Senior Manager - Cost Intelligence and Containment

Are you a strategic, analytical leader with a passion for driving cost efficiency and operational excellence? We are seeking a Senior Manager – Cost Intelligence & Containment to lead initiatives that monitor, analyze, and manage healthcare and operational costs.

JOB OVERVIEW:
The Senior Manager - Cost Intelligence and Containment exists to close a critical enterprise gap in cost visibility, cost discipline, and proactive spend management across the Group. While Finance, Procurement, and Operations perform their core mandates, none are structured or resourced to conduct deep consumption analysis, interrogate spending behaviours, or drive cross-functional cost-containment initiatives.

This role provides data-driven insight, rigorous challenge, and disciplined execution, ensuring the Group reduces waste, strengthens spend governance, and achieves sustainable savings. Positioned within GSSL, the execution hub, the role acts as a neutral enterprise change agent reporting to the President of GSSL/Group COO.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES:
1.    Strategic Performance, Cost Intelligence & Advisory
•    Act as the COO’s analytical partner, translating operational and financial data into actionable performance insights, forecasts, and recommendations.
•    Lead rigorous, system-level cost and consumption analysis to uncover leakage, duplication, and inefficiencies across Shared Services and BUs.
•    Maintain and enhance executive dashboards and early-warning indicators for costs, efficiency, and operational performance.

2.    Cost Containment Framework, Governance & Execution
•    Establish and own the Group’s Cost Containment Framework, setting standards, processes, and governance for cost management across functions and territories.
•    Challenge budgets, spend assumptions, operational procedures, and supplier engagements with data-backed authority.
•    Drive cross-functional cost-containment execution, embedding controls, eliminating waste, and ensuring sustainability of results.

3.    Operational Efficiency & Value Realisation
•    Lead analyses to identify productivity gains, resource synergies, and process streamlining opportunities across HR, IT, Facilities, Procurement, and other Shared Services.
•    Formulate cost-optimisation strategies and business cases ensuring targeted savings, positive ROI, and acceptable payback periods.
•    Support the COO in prioritising transformation investments based on quantifiable value and efficiency outcomes.

4.    Enterprise Reporting & Performance Monitoring
•    Oversee preparation of quarterly Group Performance Dashboards, Operational Effectiveness Reports, and cost-management updates for the Board, Executive Committee, Group CEO, Group COO, and Group CFO.
•    Validate performance indicators, cost allocations, efficiency outcomes, and savings against agreed baselines.
•    Maintain a rolling “Efficiency Tracker” consolidating Group-level savings and improvement initiatives.

5.    Foundation & ESG Governance
•    Manage the governance, spend allocation, and impact measurement framework for the Guardian Group Foundation.
•    Ensure alignment of disbursements and reporting with ESG/CSR mandates.

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE:
•    Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Economics, Business Management or a closely related discipline.
•    Postgraduate studies in Finance, Business Administration, Data/Business Analytics, or Strategic Procurement would be an advantage.
•    7-10 years’ relevant experience in cost management, financial planning & analysis, procurement analytics, commercial finance, or operations/strategic finance within a complex organisation (financial services preferred).
•    Proven track record in identifying and delivering cost-optimisation initiatives, including building business cases, tracking savings, and challenging spend assumptions.
•    Experience working cross-functionally with Finance, Procurement, IT, HR and Operations at a senior level.
•    Demonstrated experience using data and dashboards to drive decisions (e.g. spend analytics, category analysis, consumption/usage analysis).

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENT:
As a regulated entity with obligations under the Know Your Employee guidelines, a Certificate of Character is required.

PERSON SPECIFICATION:
The Senior Manager must demonstrate resilience, professional courage, and the ability to challenge senior stakeholders constructively. They must be data-driven, objective, and committed to enterprise value creation rather than functional bias. A high degree of analytical curiosity, discipline, and integrity is essential to build trust while holding the organisation accountable for cost-effective execution.

Applications will be treated with the utmost confidentiality.