Head of Strategy & Pricing

Job title

Head of Strategy & Pricing

Grade

Stream

OQ Marketing

Function

Global Marketing

Location

Oman - Muscat

Budget control

Reporting to

VP Global Marketing

Direct reports

5

Job purpose

Drive for sustainable business growth through the development and implementation of global marketing strategies and digitalization initiatives, enhancing customer experience, promoting customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention, market intelligence & pricing ​development and management driving profitability

1. Development and implementation of Global marketing strategies and efforts to strengthen OQ company's market position and achieve desired business goals.
2. Leading the enhancement of the OQ customer experience, driving customer related actions to improve customer loyalty and satisfaction by ensuring the successful continued implementation of segmentation and the focus of OQ marketing resources.
3. Implementing new initiatives to further drive business growth, including follow up on defined activities including monitoring and continuous reporting,
4. Develop and implement pricing strategies to maximize profitability for OQ. Working closely with sales, marketing, and finance teams to analyze market trends, competitor pricing, and customer behavior to determine optimal pricing structures for products or services. Ensuring that OQ achieves its financial goals while maintaining a competitive position in the market.
5. Providing Market Intelligence to the organization that supports price setting as well as business planning and other crucial business decision making processes.
6. Manages the Branding & communication key activities; in order to secure potential customer attraction, maximize the netback from customer & retain the existing ones.

The position will act in accordance with the Group’s Mission, Vision, Values & Strategies, as well as, policies, guidelines and international standards, supported by an IT Technology platform, HSE standards, Omani’s government & other legal justification’s, and best international practices in consonance with national objectives.

Main tasks and responsibilities 

Customer Experience:

• Improve customer loyalty & satisfaction with tailored service levels as well as managing resources with focused actions ​
• Leads customer satisfaction survey & action implementation​
• Customer Segmentation: Drive customer segmentation process and implementation of CAP’s & reporting performance
• Facilitate and support all customer related projects.​
• ​Drives digitalization & automation giving r​eal time insights & automation for proactive decision making​
• Strengthen marketing policies & procedures compliance and governance​

Strategy development & Implementation

• Direct, organize, develop, and lead the implementation of strategic marketing plans.

• Lead the updating of all marketing processes and procedures for all products including domestic & international markets
• Drive the customer segmentation process aligned with management guidelines and in collaboration with stakeholders to ensure an effective Customer Business Model, ensuring high quality customer retention, focus and allocation resources maximizing value creation
• Lead performance and reporting of current Channels to market as well as support the development of new channels and update processes, procedures and contracts.
• Lead the preparation of strategy presentations MD OQM & BoD under requests

Implementation of Projects

• Lead the development of Marketing solutions for assigned Commercial Projects in order to enhance the efficiency of Polymers portfolio & services
• Initiate strategy development on defined target topics and align overall Marketing topics and special projects
• Lead the development of the strategic / marketing plan indicating the steps a team will use to achieve a shared objective, covering all aspects of a project including:  budget, timeline, and personnel requirements.
• Compile and transform input from various cross functions global marketing, sales, finance and management into a strategic marketing context.
• Build a strong rapport with the internal and external stakeholders
• Discover any/all unidentified product needs, and work with Solutions to scope out and troubleshoot tech issues.
• Scanning and analysing relevant commercial information like economic developments, industry news services, market trends, customer inputs, and competitor information. Draw fact-based conclusions and initiate action if required
• Track profitability and status of proposed programs and improvement projects
• Participate in strategically relevant projects

Pricing

• Develop and implement pricing strategies and policies in line with the company's overall goals and objectives.
• Conduct market research and analysis to identify pricing trends, customer preferences, and competitor pricing strategies.
• Collaborate with sales and marketing teams to set target prices for new and existing products or services based on cost analysis, market demand, and competitive positioning.
• Monitor and review pricing performance against targets, making necessary adjustments to pricing strategies as required.
• Regularly analyse pricing data, including cost inputs, pricing models, and market variables, to identify opportunities for optimization and pricing improvements.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to develop pricing structures, discounts, and promotional strategies to maximize revenue and profitability.
• Track and evaluate the impact of pricing actions on sales volumes, customer satisfaction, and overall business performance.
• Provide pricing guidance and support to sales teams, ensuring they have the necessary tools and training to effectively communicate and negotiate pricing with customers.
• Prepare and present pricing reports, dashboards, and recommendations to senior management, highlighting key insights and opportunities for improvement.
• Stay up-to-date with industry trends, market dynamics, and regulatory changes that may impact pricing strategies.

