
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.