Associate Vice President Strategic Initiative Jobs

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Job Description Summary

The Vice President, Strategic Planning and Initiatives serves as the principal integrator and strategic right hand to the President, enabling the effective leadership and operation of the division. This role ensures that the President's priorities are translated into organized action, that the leadership team operates with coherence and accountability, and that the division's operating rhythm supports high performance. This is a role of trust, discretion, and organizational influence. The VP, Strategic Planning and Initiatives operates at the executive level — managing enterprise-sensitive information, coordinating across organizational boundaries, and carrying peer-level credibility with senior leaders. The role does not direct the leadership team but works as a trusted coordinator who ensures alignment, reduces friction, and amplifies the President's impact.

Job Description

The VP, Strategic Planning and Initiatives occupies a unique position in the division's leadership structure. The role sits within the President's office and operates with delegated authority in defined domains. It is not a line of leadership role — it does not hold formal supervisory authority over the President's direct reports — but it is expected to function as a peer to that group in terms of organizational weight, credibility, and access.

The role handles matter of significant sensitivity, including confidential personnel and organizational issues, cross-divisional political dynamics, and matters with board or enterprise-level exposure. Absolute discretion, sound judgment, and the ability to navigate complexity with composure are non-negotiable requirements.

The VP, Strategic Planning and Initiatives will have two direct reports: the Senior Executive Administrator, responsible for the President’s calendar management, travel, expenses, task management, meeting prep, and other administrative responsibilities; and Program and Resource Fellow, responsible for providing project support.

Key Responsibilities1. Executive Advisory and Decision Support

• Serve as a trusted thought partner and sounding board to the President on strategic, organizational, and operational matters.
• Prepare the President for key meetings, decisions, and engagements — synthesizing information, anticipating questions, and surfacing relevant considerations.
• Track decisions, commitments, and follow-through across the leadership team; flag risks or gaps before they become problems.
• Manage the flow of information to and from the President's office, ensuring timely, accurate, and actionable communication.

2. Strategic Planning — Facilitation to Ownership

This responsibility could evolve over time as the VP, Strategic Planning and Initiatives builds organizational relationships and demonstrates effectiveness.

• Year 1 — Facilitate and support: Coordinates and manages the strategic planning process under the President's close direction; ensures the process runs effectively, structures inputs from the leadership team, and produces clear documentation of priorities, goals, and accountabilities.
• Year 2 — Lead with oversight: Takes ownership of the planning process design and facilitation; drives timelines and deliverables; brings recommendations to the President for review and approval; manages leadership team engagement throughout.
• Year 3 and beyond — Own: Holds full accountability for the strategic planning process; translates the President's vision into a structured, actionable, multi-year plan; leads execution tracking and mid-cycle adjustments.

3. Operating Rhythm and Leadership Team Effectiveness

• Design and manage the division's operating calendar, including leadership team meetings, planning cycles, performance reviews, and key governance touchpoints.
• Ensure leadership team meetings are well-structured, purposeful, and outcome-oriented — preparing agendas, managing pre-reads, facilitating follow-through decisions.
• Monitor the effectiveness of cross-functional collaboration; identify and address breakdowns in coordination, communication, or accountability.
• Serve as a trusted coordinator among the President's direct reports — managing alignment and operating rhythm without directing or superseding their authority.

4. Strategic Initiative Oversight

• Lead or co-lead cross-functional initiatives on behalf of the President, carrying full accountability for scope, timeline, and outcomes — not merely visibility and monitoring.
• Coordinate the work of multiple leaders and teams on high-priority projects; remove obstacles, resolve ambiguity, and elevate risks appropriately.
• Ensure the President has accurate, timely visibility into the status of strategic initiatives and that leaders are meeting their commitments.

5. Organizational Health and Culture

• Serve as an early-warning system for organizational risk — monitoring team dynamics, morale, and cultural health across the division.
• Identify emerging tensions, trust deficits, or dysfunction within the leadership team or broader division and surface them to the President with recommended responses.
• Support the design and execution of culture-building initiatives; ensure organizational values are reflected in internal practices and operating norms.
• Oversee implementation of Division’s action plan based on bi-annual employee survey results and future of work initiative.

6. Information Architecture and Communications

• Design and maintain systems that ensure information flows efficiently across the division — reducing bottlenecks, duplication, and gaps.
• Oversee the development of key internal communications from the President's office, ensuring clarity, consistency, and alignment with organizational priorities.
• Manage the President's communication calendar and ensure that key messages reach the right audiences at the right times.

7. External Engagement Coordination

• Coordinate and prepare the President for external engagements — including partner meetings, stakeholder interactions, and governance appearances — ensuring thorough briefing and follow-through.
• Represent the President in select external settings where delegated; manage relationships with key external contacts on the President's behalf as appropriate.
• Coordinate inter-divisional and cross-organizational relationships to advance the division's priorities.
• Manage the Enterprise Community Leadership Council

8. Change Management

• Support the planning and execution of organizational change initiatives — including restructuring, process redesign, and major strategic pivots.
• Build stakeholder buy-in for change; manage communications and engagement strategies that reduce resistance and sustain momentum.
• Monitor organizational response to change and advise the President on adjustments needed to maintain effectiveness and trust.

