Strategy & Transformation Manager in Chester House, Epsom Ave, Handforth, Cheadle, Greater Manchester, SK9 3DF

To fulfil our vision of becoming the leading pet care business in the world, we need a strong strategy & transformation capability and are therefore looking to hire a Strategy & Transformation Manager. It is an exciting time at Pets at Home as we are investing to further digitise our business from a position of competitive strength: in our most half year, our like-for-like revenue grew 22.2% (or 28.6% on a 2-year basis) and our omnichannel revenue grew by 21.5% (or 101.4% on a 2-year basis).

About the Role

This role will report to our Group Director of Strategy & Transformation, and work closely with him to support the Group Executive team, and the leadership teams within our Retail and Vet businesses to define, execute, and monitor progress of the Group’s strategic initiatives.

This role will have a wide remit spanning strategy formation to the implementation of our transformation – with an overall focus on helping the Group deliver its strategic plan.

Key responsibilities for the role will include:

• Assisting with the annual strategic planning process, including helping prepare the customer/client and competitive insights that are key inputs into our strategic choices
• Working collaboratively with the Group’s leadership teams – across business units and functions – to execute and monitor progress on strategic initiatives - including, for example – providing ‘SWAT-style’ analytical support, assisting with the development/refinement of project plans, and coordinating the tracking of key milestones
• Completing high-quality ad-hoc strategic analysis on topics ranging from new business initiatives/M&A to performance improvement for existing businesses

About your Experience

Required skills & experience:

• Strong quantitative and qualitative analytical skills, including financial modelling
• Excellent commercial instincts – a strong ‘nose for value’ – meaning the ability to identify the most powerful value creation levers and the activities required to pull those levers
• A strong ‘bias to action’ – with a track record of developing and delivering pragmatic, rather than theoretical solutions
• Ability to work effectively across teams and with all levels in the Group to drive execution – skilled at leading without formal authority
• Clear and up-front communicator – both written and verbal communication are based on facts, have clear recommendations (when appropriate) and drive decision-making/action
• Passion for our vision as a Group – to be the best pet care business in the world
• Unwavering commitment to our values and behaviours – including always putting pets first

Desirable skills & experience:

• Qualification as an accountant
• Experience in professional services, including for example, management consulting or accountancy
• Experience using visualisation tools, such as Tableau, to drive insights from large data sets
• Experience managing third party market research vendors to produce analytical insights

Our diversity and inclusion vision is that everyone is welcome and feels part of our group. If you think you’re a good match to what we are looking for, and you share our belief that together ‘we’re better with pets’, we’d like to hear from you, whatever your background or circumstances.