Senior Social Media Manager

At KFC, we pride ourselves on being original. We even named our recipe after it. But for us, the answer to the question is simple. Be You. Everyone at KFC is different. Unique. It’s what makes us special - Our people, The Originals. And we welcome you to join us. Bring your individuality to the table. Bring your grit and energy. Bring your spirit. Your story. Your drive and your passion. Bring it. Every piece of you. Even the parts you don’t like. Because we value our people no matter what. We’ll feed your potential and we’ll support you; to be your best self, to make a difference, and have fun. Together, we can be part of something truly extraordinary. All you have to do, is Bring it.
This role requires you to set the social media vision, strategy, governance and investment agenda for South Africa, leading the function and supervising the Social Media Manager responsible for day-to-day channel, content and community execution. The role provides senior counsel, approves priorities and high-impact activity, leads agency and creator ecosystems, owns performance and reputation outcomes, and builds the capability required to grow brand relevance, advocacy and commercial results.

Responsibilities:

Set South Africa Social Vision & Strategy
•Set the multi-year and annual social media vision, strategy, investment priorities, platform portfolio and measurement framework for South Africa.
•Advise senior marketing and business leaders on consumer culture, reputation, platform change and the role of social in brand and commercial growth.
•Approve the annual social plan, content pillars, major campaign approaches, creator strategy and testing agenda developed with the Social Media Manager and agencies.
•Ensure social strategy is integrated with brand, menu, retail, media, digital, CRM, loyalty, delivery and PR priorities.
•Mobilise senior stakeholders, agencies and cross-functional teams around the social agenda, resolving trade-offs and creating accountability for outcomes.

Lead & Supervise Social Delivery
•Provide strategic direction and quality assurance while overseeing planning and delivery of day-to-day content calendars, publishing, community management, creator coordination and routine reporting.
•Review and approve briefs, high-profile content, significant creator partnerships and activity with elevated brand, legal or reputational risk.
•Remove barriers, resolve cross-functional issues and hold internal teams and agencies accountable for quality, speed and outcomes.
•Establish scalable tools, playbooks and integrated ways of working across key internal and external stakeholders to enable best-in-class and consistent social media delivery.
•Manage the Social Media Manager, setting objectives, clarifying decision rights, coaching performance and building development plans.

Own Governance, Investment & Partnerships
•Own social operating standards, approval protocols, brand safety, community policy, creator governance, usage rights, disclosure and compliance requirements.
•Own the social, content and creator budget, approving investment allocations and material trade-offs while ensuring disciplined financial governance.
•Lead senior relationships, scopes and performance reviews with social, creative, media, platform, production and creator partners.

Lead Reputation, Performance & Capability
•Act as the senior social escalation point for high-risk issues and crises, advising leadership and coordinating response with PR, Corporate Affairs, Customer Care and Legal.
•Own social performance outcomes and executive reporting, connecting brand, audience, platform and commercial data to decisions and investment.
•Set the experimentation, innovation and learning agenda; ensure insights from execution are converted into strategic improvements.
•Build organisational social capability through coaching, platform education, playbooks, case studies and responsible adoption of AI and automation.

People Leadership
•Lead, coach and develop the Social Media Manager through clear objectives and portfolio deliverables, regular coaching, timely feedback, performance management and career development.
•Create clear decision rights: the Senior Social Media Manager sets strategy, approves material activity, owns governance and escalations; the Social Media Manager leads planning and day-to-day execution within those guardrails.
•Create the conditions for teams to make good decisions while maintaining appropriate senior oversight of strategically or commercially significant choices.
•Build strong strategic, commercial, creative and leadership capability within the team, setting high standards for thinking, execution, ownership and accountability.
•Build succession and capability plans that strengthen the long-term talent pipeline.
•Foster a culture of curiosity, constructive challenge, collaboration, experimentation and continuous learning.

Education:
•Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, Communications, Media, Journalism, Digital Marketing or a related field
•Relevant platform, digital marketing or social media certifications preferred

Experience:
•7–10 years of progressive experience in social media strategy, content, community management, influencer marketing or digital marketing within an advertiser, agency, platform or related environment
•Demonstrated people-management experience, including objective setting, coaching, performance management and development of a social media professional
•Proven leadership of significant social strategies and integrated campaigns, with accountability for strategic choices, governance and business outcomes
•Deep expertise across major social platforms, paid social, social intelligence, community management and emerging channel trends
•Strong experience setting creator and influencer strategy, partnership models, commercial terms and governance
•Experience leading agencies, substantial budgets, executive reporting and complex cross-functional delivery
•Experience advising senior leaders and leading high-profile reputational issues and social-media crisis response
•Deep understanding of South African consumers, culture, languages, media behaviour and the creator landscape

Capabilities:
•Strategic and functional leadership of social media, including operating models, governance and decision rights
•People leadership, coaching, delegation, performance management and capability building
•Exceptional creative judgement, cultural intelligence and consumer empathy
•Executive-level communication, influencing and senior stakeholder management
•Advanced paid social, audience, measurement, experimentation and commercial optimisation fluency
•Creator partnership strategy, agency leadership, commercial negotiation and budget governance
•Digital, social listening, AI/MarTech, analytics and automation fluency
•Sound judgement under pressure, including reputation, risk and crisis leadership
•Ability to set direction, empower execution and hold teams accountable for outcomes