Director, IT Strategy

Under the direction of the VP, IT Strategy and Enterprise Architecture, this role is a critical position supporting senior IT leadership, enabling leaders to execute strategic work while ensuring operational rigor. This role will coordinate cross-functional programs, benchmark metrics, and prepare compelling storytelling assets. They will also be responsible for governance, ensuring a consistent and strategic approach to the use and implementation of technology across the enterprise. Overall, this role is essential to ensuring that IT is an enabler and key component of modernizing and delivering exceptional experiences to team members and guests. 

Qualifications:

Minimum Education and/or Experience:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience 
• 7 or more years in professional services, IT, or top-tier consulting 
• At least 5 years of experience in Project Management, Process Management, Agile Delivery, or as a Team Lead
• At least 3 years of experience working with senior stakeholders across different business functions
• At least 3 years of experience writing communications and presentations for leadership and non-leadership audiences.

Additional knowledge and skills:

• Excellent oral and written communication skills, including the ability to explain IT roadmaps, strategies, and terms in a clear, concise way.
• Demonstrated effective leadership, teamwork, and influencing skills.
• Strong budgeting, planning, and financial management skills.
• Exceptional project management skills, including the ability to effectively deploy resources and manage multiple projects of diverse scopes in a cross-functional environment.
• Proficient with SharePoint, MS Project, Visio, and MS Office suite of tools, with an emphasis on building great PowerPoint presentations.
• Highly self-sufficient and able to effectively influence all levels of project participants.
• Excellent communication and group facilitation skills.
• Promotes teamwork to achieve the organization/program mission; win as a team.
• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Comfortable in highly dynamic and frequently ambiguous environments.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (written, verbal, presentation, negotiation), including communicating effectively with people at different organizational job levels.

Responsibilities:

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Strategy and Roadmap

• In partnership with the VP, IT Strategy and Enterprise Architecture, define and monitor progress against our overarching IT strategy and roadmaps.
• Provide insights to the CDIO and the Executive Leadership Team related to opportunities across the business.
• Act as a sounding board for the IT leadership team on overall strategy and offer business perspectives on key strategic decisions.
• Maintain a strategic backlog of topics for the CDIO and VP, IT Strategy and Enterprise Architecture.
• Ensure communication and alignment across different business units and geographies related to project delivery.
• Ensures the business strategy for the organization is enabled through technology and aligns with the IT roadmap. 

Storytelling and Reports

• Connect the dots across IT and the enterprise to create compelling presentations and other assets targeted to critical stakeholders, from business partners to the board of directors.
• Conduct analysis and benchmarking exercises to deliver exceptional IT performance.
• Provides comprehensive "dashboard" reports tailored for executive leadership and other stakeholders.
• Preparation, planning, and facilitation of leadership team meetings; accountable for ensuring that the meeting objectives are realistic, the team is well-prepared, and that action items and next steps are documented and tracked.

Governance and Capital Planning

• Help establish and run an architecture governance board responsible for ensuring effective and efficient use of IT resources and assets, as well as architecture and portfolio decisions that enable the long-term business strategy.
• Facilitate the project intake process and lead projects through appropriate scoping and approval processes with the Initiative Review Board (IRB).
• Facilitate regular discussions with project stakeholders to drive delivery, uncover issues and risks, and escalate as needed.