Career

Jason McNamara is a transformation and technology executive with more than 30 years’ experience across business transformation, technology and supply chain disciplines. He has led major transformation, acquisition, merger and separation programs across some of Australia’s largest retail and energy organisations, consistently bringing together business strategy, people and technology to turn complex strategic objectives into practical outcomes.

Most recently, Jason led the technology integration program supporting Ampol’s acquisition of EG Australia. Prior to this, as GM Retail Technology, Digital & Transformation at Viva Energy Australia, he led the technology transformation required to separate the Coles Express business from Coles and establish a standalone retail technology capability. This included delivering a new cloud-first technology foundation, AI-enabled Dynamics 365 ERP, modern POS, data and business intelligence platforms and HR technology across a large national retail network, with the Dynamics 365 POS deployed across more than 670 stores in 19 weeks.

Jason has also held senior transformation, portfolio and technology leadership roles with Super Retail Group and Coles, alongside his work as Managing Director of Taurus Group Australia. Across these roles, he has developed a deep understanding of large-scale transformation execution, enterprise portfolio management, technology investment, organisational change and the practical realities of delivering significant change at pace.

Role at Factor

Jason brings Factor an experienced practitioner perspective on the human and organisational dimensions of transformation. His focus is on what makes transformation actually work once strategy has been agreed, particularly the leadership, culture, governance, communication and change disciplines required to take people on the journey.

He offers a practical counterpoint to technology-first transformation conversations, with a particular interest in the tendency for organisations to become overly focused on emerging technology while overlooking the people, processes and operating foundations that determine whether change succeeds. Jason’s perspective is that AI can accelerate transformation, but it cannot replace the fundamental work of creating organisational readiness, securing leadership alignment and engaging the people responsible for delivering the outcome.

Through executive discussions, research and advisory engagements, Jason can help leaders examine how to move from transformation ambition to measurable execution, including how to establish clear goals, understand change impacts through to frontline teams, create effective governance and build the high-performing teams required to deliver sustained change.

Key roles Jason works with include: CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, Chief Transformation Officers, Chief Digital Officers, COOs, Technology & Transformation Leaders, and Program, Portfolio & Change Leaders.

Previous Roles

At Viva Energy Australia, Jason served as GM Retail Technology, Digital & Transformation, leading one of the organisation’s most complex transformation programs. He established a standalone retail technology ecosystem following the separation of Coles Express from Coles, while simultaneously supporting the integration of OTR and building a scalable technology environment for a rapidly expanding convenience and fuel retail business.

At Super Retail Group, Jason held senior leadership roles including GM Portfolio Management Office & Strategic Delivery and GM Transformation. His remit covered strategic delivery, enterprise portfolio management, transformation and continuous improvement, with a strong focus on connecting strategic priorities to effective execution.

Earlier in his career, Jason spent more than a decade with Coles across IT infrastructure delivery, planning and strategy roles. His experience included large-scale technology planning and delivery, IT separation programs and the development of service-based technology planning and investment approaches across a complex retail environment.

Jason has also worked across business transformation, technology and supply chain disciplines through Taurus Group Australia and earlier retail roles. His career-long exposure to retail operations, technology and transformation gives him a particularly practical understanding of how enterprise change affects both corporate functions and frontline operations.

Media Presence and Industry Contributions

Jason has built his career around delivering transformation in complex, high-pressure environments where timelines are fixed, operational continuity is critical and change must be adopted by large and diverse workforces. His experience spans technology transformation, M&A integration, business separation, enterprise portfolio management and organisational change.

He is particularly passionate about the people side of transformation and the role of leadership, mindset and engagement in determining whether major change succeeds. His experience building high-performing “A-Teams” across business, technology, project, change and vendor environments provides a practical perspective on creating the conditions for teams to deliver at pace.

Jason also brings a pragmatic perspective to the role of AI in transformation. Rather than approaching AI as an end in itself, he focuses on identifying specific use cases where technology can accelerate a clearly defined business outcome, establish the value case upfront and ensure investment is directed toward problems where AI can genuinely make a difference.

Leadership Philosophy

Jason believes successful transformation starts with people. Clear leadership, strong organisational alignment, simple and measurable goals and a genuine understanding of the change journey are fundamental to achieving sustainable outcomes.

He advocates for transformation approaches that combine pace with discipline. Organisations need fit-for-purpose governance and the willingness to make decisions quickly, while understanding the impact of change all the way through to the frontline teams who ultimately determine whether a transformation succeeds.

His approach to emerging technology is similarly pragmatic: use AI and other technologies where they can create genuine value, but do not allow the technology conversation to overshadow the fundamentals of transformation. For Jason, successful change is ultimately about bringing people with you and creating the organisational conditions for strategy to become reality.