Associate Director - Strategy and Planning, Food
at Careem Dubai, United Arab Emirates Careem is building the Everything App for the greater Middle East, making it easier than ever to move around, order food and groceries, manage payments, and more. Careem is led by a powerful purpose to simplify and improve the lives of people and build an awesome organisation that inspires. Since 2012, Careem has created earnings for over 2.5 million Captains, simplified the lives of over 50 million customers, and built a platform for the region’s best talent to thrive and for entrepreneurs to scale their businesses. Careem operates in over 70 cities across 10 countries, from Morocco to Pakistan.
About the Team
The Food Strategy & Planning team works with the food leadership and all enabling functions to set the north star / vision and strategic direction for our global Food business using market and customer insights. The S&P team also manages strategic cross-cutting programs. This team also serves as a strategic reserve / leadership bench where the next wave of leadership talent is groomed for line roles in the business.
About the Role
The team is looking for a self-starting, enthusiastic and passionate individual who can partner with the Food leadership to define the future of Food delivery in the MENA region. It is a high visibility role that requires strong stakeholder management skills to drive outcomes and push our thinking to new levels. This role reports into the head of strategy and planning for Food.
Strategy development: Lead the development of comprehensive, data-driven strategic plans. Identify emerging trends and opportunities, converting them into structured plans for execution.
Business planning:Oversee half-yearly and annual planning cycles (strategic, financial, people), collaborating with country GMs and cross functional teams to align their objectives with the strategic plan. Convert plans into goals/KPIs to be closely managed across the half/year.
Governance/Performance:Establish and manage a robust governance framework to drive accountability and decision making, enabling the business to outperform plans. Work closely with Finance for P&L oversight, promptly calling out risks and opportunities.
Program Management:Lead work streams and projects independently in cross-functional settings. Mitigate risks and obstacles to ensure project success.
Industry and competition:Continuously monitor industry trends and gather competitive intelligence to identify opportunities/threats and feed into plans/strategy.
Analytics and insights:Work closely with the data & analytics team to uncover strategic insights that help shape future plans, projects, etc. and aid regular decision making. Communicate insights into concise and well presented manner to be used in leadership forums.
Org/Operating model:Partner with Global GM to ensure the right organizational structure is in place as the business evolves.
What you'll need
The ideal candidate would be someone who has 5+ years of work experience in strategy, analytics and project/program management roles (experience in a high-growth tech startup and/ or a top-tier consulting environment highly desirable). Additional qualifications and skill sets include:
Top notch problem solving and analytical ability Exceptional communication skills with a spike on executive communication Strong program management and change management skills Strong commercial and business acumen (in food tech is a bonus) Must be able to build and deliver structured and compelling narrative including presentation material Is passionately curious about the business and the market Is able to collaborate effectively and build stakeholder relationships Is solution-oriented and practical Is ambitious, self-driven and acts like an owner Incredibly strong stakeholder manager that can hold others accountable
What we’ll provide you
We offer colleagues the opportunity to drive impact in the region while they learn and grow. As a full time Careem colleague, you will be able to:
Work and learn from great minds by joining a community of inspiring colleagues. Put your passion to work in a purposeful organisation dedicated to creating impact in a region with a lot of untapped potential. Explore new opportunities to learn and grow every day.
Work 4 days a week in office & 1 day from home, and remotely from any country in the world for 30 days a year with unlimited vacation days per year.
(If you are in an individual contributor role in tech, you will have 2 office days a week and 3 to work from home.)*
* Access to healthcare benefits and fitness reimbursements for health activities including gym, health club, and training classes.
