Global Workforce Planning & Optimization Strategist

About the Role

The Global Workforce Planning & Optimization Strategist will establish and evolve Mars’s enterprise strategic workforce planning (SWP) capability within the newly established Workforce and Organizational Effectiveness Center of Excellence (COE). This high-impact position involves designing and implementing the enterprise SWP signature process—establishing governance, frameworks, and metrics—while balancing centralized guidelines with decentralized execution across Mars’s diverse business units. You will lead enterprise-wide SWP initiatives, advise on priority business-unit projects, and collaborate closely with business, finance, strategy, commercial, and people data analytics teams. This role is pivotal in shifting the organization toward proactive, data-driven workforce decisions and scalable capability building.

Responsibilities

• Enterprise Frameworks & Governance
  • Set the enterprise direction for strategic workforce planning including the vision, priorities, and roadmap.
  • Establish enterprise WFP framework including guiding principles, processes, roles/responsibilities, governance, and metrics.
  • Integrate workforce planning into existing business cadences, including financial planning, enterprise risk management, and strategic reviews.
  • Integrate future of work/AI transformation principles, concepts, and tools into WFP framework.
  • Partner with enterprise and business unit stakeholders to pilot and evolve the enterprise SWP signature process.
  • Lead enterprise SWP governance forums to drive shared ownership among P&O, finance, strategy, and other key stakeholders.
  • Continuously refine frameworks and resources based on adoption, evolving business needs, and leading industry practices.
• Strategic Advisory & Projects
  • Lead enterprise-level SWP analysis, connecting business capabilities and workforce implications.
  • Develop and deploy scenario-based modeling capabilities to analyze workforce implications of business strategies, AI, and organizational design changes.
  • Provide expert counsel on the workforce impact of AI, automation, and digital labor trends, including effects on productivity, workforce mix, and future capabilities.
  • Translate complex quantitative analysis into compelling narratives and executive-level recommendations to enable decisive action.
  • Advise on use cases and business requirements for SWP data and technology solutions (e.g., data governance and integration, Workday Adaptive, Anaplan, OrgVue, Visier).
• Capability Building & Continuous Innovation
  • Architect and deploy scalable playbooks and toolkits to operationalize SWP signature process.
  • Establish and implement SWP capability roadmap including people, process, and technology requirements and milestones.
  • Maintain perspective on emerging workforce transformation concepts, tools, and benchmarks—integrating these into enterprise frameworks and projects.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Organizational Development, Business, I/O Psychology, Strategy, or a related field. A Master’s degree (e.g., MBA, I/O Psychology) is preferred.
• Minimum of 10 years of progressive experience in strategic workforce planning, workforce transformation, and organizational design with an enterprise or global scope.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience in Management Consulting advising large, complex organizations on workforce planning and transformation OR 10 years of in-house experience at a global, multi-business unit company, serving in an enterprise team / COE for workforce planning/transformation.
• Proven experience building and scaling enterprise SWP frameworks and capabilities within complex, matrixed organizations (CPG or medical services preferred).
• Experience with workforce of the future concepts including: future of work frameworks/tools, operating model evolution, skills-based workforce, AI-enabled workforce, workforce intelligence.
• Experience leading workforce transformation engagements related to AI/automation, assessing workforce impacts and advising senior leaders on workforce implications.
• Deep expertise translating business strategy into workforce implications and driving workforce decisions.
• Experience with WFP platforms (e.g., Anaplan, Workday Adaptive, Orgvue, Visier) and a strong understanding of HR/Finance data ecosystems (Workday experience required).
• Experience leading complex, cross-functional enterprise projects and partnering with senior leaders across HR, finance, and strategy.
• Exceptional stakeholder management and influencing skills, with a proven ability to serve as a trusted advisor, facilitate senior-level decisions, and build executive-ready narratives.
• Strong analytical and data storytelling skills, with experience using workforce, financial, and business data to model scenarios and generate actionable insights.

Benefits

• Work with diverse and talented Associates, all guided by The Five Principles.
• Join a purpose-driven company, striving to build the world we want tomorrow, today.
• A strong focus on learning and development support from day one, including access to Mars University.
• An industry-competitive salary and benefits package, including company bonus.

Pay

The base pay range for this position at commencement of employment is USD 169,840.00 - USD 233,530.00. The total compensation package includes variable pay, medical and dental benefits, participation in a 401k plan, and paid time off benefits. Base pay may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience.