Strategy & Competitive Intelligence Principal

**Strategy and Competitive Intelligence Principal**
- ** Play a key role in setting and delivering Pacific National's strategy**:

- ** Work with high-profile leaders and industry experts**:

- ** Forge a career in an ambitious business with a great culture**:

- ** Competitive remuneration + incentive structure**:

- ** Permanent full-time opportunity based in our North Sydney office**

**About us**

Pacific National (PN) deliver what matters. We are the largest provider of diversified rail freight services in Australia. We haul millions of tonnes of freight every year including household goods, food and drink, construction and manufacturing materials, steel, bulk commodities including grain and minerals, coal, and other materials which keep Australian businesses running and the economy moving.

At Pacific National, we take great pride in delivering our best every day and have a relentless focus on customer service and place **safety above all else**.

We operate nationally with approximately 3,500 staff in over 90+ sites across Australia. We respect and care for the communities in which we operate and continue to evolve our community engagement and strengthen relationships through partnerships and investment. We are focused on reducing the carbon emissions of our business, while also enabling the reduction of carbon emissions in the broader supply chain to support the National targets.

**About the role**

The Strategy & Competitive Intelligence Principal is a rational and objective advisor, a curious and creative thought partner, and an intellectually robust architect of critical thinking analysis.

You will have the ability to synthesise a wide universe of information into specific, actionable recommendations to enable PN's leaders make better decisions which deliver for our customers and keep PN ahead of the competition.

Your energy and communication skills build clarity and enthusiasm for PN's strategy in the board room, the office, and at operational sites equally.

Key responsibilities include:

- Gather and synthesise intelligence on PN's external and internal environments, and evaluate its near
- and long-term implications for PN into concise information
- Evaluate risks and opportunities for PN's strategy over various time horizons and incorporate this into management of the enterprise strategy
- Communicate the implications of these insights to Executives, Senior Leaders, the Resilience, ESG, and Commercial functions, and others as appropriate
- Support the Executive and Senior Leadership Teams in developing PN's Enterprise Strategy and its subcomponents including the customer value proposition and commercial, operational, and adjacency strategies for each of PN's markets
- In close collaboration with Commercial, Operations, and Property, develop PN's customer value proposition and cultivate sustainable competitive advantage by segmenting customers and matching tailored service offerings to their needs in a way which is difficult for competitors to replicate
- Conduct wargaming and scenario analysis
- On the basis of PN's market intelligence, divide addressable markets into customer segments based on buying behaviour and prioritise their pursuit and determine PN's tailored value proposition for each target segment
- Review corridor and customer profitability, evaluate against market conditions, competitor behaviour and PN's own performance, capabilities and value proposition
- Support PN's business functions on a limited basis where a clear need for a strategy skillset is required to support specific programs or situations
- Evaluate and monitor the resilience of PN's strategy against climate change, ensuring alignment with Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures ('TCFD') requirements

**About you**

To be successful in this role you will need to be a structured thinker and have excellent written and verbal communication skills. You will have a strong, warm, and trust-driven leadership style which enables you to develop strong internal stakeholder relationships across the organisation. Your strong attention to detail in work planning, analysis, and production of deliverables will underpin sound decision making at the seniormost levels of the company. You may have completed tertiary qualifications in business, economics, engineering, law, pollical science or other related discipline, though we understand that capability comes from many different backgrounds.
- A well-developed strategy skillset, typically achieved through 5 years' experience in a leading management consulting firm or equivalent environment such as in-house strategy, private equity or investment banking
- Experience in any sector which is capital-intensive, linked to supply chain and logistics, and/or which displays a concentrated market structure
- Market research experience, conducting market research and analysis to inform strategic decision-making, including both macroeconomic and t