Location - Lucknow

Role Overview 

This is a senior system leadership role accountable for commercial planning, execution orchestration, and system integration for the Greater UP region - one of the most complex and critical operating units in the system. 

The role is designed to act as the strategic nerve center for commercial excellence, bringing together sales planning, demand forecasting, S&OP governance, regional commercial calendars, and execution diagnostics into a single, disciplined operating rhythm. The Senior Director will operate as a key thought partner to regional leadership, bottlers, and central teams, ensuring alignment between strategy, demand signals, supply feasibility, and field execution. 

The role requires exceptional system thinking, strong executive presence, and the ability to influence outcomes across a multi-bottler, multi-stakeholder environment without direct authority. 

The role will work very closely with the OU Commercial teams of INSWA and bottling partners. 

Key Responsibilities 

1. Commercial Planning, Demand Forecasting & S&OP Leadership 

• Provide strategic leadership for regional sales planning and demand forecasting, ensuring robustness, predictability, and alignment with financial and supply objectives. 

• Own S&OP governance for the region, ensuring effective integration across Commercial, Supply Chain, Finance, and Bottlers. 

• Anticipate risks, manage trade-offs, and enable scenario-based decision-making to protect service levels and execution quality. 

2. Regional Commercial Calendar Strategy & Governance 

• Set the strategic direction and governance model for the regional commercial calendar, ensuring disciplined prioritization and sequencing of initiatives. 

• Ensure full integration of commercial calendars with IQ systems and S&OP cycles, enabling clarity, ownership, and execution excellence. 

• Drive senior-level alignment across system stakeholders to minimize complexity and execution overload. 

3. Channel Strategy & System Execution Stewardship 

• Provide strategic oversight to channel strategy and execution playbooks, ensuring they are insight-led, scalable, and aligned to long-term growth priorities. 

• Guide occasions development and execution strategy to sustain relevance across channels and consumer cohorts. 

• Act as the senior system interface with bottlers to ensure consistent, high-quality execution across pre-store and in-store levers. 

4. Commercial Capability & Execution Excellence Architecture 

• Own the architecture for execution excellence across the region, including outlet expansion, cold drink expansion, BD&L effectiveness, segmented execution, and OOS management. 

• Set capability standards and expectations, leveraging the Bottler Capability Framework to guide investments, sales capability development, and execution maturity. 

• Ensure best practices are institutionalized and scaled across bottlers with varying levels of maturity. 

5. Digital, Analytics & Performance Management 

• Responsible for expansion of Coke Buddy and driving business leveraging all features of coke buddy – Adaptation, expansion and deeper usage of the tool 

• Sponsor the use of digital tools, analytics, and outlet-level insights to improve planning accuracy and execution effectiveness. 

• Provide executive ownership of Integrated Execution (IE) diagnostics, ensuring insights translate into decisive actions at bottler and regional leadership levels. 

• Establish a strong metrics-driven performance culture, using commercial and customer KPIs to guide system decisions. 

6. System Leadership & Bottler Complexity Management 

• Act as a trusted advisor to regional leadership and bottler GMs, influencing strategic choices and execution priorities. 

• Manage complexity arising from multiple bottlers, geographies, and operating models, tailoring governance and engagement accordingly. 

• Represent the region in central and enterprise forums, ensuring Greater UP priorities are clearly articulated and integrated. 

Impact of the Role 

This role is critical to strengthening system discipline, execution predictability, and commercial effectiveness in Greater UP. Success will be reflected in: 

• Stronger demand–supply alignment and S&OP maturity 

• Improved execution quality and field productivity 

• Higher strike rates, improved availability, and optimised product rotation 

• Improved NSR and system economics through better planning and prioritization 

Qualifications & Experience 

Experience 

• 16+ years of experience across commercial planning, sales leadership, channel strategy, or system roles 

• Deep experience working within franchise/bottler-led operating models is strongly preferred 

Leadership & Capability Requirements 

• Enterprise/System Thinking: Ability to operate across strategy, planning, and execution layers 

• Executive Influence: Proven ability to lead through influence in complex, matrixed systems 

• Strategic & Analytical Depth: Strong comfort with ambiguity, trade-offs, and data-driven decision-making 

• Change Leadership: Track record of building governance, discipline, and capability at scale 

Functional Expertise 

• Sales Planning & Demand Forecasting 

• S&OP Governance and System Integration 

• Commercial Calendar Design & Execution Governance 

• Channel & Shopper Strategy Oversight 

• Bottler Management and System Economics 

• Advanced Analytics, IE Diagnostics, and Performance Metrics