Manager, Corporate Strategy

Make a +Difference at Kraton!

At Kraton, we make a +Difference, and we are looking for individuals who are also looking to make a difference in their jobs, for our customers and to the world.  We are looking to hire a key member of our Corporate Strategy team at our Global Headquarters located in The Woodlands, Texas.  

We are a global specialty chemicals company operating across Polymer and Pine Chemicals. Each business has built genuine market-intelligence (MI) and data capabilities through years of domain experience — capabilities that deserve fuller recognition and use. But as markets shift faster and decisions grow more data-driven, some capabilities are decision-ready while others fall short of what the enterprise now requires. This role's value lies in telling the two apart clearly — and acting decisively on each.

This newly created Manager, Corporate Strategy role exists to raise the enterprise's MI and data capability to the standard the business now requires. The Manager builds on, never duplicates, the business units' domain expertise — but does not assume every existing practice is good enough. Working directly with the businesses, the Manager distinguishes what is already strong, ensures it's leveraged enterprise-wide, and closes the gaps where market intelligence fails to reflect reality or inform decisions.

We believe in making a +Difference.  We’re proud to offer benefits that meaningfully support you—at work, at home, and everywhere in between. 

Some of the benefits offered are:                
                

• Medical Insurance, including TeleDoc - multiple plans available with Flexible Spending Account & Health Savings Account options                
• Dental & Vision Insurance                   
• Health Advocate – free support to help you understand your coverage and answer questions                 
• Life Insurance – base coverage paid for by Kraton with option for additional coverage                 
• 401k – Kraton provides matching contributions based on enrollment level                  
• Employee Assistance Program – provided at no cost to employees                        
• Accident, Disability, and Critical Illness Insurance                  

Key Responsibilities

1. Assess & Raise Enterprise Market Intelligence

• Evaluate current MI capabilities across Polymer and Pine against what the enterprise now requires — clearly distinguishing what is decision-ready from what falls short.
•  Ensure proven, high-quality MI is recognized and actively leveraged enterprise-wide, and close the gaps where market signals are incomplete or disconnected from decisions.
• Raise MI from uneven practice into a coherent, decision-oriented capability that leadership across the enterprise can rely on.

2. Build & Steward the Enterprise Data & Analytics Backbone

• Partner with the business units, IT, and Finance to accumulate the right data and establish the standards, tools, and governance needed for reliable analysis.
• Propose, shape, and help operationalize analytics/AI tooling that turns data into repeatable insight, rather than one-off spreadsheets.
• Identify and prioritize AI, analytics, and digital value-creation opportunities, with clear business cases.

3. Translate Insight into Decisions

• Convert market and data findings into decision-ready recommendations for management on pricing, portfolio, growth, and strategic positioning.
• Help ensure key findings connect naturally to major business decision points — the truest measure of a capability that is working well.
• Prepare executive-level materials that frame options, trade-offs, and recommendations clearly.

4. Lead, Guide & Enable — Together with the Business

• Work alongside business-unit and functional teams to build their ownership and capability, guiding and coaching as a partner while holding a clear standard for what "good" looks like.
• Orchestrate cross-functional collaboration (Polymer, Pine, Commercial, SCM, Finance, IT) and, where relevant, external partners, to raise the whole organization's market-intelligence maturity together.
• Act as the enterprise's connective tissue between external market reality and internal strategic decision-making.

Required Skills

• Full professional proficiency in English and Korean (written and spoken).
• 7+ years in corporate strategy, management consulting, market/competitive intelligence, or a comparable strategy-analytics role (adjust to internal leveling).
• Demonstrated ability to assess, build, and elevate capability — not only to perform analysis, but to judge its quality, structure it, systematize it, and make others effective at it.
• Strong grounding in market research & competitive intelligence and in data strategy, analytics, and AI/digital concepts.
• Excellent strategic thinking, trend interpretation, insight generation, and storytelling for executive audiences.
• Ability to influence and collaborate across business units and functions.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in chemicals, specialty materials, manufacturing, or industrial sectors.
• Management consulting background, or experience partnering with strategy consultants and internalizing their methods.
• Comfort operating in a global, matrixed, multi-business organization.

Education, Certifications & Licenses

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Economics, Engineering, or Data/Analytics; MBA or advanced degree preferred.

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The statements above are intended to describe the general nature and level of work performed by employees assigned to this classification.  Statements are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities and skills required for this position.

Kraton’s internal talent acquisition team manages our recruiting efforts and from time to time works with pre-selected/pre-approved external staffing agencies. We do NOT accept unsolicited resumes or candidate referrals from recruiters and/or agencies who are not pre-selected/pre-approved.

Kraton is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.