Head of Strategic Execution

Job Advert Summary

This is an opportunity for a commercially sharp, execution-obsessed, collaborative leader to own Macsteel's strategic agenda — accountable to the executive team for turning intent into impact. The Head of Strategic Execution owns the capability that translates high-level strategic objectives into precise, business-unit-specific execution programmes, and carries direct accountability for seeing them through. The role directs deep-dive investigations into targeted aspects of the business — pressure-testing performance, benchmarking against industry trends, and determining where the organisation must optimise, innovate, or fundamentally rethink how it operates and competes. This is a role to challenge convention, setting the agenda for efficiency and innovation ahead of the curve, and bringing forward bold, rigorously substantiated recommendations that shape executive decision-making. Once decisions are made, the individual owns their execution end-to-end — directing action across business units, holding functional leaders to account, and ensuring nothing agreed in the boardroom is lost on the way to implementation. The role also carries full accountability for the closure of risk management initiatives across the Group to build resilience, and for keeping the executive team continuously informed and decision-ready.

Minimum Requirements

• BCom Accounting, Finance, Economics, or related degree (Honours or a postgraduate qualification such as an MBA preferred)
• 10+ years of experience in financial analysis, business partnering, strategy execution, or management consulting, including several years in a senior leadership or executive capacity within a complex, multi-business-unit organisation
• Experience as an individual contributor owning the translation of strategic objectives into measurable, business-unit-level programmes, with accountability for delivery
• Demonstrated commercial leadership and an innovation mindset — able to set the agenda for benchmarking against industry trends, challenge conventional thinking, and directly drive disruptive efficiency and optimisation opportunities across business units
• Proven track record directing execution of decisions across multiple stakeholders, with the authority and gravitas to hold business unit leaders accountable and bring initiatives to closure
• Experience owning risk management frameworks and risk registers, with accountability for driving closure of risk actions across a business
• Strong business acumen with the authority to apply financial analysis to substantiate and defend recommendations made to executives.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel, PowerPoint, and AI skills
• Experience owning business case development, executive-level review packs, and options appraisals
• Executive presence and stakeholder influence, with the seniority to engage as a peer with business unit leadership and Exco, while remaining hands-on enough to drive execution directly

Duties and Responsibilities

Strategic Programme Ownership & Business Enablement

• Own the translation of Exco projects & objectives into clear, business-unit-specific execution programmes, setting the measures, targets and tracking mechanisms for each business imperative
• Direct business unit leadership on execution requirements, holding them accountable for delivery against agreed targets
• Establish and own the Group's consolidated tracking view of executive projects, reporting progress and exceptions directly to Exco
• Determine where performance is off-track or optimisation opportunities exist, and decide the recommended course of action for executive ratification
• Take personal accountability for the quality, accuracy and defensibility of the financial and business analysis underpinning every recommendation, including quantified impact, cost and risk, presented to executives

Deep-Dive Business Analysis & Innovation Leadership

• Direct deep-dive analytical investigations into targeted aspects of the business, setting the investigative agenda in consultation with executives, and going beyond routine reporting to uncover root causes and hidden value
• Own the externally-informed, industry-aware lens applied to each business unit — benchmarking performance, cost structures, and operating models against relevant industry and market trends
• Set the agenda for innovative thinking within each business unit around efficiency, cost optimisation, and new ways of operating, rather than allowing the status quo to persist
• Hold business units accountable for looking beyond prevailing industry norms, directing opportunities to disrupt convention and position Macsteel ahead of the market rather than reacting to it
• Own the translation of deep-dive findings into sharp, practical, well-substantiated recommendations that shape executive decision-making

Direction & Accountability for Executive & Board Decision Execution

• Own execution of decisions taken by the executive team, holding business units accountable for consistent, coordinated, timeous implementation
• Hold overall accountability for continuity of agreed actions — directing ownership, timelines and interdependencies across multiple business units and workstreams
• Intervene directly with business unit stakeholders to unblock delivery issues, escalating only where genuine executive-level authority is required
• Report to executives on execution progress, taking accountability for the accuracy and completeness of that reporting

Risk Management & Value-Add Initiative Ownership

• Own the closure of risk management and value-add initiatives and action items across the organisation, directing risk owners in each business unit
• Own the Group's consolidated risk initiative tracker, taking accountability for status, root cause, mitigating actions, owners and closure timelines
• Determine when stalled or high-exposure risk items require executive escalation, and bring forward clear, substantiated recommendations for resolution
• Own periodic risk closure reporting to the executive team

Business Partnering & Organisational Influence

• Build and own strong working relationships with business unit leadership, driving their understanding and ownership of strategic objectives and risk actions
• Apply strong business acumen and financial analysis, taking personal accountability for the integrity of every recommendation made to executives
• Direct the coordination of inputs across operations, sales, finance, and other functions, maintaining a comprehensive and current view of strategic and risk initiatives