Accountability and Outcomes

Responsibility: Executive advisory & decision support

Key Deliverables: Briefing materials; decision memos; tracking system for commitments

Measurable Outcomes: President reports high confidence in preparation; commitments tracked and met on time

Responsibility: Strategic planning

Key Deliverables: Annual strategic plan; planning calendar; leadership team inputs; progress reports

Measurable Outcomes: Plan produced on schedule; leadership team reports process is well-run and their input is reflected

Responsibility: Operating rhythm

Key Deliverables: Leadership meeting calendar; agendas; decision logs; follow-through reports

Measurable Outcomes: Meetings are purposeful; decisions documented; follow-through rate measurably improves

Responsibility: Strategic initiative oversight

Key Deliverables: Initiative charters; status reports; risk logs; escalation recommendations

Measurable Outcomes: Initiatives delivered on time and scope; President has accurate real-time visibility

Responsibility: Organizational health

Key Deliverables: Periodic health assessments; culture reports; recommended interventions

Measurable Outcomes: Early identification of risk; leadership team trust scores improve over time

Responsibility: Information architecture

Key Deliverables: Communication systems; President’s communication calendar; key internal messages

Measurable Outcomes: Information bottlenecks reduced; staff report clarity on division priorities

Responsibility: External engagement

Key Deliverables: Briefing packages; stakeholder maps; follow-through on external commitments

Measurable Outcomes: President rates external preparation highly; external relationships are maintained with consistency

Responsibility: Change management

Key Deliverables: Change management plans; stakeholder engagement strategies; progress reports

Measurable Outcomes: Change initiatives achieve intended outcomes; staff report feeling informed and involved

Decision-Making Authority

The VP, Strategic Planning and Initiatives operates with significant delegated authority in defined domains. The following framework describes the expected degree of autonomy:

Decides Independently

• Operating and process decisions within the President's office
• Day-to-day management of the operating calendar and meeting rhythm
• Routine external coordination and scheduling on the President's behalf

Decides with President Consultation

• Strategic initiative scope and resource decisions
• Communications from the President's office on sensitive matters
• Significant changes to planning process or operating calendar

President Decides

• Strategic priorities and direction
• Personnel decisions affecting the leadership team
• External commitments with material organizational consequence

Core Competency FrameworkExecutive judgment and discretion /Customer and client focus

Meets expectations: Handles sensitive information appropriately; knows when to raise; provides sound, balanced advice in familiar situations.

Exceeds expectations: Navigates ambiguous, high-stakes situations with composure and precision; advises the President on complex political or organizational dynamics with insight that consistently adds value; trusted with the most sensitive matters without close oversight.

Cultivates innovation through strategic thinking and planning

Meets expectations: Understands the division's strategic priorities and can translate them into organized work plans; tracks progress and flags misalignments.

Exceeds expectations: Proactively identifies strategic opportunities and risks; synthesizes complex inputs into clear strategic recommendations; over time leads the design and execution of the strategic planning process with minimal direction.

Drives results

Meets expectations: Builds productive working relationships across the leadership team; coordinates effectively and follows through on commitments; earns credibility through competence and reliability.

Exceeds expectations: Operates as a genuine peer to senior leaders; shapes decisions and behavior through trust and persuasion rather than authority; resolves cross-functional tensions with skill and without escalation.

Collaborates and communicates effectively

Meets expectations: Communicates clearly and concisely in written and verbal form; manages information flow within the President's office effectively.

Exceeds expectations: Designs and maintains systems that ensure the right information reaches the right people at the right time; drafts communications that consistently reflect the President's voice and intent; proactively addresses information gaps before they cause problems.

Manages ambiguity and situational adaptability

Meets expectations: Supports change initiatives by keeping stakeholders informed and coordinating logistics; manages own work effectively during periods of change.

Exceeds expectations: Leads the change management workstream on complex initiatives; anticipates and addresses resistance; builds coalitions and sustains momentum across organizational boundaries.

Values differences and supports culture-building

Meets expectations: Monitors team dynamics and reports concerns to the President; supports culture-building activities.

Exceeds expectations: Functions as a reliable early-warning system for organizational risk; designs and leads culture interventions; builds trust across the division through consistent, visible investment in organizational health.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field plus a minimum 15 years of related experience, with at least 3 years of operating at or near the executive level; or a graduate degree with 8-12 years of experience with at least three operating at or near the executive level.
• Demonstrated experience managing organizational performance metrics, dashboards, and reporting, including aggregating key KPIs for internal and external audiences, to support accountability and storytelling