Head of Strategic Planning

Overview

As Head of Strategy & Planning for Tesco Media, you lead a 19‑strong, multidisciplinary team to connect strategy with execution and accelerate revenue growth. You set vision and standards for the function, evolve planning from channel-led to integrated, insight-led approaches, and partner across commercial, product, and measurement teams. Your work shapes client conversations, is rooted in customer insight, and drives scalable, high‑impact growth for Tesco Media. You’ll lead thought leadership and elevate the company’s market position.

Pay / Benefits

• flexible working hours
• birthday leave
• private medical cover through Vitality
• life assurance and income protection
• wellbeing and lifestyle benefits
• pension contributions

Responsibilities

• Set the vision, priorities and standards for Strategy & Planning
• Evolve planning from channel-led to integrated, insight-led commercial planning
• Balance long-term growth with in-year performance
• Partner with commercial leaders to identify growth opportunities and ensure execution
• Translate client, category and sales demand into priorities for propositions, GTM, product development and resource allocation
• Build scalable planning frameworks, playbooks, tools and reusable growth models
• Lead strategic planning for major clients (annual and multi-year growth plans)
• Develop service models for different client groups and partners
• Support strategic, insight-led client conversations and grow revenue streams
• Embed customer insight across planning, proposition development and market narratives
• Develop trend-led and category insight to strengthen client conversations
• Create automated tools to improve planning quality, speed and scale
• Ground recommendations in evidence and connect them to measurable outcomes
• Establish governance, prioritisation and resource-planning processes across functions
• Shape the future design of the function, including structure, responsibilities and development priorities
• Oversee programme management for strategic workstreams and collateral
• Partner with Marketing to shape thought leadership and industry narratives
• Represent Tesco Media in senior client, agency and industry forums
• Turn retail media and category trends into actionable growth opportunities
• Build recognition for Tesco Media’s effectiveness, innovation and creativity
• Lead, coach and develop a high-performing, inclusive team with clear development paths
• Set expectations, decision rights and measures of success
• Create a culture of curiosity, collaboration and continuous improvement

Key requirements

• Significant leadership experience within media strategy, retail media, commercial strategy, customer insight, strategic planning, or agency/client environments
• Strong track record of developing commercial strategies that deliver client and revenue growth
• Experience leading, coaching and developing high-performing, multidisciplinary teams
• Ability to translate complex customer data into clear, commercially compelling strategies
• Confidence influencing senior stakeholders and delivering through cross-functional teams in a matrix environment
• Strong media-planning knowledge and understanding of how planning contributes to commercial performance
• Experience building, scaling or transforming a team, function or operating model
• Excellent storytelling, facilitation and communication skills
• Judgement to prioritise, challenge constructively and turn strategy into action
• Experience in retail media or agency planning leadership is valuable
• Experience with client growth planning, joint business planning, thought leadership, industry events or market-facing activity beneficial

• storytelling and facilitation
• inclusive leadership and talent development
• commercial thinking and stakeholder management
• media-planning knowledge
• translation of customer data and insight into strategies
• insight-led planning principles

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