Senior Manager, Strategic Operations

Our Client is a dynamic and innovative oil and gas firm serving the energy needs of the Nigerian market with a renewed focus on downstream excellence, customer-centricity, and operational efficiency. Since its inception, the company has established itself as a leader in the trading, supply, and distribution of petroleum products, leveraging a massive retail network and strategic logistics infrastructure.

Embracing the next phase of growth and transformation, the organization is positioning itself for continued market leadership through enhanced execution, operational discipline, and digital advancement.

The Senior Manager, Strategic Operations is a critical leadership role designed to multiply the COO’s capacity and drive institutional transformation as the company scales across multiple countries and business lines. Operating directly within the COO's office, the role is responsible for embedding enterprise-wide operating cadence, executing digital transformation milestones, building performance management infrastructure, and ensuring integrated strategic execution across the organisation. It is a structural necessity for the next phase of growth - not discretionary and carries significant influence without direct line authority.

Key Attributes 

• Serve as a trusted execution partner to the Group COO and senior leadership, supporting delivery against key business objectives and company-wide initiatives.
• Coordinate and track progress across major strategic programes (including digital transformation and operational excellence projects), ensuring alignment, timely execution, and measurable results.
• Develop and implement practical frameworks for performance monitoring, operational governance, and project reporting.
• Work cross-functionally with Operations, Trading, Finance, and Retail teams to identify obstacles, support project delivery, and drive solutions that enable effective execution.
• Prepare clear presentations, status updates, and reporting materials for executive decision-making.
• Identify opportunities to improve business processes, support change management, and embed best practices across functions.
• Facilitate collaboration and maintain regular, effective communication between teams and key stakeholders to ensure priorities are met.

• 8–14 years post-qualification, including 3–5 years consulting (top-tier firm strongly preferred), plus 5–7 years in operational roles of increasing scope.
• Led transformation workstreams, managed cross-functional initiatives, and worked in close proximity to senior leadership.
• Structural, system-oriented thinker; designs frameworks for repeatable execution.
• Proven ability to move from consulting to hands-on transformation delivery.
• Capable of managing complexity across multi-country, multi-product environments.
• Resourceful and adaptable in emerging markets; views ambiguity and challenge as opportunity.
• Commands respect through competence, preparation, and reliable follow-through—without relying on positional power.
• Values mandate and trajectory over title; comfortable operating with a “Senior Manager” designation to enable influence and drive impact.