Director of Group Strategy in London

London or Nuneaton | Full-time | Permanent | Hybrid
We offer hybrid working, with an expectation that you'll be present in one of our H&B offices in London or Nuneaton for a minimum of 3 days a week. Travel will be required as the role demands.
The Role
The next phase of Holland & Barrett will be shaped by the choices we make now.
As Director of Group Strategy, you'll help us decide where to grow, where to invest and where we should change course.
You’ll own the enterprise strategy for Holland & Barrett and help turn our longer-term ambition into a small number of clear choices the business can act on.
That means looking beyond the next six months. Joining up thinking across the business. Challenging what we hear with an outside‑in perspective. And making sure investment decisions add value for H&B as a whole, rather than simply optimising one part of the business.
You’ll work directly with our CEO, CFO and Executive Committee, and play a visible role in Board and shareholder discussions. You’ll be expected to frame the big questions, shape the recommendation and have the confidence to challenge when needed.
There's also an opportunity to prove what a focused Strategy capability can do for H&B. You'll have the backing to show where it can make the biggest difference, establish its value and build the case for what comes next.
What You'll Be Doing
Own H&B's 3–5 year Group strategy and value-creation agenda, turning ambition into a small number of clear priorities, choices and trade-offs.
Connect customer, commercial, financial and operational thinking so decisions are made with H&B as a whole in mind.
Challenge the business to look beyond the immediate horizon, bringing a clear view of the changes that could shape H&B over the next 3–10 years.
Challenge major investment choices and business cases, making sure the economics, strategic fit and potential value creation stack up.
Look across our portfolio of strategic initiatives and growth bets, helping decide where to increase, reduce, sequence or stop investment as evidence changes.
Shape our thinking on future growth - from personalised wellness and partnerships to international opportunities, new business models, data and AI.
Bring insight from customers, competitors, science, technology, regulation and the wider health and wellness landscape into strategic decisions.
Work with Finance and senior business leaders to connect strategic choices to investment decisions, resource allocation and measurable value creation.
Lead the most important strategic questions facing H&B, turning ambiguity into clear choices, recommendations and investment implications
Establish a clear, practical Strategy approach that earns the confidence of senior leaders and demonstrates where the function can make a genuine difference.
What You'll Bring
Significant senior strategy experience, whether from strategy consulting, an in-house strategy team or a closely related discipline, with evidence that your work has influenced enterprise-level decisions.
Experience working in a complex, multi-channel business; Retail, Consumer, Health & Wellness or another customer-led environment would be particularly relevant.
A strong commercial and financial lens - you'll understand value creation, investment cases, scenario modelling and the relationship between growth, cost, cash and return.
The ability to step back from individual functions and see how the pieces fit together - and to challenge when they don't.
A natural curiosity about what is happening outside the organisation, with the confidence to question internal assumptions and bring a different perspective.
Experience influencing CEO, Executive or Board-level stakeholders, including when there are competing views, difficult trade-offs or incomplete information.
The judgement to know when to push, when to align and when the evidence means changing your own view.
Strong experience across areas such as growth strategy, M&A, partnerships, market entry, transformation or portfolio strategy would be valuable.
A direct, straight-talking style that challenges thinking without creating noise - high challenge, low ego and focused on getting to the right answer.
Benefits
Holidays
33 days, including