Director, Strategy & Planning

Location(s):

United States of America

City/Cities:

Atlanta

Travel Required:

00% - 25%

Relocation Provided:

Yes

Job Posting End Date:

March 6, 2026

Shift:

Job Description Summary:

The Director of Strategy & Planning is a strategy leader responsible for shaping the growth agenda for one of the most iconic brand partnerships in the world—across the U.S. and Canada. This role sets the strategic vision for our joint business, translating complex data, market dynamics, and consumer insights into bold, actionable growth strategies for both annual plan and long-term plans.

Operating at the intersection of strategy, analytics, and executive influence, this leader partners closely with senior strategy and planning executives of our key customer and with strategy leaders across Coke’s North America Operating Unit (NAOU) to tackle the business’s most critical questions: Where to play, how to win, and how to scale impact.

This role is ideal for a strategic leader who thrives in ambiguous environments and is motivated by turning insight into enterprise level action.

What You’ll Do

• Define the growth agenda: Lead end-to-end strategy development for key business initiatives—framing the problem, identifying opportunities, and driving clear strategic choices.  Key focus on Value and Affordability.

• Set the vision: Lead NA Planning in collaboration with cross functional leaders.  This includes ABP, LRP and CBD. This leader balances both near- and long-term strategies and is a critical player in ensuring success in delivering annual plans.

• Serve as a trusted thought partner: Act as a senior advisor to Customer and Coca-Cola leadership, influencing decisions through rigorous analysis, compelling narratives, and executive ready recommendations.

• Leverage world‑class data & insights: Synthesize syndicated, proprietary, and customer data to uncover growth drivers, diagnose performance, and size opportunities.

• Orchestrate high impact research: Partner with top tier agencies and internal teams to design and lead largescale research programs that inform strategy, innovation, and long-term planning

• Commercialize strategy: Translate strategy into action by developing clear activation plans, storytelling tools, and routines that embed strategic thinking across the organization.

• Operate as a connector: Bridge enterprise strategy and field execution, ensuring alignment across functions, partners, and leadership teams. Works closely with NAOU Strategy team to bring enterprise strategies to customer team.

What Success Looks Like

• Strategies that shape senior leadership decisions and influence long-range plans

• Clear, compelling points of view on growth that cut through complexity

• Insights that move beyond “what happened” to “what should we do next”

• Strong partnerships built on credibility, trust, and strategic impact

Additional Responsibilities:

• Additional Responsibilities include routine interaction with leadership to ensure analytics & insights are embedded in their business decisions; direct interactions expected with NA cross-functional teams (e.g., Sales, Finance, Marketing, etc.), International Insights & Marketing teams, and broader NAOU Community (e.g., insights, strategy, brand, etc.)

• This role will also support the Field with Tier two insights support as a secondary role (a strategic consultant helping solve problems/answer big questions for the Field).

Required Skills:

• Problem framing and solving: structuring and leading complex / ambiguous cross-functional analyses, initiatives, or efforts 

• Synthesis and storytelling: communicate to and influence stakeholders through a structured, fact-based, and action-oriented storytelling approach 

• Facilitation skills: effectively structure and lead conversations to generate actionable outcomes and progress 

• Strategic consulting support: serve as internal advisor to leadership / other cross-functional teams and promote agile ways of working 

• Influence and engage senior management and business peers: develop and communicate POV on strategic direction and actions to be taken using the power of data, insights, and the integration of holistic analysis 

• Stakeholder management: identify, influence, align, and engage key stakeholders 

Required Work Experience:

Minimum:

• 8+ years of experience in strategy, insights, brand, customer, business intelligence, and/or guest research

• Experience in data driven decision making and analytics

Preferred:

• MBA

• 5+ years of experience in marketing analytics and/or guest research

• Consumer packaged goods experience

• Consulting background

• Experience with QSR/FSOP Customer

• Knowledge of Coca-Cola System

• Knowledge of both US and Canadian market

Location:

This role will be based in Atlanta, GA with routine business travel to Chicago, IL and Canada.  This role requires 50% of time in office/with customer and up to 25% travel. 

All persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form (Form I-9) upon hire.

Skills:

Analytics, Critical Thinking, Customer Insights, Data-Driven Decision Making, Problem Solving, Stakeholder Management, Strategic Consulting, Strategic Storytelling, Strategy Development

Pay Range:

$164,000 - $193,000

Base pay offered may vary depending on geography, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. A full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the position, is offered.

Annual Incentive Reference Value Percentage:

30

Annual Incentive reference value is a market-based competitive value for your role. It falls in the middle of the range for your role, indicating performance at target.

Our Purpose and Growth Culture:

We are taking deliberate action to nurture an inclusive culture that is grounded in our company purpose, to refresh the world and make a difference. We act with a growth mindset, take an expansive approach to what’s possible and believe in continuous learning to improve our business and ourselves. We focus on four key behaviors – curious, empowered, inclusive and agile – and value how we work as much as what we achieve. We believe that our culture is one of the reasons our company continues to thrive after 130+ years. Visit Our Purpose and Vision to learn more about these behaviors and how you can bring them to life in your next role at Coca-Cola.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, status as a veteran, and basis of disability or any other federal, state or local protected class. When we collect your personal information as part of a job application or offer of employment, we do so in accordance with industry standards and best practices and in compliance with applicable privacy laws.