Director, Franchise Operations - Mid Africa

Role Overview

This position reports to the Senior Director, Franchise Operations for Angola + HIMA and acts as the end-to-end coordinator for the Franchise Operations function. It is a senior leadership role that works closely with bottling partner(s) and aligns activity across Commercial, Marketing, Revenue Growth Management, Finance, Supply Chain, and Insights.

The role is responsible for bringing together the commercial agenda of the General Manager, ensuring strong leadership oversight, clear coordination, and disciplined execution across functions and the bottler. Success in this role means priorities are aligned, resources are secured, and plans are converted into consistent business results.

It combines franchise leadership, enterprise-wide thinking, cross-functional partnership, and strong integration of plans, priorities, and budgets. The objective is to deliver immediate commercial impact while also strengthening capabilities, processes, and operating discipline that support long-term growth.

The company is looking for someone who enjoys managing complex priorities, influencing in a matrixed environment, and turning data and strategy into practical market action.

Franchise and Bottler Leadership

• Create alignment and ensure follow-through among Franchise, bottler, and other cross-functional stakeholders.
• Provide senior guidance to the bottler by helping shape a focused agenda that balances near-term execution with a long-term capability and growth roadmap.
• Run joint performance reviews across revenue, volume, market share, distribution, visibility, and asset productivity, and drive corrective actions with clear accountability, timelines, and impact measures.

End-to-End Integration and Orchestration

• Serve as the key horizontal connector across Commercial, Marketing, RGM, Finance, Supply, and Insights to keep planning and execution aligned.
• Make sure commercial priorities and marketing plans are synchronized, sequenced, and properly resourced across the Franchise and the wider system.
• Spot dependencies, risks, and trade-offs across initiatives and take proactive steps to resolve them.

Budget, Performance, and Governance

• Coordinate the cross-functional operating and budget process so investments match priorities and expected results.
• Own the effectiveness of Franchise-level direct marketing investment and turn insights into practical actions and performance decisions.
• Maintain disciplined operating cadences, governance forums, and escalation routes to support delivery of results.

Execution Excellence and Results Delivery

• Lead focused execution sprints on pricing compliance, in-store visibility and displays, cooler placement and productivity, and outlet expansion.
• Co-lead route-to-market improvements and pilots such as direct, indirect, and micro-distribution with the bottler, then scale the models that prove effective.
• Identify operational, supply, and competitive risks early and mitigate them through scenario planning and issue resolution.

Franchise Capability and Ways of Working

• Act as a senior capability builder for the Franchise team by strengthening end-to-end thinking, execution management, and cross-functional collaboration.

Qualifications and Requirements

A bachelor’s degree in business, engineering, marketing, finance, or a related discipline is required. Candidates should bring at least 12 years of CPG experience in sales, commercial operations, franchise, or trade marketing; prior work with bottlers is a strong advantage.

The role calls for a proven record of delivering near-term commercial outcomes while building lasting capabilities with cross-functional teams. Strong analytical ability is essential, along with comfort using multiple data sources such as NielsenIQ, Kantar, sell-in/sell-out, cooler telemetry/IoT, footfall and mobility data, and geospatial and sociodemographic information. The ability to source new data when necessary is also important.

Proficiency in BI tools such as Power BI and advanced Excel is expected. SQL and Python are helpful but not mandatory. The role also requires the ability to influence without direct authority, work with senior stakeholders across cultures, and communicate insights clearly and persuasively. Understanding of local market dynamics and willingness to travel as needed are both required.

What the Company Offers

• Career development support through a range of learning and leadership development programs.
• Exposure to global leaders, broadening your network and giving access to emerging technologies and techniques.
• An agile working environment that encourages experimentation, iteration, and innovation by removing barriers.

Additional Information

Location: Kenya, with the role based in Nairobi. Travel is expected at 26% to 50%. Relocation support is not provided.

Application closing date: July 5, 2026.

The company emphasizes an inclusive, growth-oriented culture built around curiosity, empowerment, inclusion, and agility. It values continuous learning and believes culture is as important as results.

Annual incentive reference value percentage: 30%. This reference value reflects a market-based target level of incentive performance for the role.