

Publish date:    17 August 2025

Closing Date:   26 August 2025

NOTE: The successful candidate/s for the advertised position/s will be required to undergo personnel suitability checks, which include criminal records, citizenship, financial checks, qualifications and previous employment (Reference checks). It is the responsibility of the applicant to make sure that foreign qualifications are evaluated by the South African Qualifications Authority and the evaluation certificate is attached to the application on submission. If you do not hear from the CEF SOC three months after the closing date of the advertisement, consider your application unsuccessful.  CEF SOC reserves the right to not fill this position. CEF SOC is an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer, and it is committed to the achievement and maintenance of diversity and equity in employment, especially in respect of race, gender and disability. This position will be filled in accordance with the CEF SOC Employment Equity Plan.