Lead Program Manager, Distribution

Role Overview

This role is accountable for shaping and executing the company's channel distribution transformation agenda — ensuring that the network of agents, outlets, partners, and digital platforms operates with maximum efficiency and market reach. On a day-to-day basis, you will balance strategic planning with hands-on program governance: leading cross-functional teams, building business cases, monitoring performance metrics, and removing obstacles that delay delivery. The position exists to translate ambitious commercial targets into concrete, measurable improvements across every distribution pathway, directly influencing acquisition and revenue growth.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and drive multi-year distribution transformation roadmaps, aligning them with commercial growth targets and ensuring every initiative clearly contributes to bottom-line impact.
• Lead complex, cross-functional programs across channels — including agents, outlets, partners, digital, and third-party distributors — to improve productivity, customer acquisition, market penetration, and operational cost efficiency.
• Establish program governance structures covering planning, execution, monitoring, risk mitigation, and benefits realization, so that initiatives stay on track and deliver expected value.
• Identify friction points and optimization opportunities in the existing distribution ecosystem, then define process improvements, new operating models, or channel redesigns that increase overall performance.
• Develop and validate business cases, project plans, budgets, success metrics, and implementation timelines, ensuring all sponsors and delivery teams share a clear, realistic view of scope and outcomes.
• Create and maintain dashboards and KPI frameworks that track program performance, channel health, and business impact; use these insights to make adjustments and drive continuous improvement.
• Manage executive stakeholders across functions, facilitating alignment on priorities, dependencies, and trade-offs, while communicating progress, risks, and recommendations in concise, decision-ready updates.
• Coach and support project and program team members, building the capability and accountability needed to deliver strategic objectives reliably.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in business, management, strategy, or a related discipline; recognized certifications such as PMP, PRINCE2, Lean Six Sigma, Agile Delivery, or equivalent are strongly preferred.
• Minimum 5–7 years of professional experience in fast-moving, distribution-intensive industries — ideally telecommunications, FMCG, or retail — with substantial exposure to channel or network operations.
• Demonstrated track record of leading large-scale, cross-functional transformation programs from inception through to measurable delivery, not just supporting parts of them.
• Advanced senior stakeholder management, with credible, confident influencing at executive level across commercial, financial, operations, and technology functions.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen, including the ability to build compelling business cases, evaluate investment choices, and articulate trade-offs in terms of revenue, cost, and channel contribution.
• Advanced data analytics and problem-solving abilities — comfortable working with channel performance data, market trends, and financial models to diagnose issues and validate solutions.
• Exceptional communication, negotiation, and presentation skills, capable of simplifying complexity for varied audiences and securing commitment to ambitious programs.
• Highly organized multitasker who thrives on managing multiple workstreams, dependencies, and deadlines in a dynamic, ever-changing environment.