Market Intelligence

• Enable OQ to set well informed prices with high quality Market Intelligence materials on olefins and polyolefins markets
• Provide insights on analysing mid to long term macroeconomics impacting market and competitor developments to enable strategy formation and decision making
• Give insight to stakeholders through the evaluation of reports and data giving recommendations on pricing and others
• Present Market dynamics and outlook to key stakeholders to allow for key decision making and business planning
• Rationalize market intelligence requirements to ensure and maintain relevance targeting polyolefin reports
• Lead knowledge sharing through key collaborations with partners, vendors and stakeholders
• Monitor cash margins across OQ regions and communicate competitor positioning to enhance price setting.

Marketing Communications

• Lead the development of OQM key messaging and branding for field marketing events and conferences.
• Promote digitalization initiatives including driving the development of E-commerce solutions
• Develop and maintain the company's brand identity, ensuring consistency across all communication channels.
• Oversee the development of marketing materials, including advertising campaigns, website content, and sales collateral.
• Ensuring that OQ products & services are well-understood and valued by current and potential customers.
• Up-skilling local resources by training them, providing external and international exposure, and putting a succession plan in place.
• Direct and lead the preparation of strategy presentations VP & MD under requests.
• Support Polymer Marketing business facilitates customer commitment mapping along with MarCom strategy development, annual planning & budgeting, delivery, and performance monitoring.

Key interactions

Internal: Sales and Marketing, Central Lab, Supply Chain, Operations, Process Optimization, QC/QA Lab

External: Customers, Third-party Labs, Universities, Licensors, Vendors - Lab Equipment’s, Plastics Machineries, Additives

Notable Working Conditions. Office environment, intensive computer screen use, traveling

Education requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Engineering, Marketing, Management or similar.

Language requirements

English fluent is the minimum requirement, local language depending on position location

Background and experience

Competencies and skills

• +10 years of overall experience in the polymer industry
• Influence and integrate with individuals and across teams to execute against strategic plans and drive profitable growth
• Collaboration skills especially in interaction with cross-functional partners
• Global or key account management and customer segmentation implementation experience required,
• In depth knowledge of polymer manufacturing and conversion techniques
• In depth knowledge of polymer and upstream monomer industry and drivers including market intelligence gathering and use.
• Strong understanding of price development and strategies
• Strong understanding of marketing strategy, planning issues, budgeting, priority setting
• Strong understanding of sales success techniques and strategies
• Experience navigating complex work processes, tight timelines, and changing teams
• Solid understanding of technical / engineering terminology
• In depth knowledge of marketing management, marketing intelligence and S&OP tolls and processes
• Ability to understand customer needs and translate it into new product development
• Strong Commercial expertise

•    Ability to define new processes and capabilities demonstrated comfort with ambiguity and willingness to lead in an uncertain environment
•    Ability to ‘simplify the complex’

•    Can think creatively and develop messaging/ branding and value propositions for the products

• Strong management & leadership skills to lead all aspects of strategy process
• Able to work collaboratively across all levels.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and multi-cultural sensitivity.
• Experience leading a team of professionals, preferably in the polymer industry
• Experienced in resource control and general management

Technical:

• Computer literate with expertise in MS Office.
• Polymer Marketing
• Industry Marketing (development & Segments)
• Strategic planning and marketing

• Financial literacy
• Polymer conversion and operations
• Channel Management techniques
• Implementation of Projects