Associate Director, Corporate Strategy (San Diego / Hybrid)

Illumina•San Diego, CA

13d•$170,600 - $255,800•Hybrid

About The Position

The Associate Director, Corporate Strategy is an experienced enterprise strategist who leads major analytical workstreams and selected, bounded strategy engagements that inform Illumina’s long-term direction and priority decisions. Working with a Director or Senior Director, the Associate Director translates an agreed strategic question into hypotheses, analyses, alternatives, and a clear synthesis; builds a trusted fact base; and turns complex findings into recommendations for senior leaders. The role operates across R&D, Product, Commercial, Finance, Corporate Development, Medical, Operations, and regional leadership in a global, science- and technology-driven environment. The Associate Director is an individual contributor who is expected to exercise substantial judgment over methods and analysis, identify when the initial framing is incomplete, and lead cross-functional contributors to an integrated answer without relying on formal reporting authority. The role contributes to executive decisions but does not ordinarily serve as the sole owner of Illumina’s most ambiguous cross-enterprise questions or the final enterprise recommendation.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in business, economics, finance, engineering, life sciences, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Typically requires 13-15 years of cumulative relevant experience. This range reflects the expected career stage rather than a rigid minimum or maximum; selection will be based primarily on the depth and relevance of the experience below.
Top-tier strategy consulting apprenticeship: 3+ years in a top-tier global strategy consulting firm, such as McKinsey, BCG, or Bain, or a directly comparable firm. Experience must include progression to senior consultant, manager, or major-workstream leadership; hypothesis-driven problem solving; exposure to senior executive sponsors; and responsibility for the quality of others’ work.
Directly relevant strategy depth: Demonstrated experience addressing market, growth, portfolio, business-model, or capability questions through corporate strategy, top-tier strategy consulting, or equivalent strategic roles.
Senior executive decision support: Within that experience, 2+ years directly supporting C-suite executives or equivalent senior decision-makers through analysis, recommendations, and decision-ready materials, including opportunities to present or defend findings.
Complex workstream leadership: 2+ years leading analytically complex strategy workstreams or bounded projects from hypothesis and fact-base development through synthesis and recommendation.
Project-team leadership and coaching: 1+ year directing or coaching analysts, associates, consultants, or cross-functional contributors on strategy projects, with accountability for work quality; direct-report management is not required.
Practical AI application: Demonstrated direct use of AI-enabled approaches to accelerate strategy development, with compelling proof points such as reusable skills, plugins, agentic workflows, or equivalent solutions applied to research, analysis, synthesis, scenario development, or executive communication. Experience must reflect responsible handling of confidential information, validation of outputs, and sound human judgment.
Analytical and communication capability: Strong structured problem-solving, quantitative analysis, financial modeling, scenario development, synthesis, presentation, and matrixed collaboration skills.
Commercial and technology judgment: Sound commercial and financial judgment and the ability to understand complex scientific and technology-driven markets and translate them into strategic implications.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree: MBA, master’s degree, or other relevant advanced degree.
Sector experience: Experience in genomics, life sciences, diagnostics, healthcare, or another technology-intensive industry.
Perspective breadth: Exposure to both external advisory and in-house strategy environments, or equivalent breadth across multiple industries, functions, or business models.
Executive exposure: Experience contributing to ELT-level analyses or presentations in a public-company or similarly complex environment.
Inorganic strategy: Experience evaluating partnerships, acquisitions, or other inorganic options as part of a broader strategy, without requiring transaction-execution specialization.

Responsibilities

Lead major strategy workstreams and bounded engagements. Own analytically complex workstreams within cross-enterprise projects and independently lead selected strategy engagements with a defined sponsor, decision, and scope. Deliver work from hypothesis and analysis through synthesis, recommendation, and decision support.
Structure the problem and analytical approach. Translate an agreed strategic question into testable hypotheses, decision criteria, required analyses, data needs, and a practical workplan. Identify missing questions or weak assumptions and recommend changes to the Director or Senior Director when the evidence warrants reframing.
Build and validate the fact base. Integrate market models, customer insights, competitive intelligence, scientific and technology perspectives, internal performance, and financial analysis. Distinguish evidence from opinion, document assumptions, and ensure that analyses can withstand senior review.
Develop alternatives and implications. Build credible options, quantify implications for growth, investment, risk, capabilities, and opportunity cost where possible, and synthesize the evidence into a recommendation within the agreed project mandate.
Integrate functional expertise. Work with functional, domain, product, and regional partners to gather relevant expertise, reconcile inconsistent inputs, surface unresolved disagreements, and maintain an enterprise lens in the analysis.
Develop executive-ready communication. Create concise presentations and pre-reads that make the decision, evidence, alternatives, and trade-offs clear. Present findings to senior leaders and contribute to ELT materials and discussions under the direction of the Director or Senior Director.
Lead project contributors and raise analytical quality. Direct analysts, managers, external advisors, and cross-functional contributors on assigned strategy work; manage the workplan; review outputs; provide project-based coaching in structured problem solving and synthesis; and escalate risks that threaten the quality or timing of the answer.
Support decision handoff and learning. Document approved choices, implications, assumptions, owners, milestones, and measures of value. Support a disciplined handoff to accountable business or functional leaders and flag changed assumptions without taking ownership of day-to-day implementation.