Workforce Planner

Job Purpose

• Own and manage the end-to-end integrated workforce planning for GMCA by translating strategic priorities and marketing demand into executable capacity, capability, skills, sourcing and cost plans.
• The role optimises deployment across internal squads, multiple operating model parameters, specialist teams, Centers of Excellence, agencies, vendors and approved digital agents Agentic A.I; provides forward-looking insight for trade-off decisions and strengthens delivery predictability, utilisation, capability and value realisation.
• The incumbent also leads the responsible introduction of agentic workforce capabilities, ensuring that human and digital work are designed, governed and measured as one operating system.

Key stakeholders

• Marketing Operations leadership and squad leadership
• GMCA business and marketing stakeholders
• Finance, Procurement, Risk, Compliance, HR and technology partners
• Centres of Excellence, travelling experts, agencies and vendors
• Data, workflow, MarTech, automation and AI enablement teams

Key accountabilities

Strategic demand and workforce planning

• Own the rolling forecast workforce plan across strategic, quarterly and sprint horizons, aligned to QBR priorities, campaign pipelines, release plans and operational commitments.
• Convert demand into skills, role, effort, timing, cost and sourcing requirements; expose capacity gaps, constraints, dependencies and decision points early.
• Build scenarios for changing demand, priority shifts, leave, attrition, specialist bottlenecks, agency mix and digital-agent augmentation.
• Facilitate evidence-based trade-off decisions and maintain a clear record of assumptions, choices, risks and impacts.

Capacity, allocation and flow optimisation

• Lead data-led allocation of work across squads, travelling experts, Centres of Excellence, agencies, vendors and digital capacity.
• Balance throughput, utilisation, service levels, cost, skill fit and sustainable team load while protecting critical marketing outcomes.
• Monitor backlog health, work ageing, work in progress, planned versus unplanned demand, bottlenecks and delivery dependencies.
• Partner with agile and delivery leaders to improve planning discipline, readiness, prioritisation and flow across the marketing release train.

Workforce analytics and decision intelligence

• Own trusted workforce planning data, definitions, models and dashboards across demand, capacity, utilisation, skills, cost, delivery and service performance.
• Produce forecasts, variance analysis and actionable insights for operational and executive forums; distinguish signal from noise and recommend decisions.
• Establish data-quality controls and reconcile workforce, workflow, financial, time-tracking and supplier data.
• Use scenario analysis and leading indicators to anticipate constraints rather than only reporting historical performance.

Agentic workforce planning and work redesign

• Identify repeatable, rules-based and information-intensive work suitable for automation or approved AI-agent augmentation, while retaining human accountability for judgement and risk.
• Decompose workflows into tasks and determine the best-fit delivery source: human, agency, system automation, AI assistant or governed AI agent.
• Model digital-agent capacity, availability, cost, quality, exception rates and human oversight requirements alongside human capacity.
• Partner with technology, data, risk and business owners to define guardrails, access controls, approval points, monitoring and escalation paths.
• Pilot and scale agentic use cases using clear hypotheses, baseline measures and benefits tracking; stop or redesign use cases that do not meet quality, safety or value thresholds.
• Build workforce readiness through practical AI literacy, prompt and context design, human-agent collaboration, workflow orchestration and adoption support.

Commercial, supplier and financial management

• Integrate workforce plans with budget, transfer-pricing, statement-of-work and supplier commitments.
• Optimise the internal, agency, vendor and digital-resource mix based on value, capability, responsiveness, risk and total cost of delivery.
• Monitor forecast versus actual effort and cost, investigate variances and recommend corrective action.
• Provide capacity evidence for supplier negotiations, commissioning decisions and insource, outsource, automate or augment choices.

Governance, service management and risk

• Operate clear workforce planning services, intake routes, prioritisation rules, service levels, exception management and escalation paths.
• Ensure workforce decisions comply with applicable governance, privacy, security, model-risk, procurement, financial and people requirements.
• Maintain auditable planning assumptions, access controls, decision logs and performance records for human and digital work.
• Continuously improve planning processes, controls, standards and service experience.

Leadership, stakeholder enablement and change

• Lead and develop the workforce planning capability, set clear outcomes and create a high-accountability, psychologically safe environment. • Influence senior stakeholders through concise options, transparent implications and a recommended course of action. • Build planning capability across MOPS through playbooks, coaching, self-service insights and structured planning rituals. • Create strong partnerships across Finance, HR, Procurement, Risk, Technology, agencies and Centres of Excellence. • Ensure all personal development activities are completed within agreed timeframes and performance standards, fostering continuous growth as a vendor management professional. Identify personal development opportunities e.g., relevant training courses to enhance expertise in workforce planning, keeping skills and industry knowledge up-to-date.

Candidate profile

• Essential qualification: Relevant bachelor's degree or advanced diploma NQF Level 7 or equivalent in business, operations, analytics, industrial engineering, human resources, marketing, finance, information systems or a related discipline, .
• Preferred qualification: Honours or postgraduate qualification in business, operations, analytics, workforce planning, industrial engineering, HR, digital transformation or a related discipline.
• Preferred certifications: One or more relevant certifications in strategic workforce planning, agile delivery, project/programme management, data analytics, change management, process improvement, responsible AI or an enterprise workflow platform. Certifications should support capability but should not substitute for demonstrated delivery experience.
• Minimum experience: Typically 8 to 12 years of relevant experience in workforce planning, capacity management, operations, delivery management or resource optimisation, including at least 3 years leading people or a significant enterprise-wide planning capability. Marketing, creative, agency, professional-services or other project-based operating environments are strongly advantageous.

Essential experience

• Building and operating strategic, tactical and operational workforce plans in a complex multi-team environment.
• Forecasting demand and capacity; scenario modelling; skills-based planning; workload allocation; utilisation and cost analysis.
• Working with agile or product-based delivery, including quarterly planning, backlogs, sprints, dependencies and release coordination.
• Developing executive dashboards and translating data into practical trade-off decisions.
• Managing a blended delivery ecosystem that may include employees, contractors, agencies, vendors and specialist partners.
• Leading change, improving planning discipline and influencing senior stakeholders without relying only on formal authority.
• Applying governance, data quality, financial controls and service management to an operational planning function.

Agentic and digital capability

• Working understanding o