Senior Manager, Innovation & PMO, SAF

Job Description: Senior Manager - Innovations & PMO

Function: SAF Marketing
Reports to: SAF Marketing Lead
Location: SAF, SA

Role Overview

The Senior Manager - Innovations & PMO is a senior strategic and operational leader within the Franchise Marketing organization. The role integrates Innovation Management, Marketing PMO, and Marketing Orchestration to ensure that the Franchise delivers a consistent pipeline of winning innovations, disciplined marketing planning, and coordinated execution across markets.

This role serves as the operational backbone for the Franchise-leading innovation governance, enabling rigorous prioritization, orchestrating key marketing processes, and embedding tech- and data-enabled ways of working. Operating within a highly interconnected OU-Market model, the Senior Manager ensures that global and OU strategies are executed locally with excellence, speed, and clear accountability.

Key Responsibilities

1. Innovation Leadership & Governance

• Lead the end-to-end innovation pipeline for the Franchise-concept development, validation, prioritization, launch planning, and post-launch tracking.

• Manage alignment between OU innovation platforms and local market needs, ensuring both global scalability and local relevance.

• Steward innovation governance rhythms (Pipeline Reviews, Gate Processes, Bottler Alignment).

• Ensure strong cross-functional collaboration across R&D, Commercial, Insights, Finance, Supply Chain, and Bottler partners.

• Identify whitespace opportunities, category trends, cultural shifts, and consumer needs to inform future innovation.

• Lead structured PMO governance across key marketing processes:

• Annual Business Planning (ABP)

• Marketing Calendar & Prioritization

• Flywheel & Integrated Planning

• Innovation milestones

• Ensure clarity, discipline, and consistency in planning rhythms and decision-making processes.

• Map dependencies, manage risks, and escalate bottlenecks to ensure on-time delivery.

• Track impact, KPIs, and performance outcomes to support data-driven adjustments.

• Serve as the hub for orchestrating marketing workflows across Brand, IMX, Digital, Commercial, Finance, and Bottlers.

• Ensure seamless integration of innovation, marketing campaigns, platforms, and in-market execution.

• Facilitate cross-functional alignment and build 'one-team' ways of working across the Franchise Marketing ecosystem.

• Support Franchise and OU leadership with insights, structured updates, dashboards, and progress tracking.

• Deploy OU and global capability programs related to innovation management, marketing excellence, and PMO methods.

• Champion the adoption of digital and AI-enabled tools (e.g., demand forecasting, consumer intelligence, workflow tools).

• Build capability across Franchise teams in project management, prioritization, and innovation excellence.

• Strengthen data literacy within the marketing community to support precision decision-making.

• Drive harmonization of tools, templates, and processes across Franchise markets.

• Ensure adoption of standardized marketing operating models and governance frameworks.

• Foster a culture of disciplined execution, accountability, and continuous improvement.

• Act as the Franchise's integrator with OU Marketing, ensuring alignment and visibility on all innovation and PMO priorities.

• A robust, well-governed innovation pipeline with clear prioritization and strong execution.

• Consistent and disciplined marketing rhythms (ABP, calendar, innovation gates, flywheel).

• Faster, more precise, and more integrated marketing operations.

• Strong alignment across cross-functional and bottler stakeholders.

• High adoption of tools, systems, and ways of working across the Franchise.

• Capability uplift across innovation, PMO, and data/tech literacy.

• 7+ years of experience in marketing, innovation, project management, or portfolio management.

• Strong expertise in innovation processes, cross-functional orchestration, and commercial planning.

• Experience managing complex, multi-market or multi-stakeholder projects.

• Strong understanding of brand-building, consumer insights, category strategy, and innovation principles.

• Proven ability to embed processes, tools, and governance frameworks.

• Experience working with or leveraging digital, data, or AI-enabled solutions is an advantage.

• Growth Mindset: curious, adaptive, and able to lead through ambiguity.

• Enterprise-first thinking: acts in the interest of system-wide priorities, not silos.

• Operational Discipline: structured, detail-oriented, and strong in stakeholder management.

• Influential Communicator: able to align diverse stakeholders, including bottlers and senior leaders.

• Collaboration & Orchestration: thrives in networked teams and cross-functional environments.

• Strategic Agility: able to balance long-term innovation with short-term execution needs.

• May require travel for key innovation reviews, market visits, and bottler meetings.

• Operates within a highly integrated OU-Market model, requiring strong alignment with OU Marketing teams.