Strategic Planning Manager - CAI Marketplace Strategy & Initiatives

Strategic Planning Manager - CAI Marketplace Strategy & Initiatives

Location:

Hybrid, Atlanta, GA preferred

Travel: 0-25%

Manheim's digital operations teams, spanning inventory management, trade desk consulting, operational support, and program management, are the engine behind millions of client interactions. As digital scales, we need someone who can modernize team processes end-to-end, driving greater internal efficiency through data, tooling, automation, and reporting, while supporting a heightened client experience. That's where the Strategic Planning Manager comes in. You'll shape and execute strategic initiatives that redesign how our internal operations run, designing future-state processes that raise the bar across the marketplace.

You'll dig into the data to size up where our current processes fall short, track trends as new solutions roll out, and own the roadmap of process, reporting, and technology improvements that gets us there, partnering across the company to influence priorities and drive the work forward. This is how you'll make an impact: by blending structured, data-driven problem solving with the practical judgment to turn frameworks into realistic solutions for complex, cross-functional challenges.

If you've built your career untangling ambiguous problems and want to see your recommendations through to real results, we want to hear from you.

• Map current-state, end-to-end business processes across impacted teams, identifying handoffs, dependencies, and points of friction, both internally and for the client experience.
• Determine what additional data analysis is needed to confirm where gaps or challenges exist in current processes, and lead that analysis with process owners and boundary partners.
• Design future-state processes that close identified gaps, using structured process design methods and tools.
• Track trends and progress as new solutions are implemented, digging into the data to surface what's working, what isn't, and what to change next.
• Document current- and future-state process maps and supporting materials for both technical and executive audiences.

• Build quantified, well-supported business cases for process improvement initiatives, including cost-benefit analysis, resource requirements, and expected outcomes.
• Partner with the business, finance, and analytics to validate assumptions and pressure-test the numbers behind each recommendation.
• Align stakeholders and enable teams with clear written and verbal communications across customer, partners, and executives
• Own the roadmap of process, reporting, and technology improvements needed to close identified gaps, sequenced and time-bound against operational goals.
• Conduct post-implementation reviews to assess impact against the business case, and recommend further changes based on the trends and results observed.

• Build deep relationships with core business partners to anticipate their business needs and serve as a thought partner in building future processes and capabilities
• Own project plans, milestones, dependencies, and risks for assigned initiatives, keeping delivery on track and surfacing issues early.
• Identify the stakeholders and teams impacted by each change, and work directly with them to design solutions that land well for everyone involved.
• Influence cross-functional partners and stakeholders without direct authority, building trust through clear rationale and data-backed recommendations.
• Lead change and execution thoughtfully balancing speed, discipline, measurement and tolerance for risk
• Manage change through education, training, and clear communication, then follow up post-implementation to confirm adoption and capture lessons learned.

• Bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, business, or a related field and 6 years' experience in consulting, process improvement, operations, or financial analysis. The right candidate could also have a different combination, such as a master's degree and 4 years' experience; a Ph.D. and 1 year of experience; or 10 years' experience in a related field.
• Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional projects or programs in a complex, matrixed environment.
• Proven experience building business cases and cost-benefit analyses that influence executive decision-making.
• Strong process…