Purpose of the position:
To track and make sense of the global alcohol policy and regulatory environment, and provide advocacy and lobbying support to the company’s country and regional management teams.

Key Performance Areas would include, but are not limited to:

Regulatory scanning
• Analysis across the company value chain: agriculture, manufacturing, distribution, wholesale, retail.
• Design and commission (or conduct) social, political and economic research that arises from key policy and regulatory questions.
• Specific focus on the following areas:
o Excise tax strategy
o Trade agreements and market access
o Alcohol regulation and policy positions
• Covering all geographies
• Building and managing the regulatory radar
• Working with regulatory specialists in business functions (Innovation, Procurement, Legal, Corporate Development, etc.) as well as CARA colleagues in business regions (SA, Africa, International).

Issue and risk articulation
• Capture the essence of the socio-political risks, showing how the risks could manifest to affect the alcohol industry and the Distell business
• Identify risk drivers, including people, events, organisations etc.
• Articulate relationships between drivers
• Estimate strengths and tolerances of risk drivers
• Develop risk horizons, to help understand how the risk could unfold and develop over time
• Develop qualitative and quantitative picture of how risks are related to each other and to core business practices (for example how the risk arising from minimum wage legislation and risk arising from farm automation could interact to create labour instability across the value chain).

Developing policy positions
• Develop position papers articulating the Group position on all key risks. These Group positions will be used as a reference point for the in-market operations in their advocacy and lobbying efforts, as well as serve as guidelines for operational practices.
• Work with regulatory managers to help them translate the group position papers into local operational and advocacy positions, and manage the governance around deviations from group positions.

The successful candidate must have the following qualification, skills and experience:

• Advanced degree in Political Science, Public Policy, or Law.
• Experience in Alcohol, Tobacco or Pharmaceuticals or other heavily regulated industry
• Policy research and analysis experience.
• Strong analytical skills.
• Ability to work in a team environment.
• Ability to thrive in complex, unstructured environments.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to build and maintain effective relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Strategic/action orientation, self-driven and innovative.