Director, Strategic Initiatives and Programs

The Director, Strategic Initiatives and Programs is responsible for driving strategic, cross-functional projects and programs that deliver toward key company objectives. Beyond leading initiatives, this individual will also lead a project delivery / PMO team and expand its impact across the company. This role plays a crucial role within the CIO organization, reporting directly to Andreas Heid, the CIO. The team currently consists of 3 members.

Responsibilities

• Identify and drive key strategic, cross-functional projects to deliver against critical business objectives such as Scale and Growth; examples: business process resilience, automation & AI strategy, margin projects
• Continuously identify opportunities in the business and pitch new initiatives with a business case approach
• Understand the business, systems and operational processes to be able to guide and support initiatives with appropriate context
• Comprehensively understand program and technical risks, generate mitigation plans, and drive the closure of risks in collaboration with cross-functional teams
• Create communication campaigns that help socialize and gain consensus for initiatives
• Refine and drive enterprise-wide impact of program management overall, e.g. tools, processes, best practices, metrics / dashboards, cross-functional prioritization & roadmapping framework
• Lead CIO organization’s project / program management team 

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience driving cross-functional initiatives, with a good share of that in the technology space
• Top management consulting background with proven track record of launching and running complex projects and programs in a cross-functional environment
• Experience in both startups and mid-sized+ enterprises
• Strong ownership mentality, measurement-driven for proven business impact
• Ability to influence all levels of the organization and to drive to decisions in a complex environment
• Capability to determine priorities and juggle multiple demands while advancing key deliverables
• Data-driven decision maker with diplomatic yet direct problem-solving skills
• Entrepreneurial core; ability to innovate, think in unexpected ways, and solve problems creatively
• Excellent communication skills
• Bias for action

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with large system integration projects and with process engineering is a plus
• Experience building PMO organizations in cross-functional enterprises is a plus

Physical/Cognitive Requirements

• Prompt and regular attendance at assigned work location.
• Ability to remain seated in a stationary position for prolonged periods.
• Requires eye-hand coordination and manual dexterity sufficient to operate keyboard, computer and other office-related equipment.
• No heavy lifting is expected, though occasional exertion of about 20 lbs. of force (e.g., lifting a computer / laptop) may be required.
• Ability to interact with leadership, …