Strategy Associate

Description

Department: Strategy

Location: South Africa

Allied Talent Partners (ATP), a Three Cairns Group initiative, is a mission-driven, not-for-profit talent marketplace focused on solving the human capital bottlenecks slowing down sustainable development efforts in emerging economies, with an initial focus on Africa. ATP connects vetted, experienced, context-relevant professionals to high-impact opportunities in energy access and sustainable development – strengthening local capacity and fuelling economic vitality. We specialize in fixed-term, deliverable-driven engagements – from interim leadership and generalist projects to niche technical expertise – handling project scoping, talent vetting and matching, contracting, payroll, and compliance so that our clients can focus on impact.

A fast-growing strategy and advisory firm is seeking an experienced Strategy Associate or Senior Associate to join an ongoing strategy engagement for a confidential private-sector client. The engagement is already underway and requires immediate additional capacity to support a lean, senior-led team delivering a high-impact strategic design assignment.

The work focuses on designing a franchise-style commercial model for a consumer-facing business, including definition of network archetypes, incentive mechanisms, and supporting economics. The role is well suited to a strong generalist with a solid consulting toolkit who can quickly integrate into a fast-paced team environment and deliver against clearly defined outputs.

Role: Strategy Associate

Direct Report: Engagement manager

Candidates

Required:

1

Key Deliverables:

• Offering design
  • Design a franchise-style commercial model, including definition of target network archetypes, roles, and decision rights.
  • Incorporate client-provided or parallel workstream inputs on value propositions into the design of aligned incentive and rewards mechanisms across archetypes.
  • Translate strategic choices into clear supporting operating logic and economic assumptions.
• Economics & Assumption Testing
  • Build and refine economic and financial analyses underpinning the proposed commercial model.
  • Test key assumptions related to incentives, unit economics, scalability, and network performance.
  • Use analytical insights to refine design choices and support client decision-making.
• Engagement Outputs & Decision Support
  • Produce decision-ready materials synthesising diagnostic findings, commercial model design choices, and economic implications
  • Develop clear, structured client outputs (e.g. frameworks, exhibits, and narratives) to support senior decision-making.
  • Support and document client working sessions, capturing decisions, open questions, and implications for next steps.
  • Act as the day-to-day client point of contact for defined work streams, leading discussions, addressing questions, and coordinating inputs with guidance from senior team members.

Experience

Required:

• 4–6 years (Associate) or 6–9 years (Senior Associate) of experience in strategy consulting, management consulting, corporate strategy, or a closely related field.
• Strong generalist consulting toolkit, including problem structuring, qualitative and quantitative analysis, and presentation development.
• Experience working on strategy engagements in fast-paced, client-facing environments.
• Exposure to consumer, retail, distribution, or network-based business models is an advantage but not required.

Technical Requirements:

• Strong ability to frame ambiguous strategic problems, define clear problem statements, and structure them into coherent workplans.
• Experience developing and refining hypotheses, identifying key value drivers, and prioritising analyses to inform decision-making.
• Ability to design and oversee targeted qualitative and quantitative analyses, ensuring analytical effort is focused on the most decision-relevant questions.
• Proven capability to synthesise complex analyses into clear insights and translate them into concise, decision-oriented recommendations for senior stakeholders.
• High level of comfort working independently in Excel and PowerPoint (or equivalent tools), producing client-ready outputs with limited oversight

Other

Skills:

• Ability to integrate quickly into an existing team and operate with limited onboarding.
• Strong ownership mindset and accountability for outputs.
• Comfort working under time pressure and adapting to evolving priorities
• Collaborative, professional engagement style with confidence front-of-client.

Location: Johannesburg

Travel: Minimal

Terms of agreement:

Start Date: Immediate

Contracting Period: 8–10 weeks