Associate Director, Strategy & Operations

Grant Thornton • Chicago, IL

19h • $184,000 - $276,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Associate Director, Strategy & Operations is a senior member of Grant Thornton’s Office of the COO, responsible for independently leading strategic priorities, business performance initiatives, and cross-functional execution across the firm and its Americas member firms. Reporting to the Head of Strategy & Operations, the role translates senior leadership priorities into decisions, executable plans, and measurable results.

Operating with substantial autonomy, the Associate Director serves as a day-to-day thought partner to senior executives. The role involves structuring ambiguous business problems, developing fact-based perspectives, identifying implications and tradeoffs, recommending actions, and carrying leadership decisions through to sustained execution. It requires strong business judgment, professional services acumen, executive presence, and the ability to influence across service lines, corporate functions, geographies, and member firms without formal authority.

The role leads strategic and operational initiatives from problem definition through implementation and benefits realization; analyzes business and operational performance; prepares executive insights and decision materials; supports Americas member firm leaders; advances organizational effectiveness and governance; and leads multiple high-priority workstreams. The position follows Grant Thornton’s hybrid work model and requires in-person attendance at least three days per week at a Grant Thornton office or client site.

Requirements

• 8–12+ years of progressively responsible experience in management consulting, corporate strategy, business operations, transformation, finance, or a comparable environment.
• Demonstrated experience independently leading complex, cross-functional strategic or operational initiatives from problem definition through implementation.
• Demonstrated ability to convert complex analysis into business insight, management implications, and actionable recommendations.
• Experience regularly engaging and influencing senior executives, including facilitating discussions and presenting recommendations.
• Strong business and financial acumen, including the ability to understand performance drivers and connect operational activity to business outcomes.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including advanced capability in executive presentations, business storytelling, and decision-support materials.
• Advanced PowerPoint and Excel capabilities; proficiency using data, productivity, and collaboration tools to accelerate high-quality work.
• Ability to operate with limited direction, establish structure in ambiguous situations, manage competing priorities, and exercise sound judgment.
• Bachelor’s degree in business, finance, economics, accounting, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.

Nice To Haves

• Professional services experience or demonstrated knowledge of professional services economics, operating models, and performance drivers.
• Experience working across international, multi-country, or member-firm structures.
• Experience in organizational design, governance, operating model development, enterprise transformation, M&A integration, or performance management.
• MBA or other relevant advanced degree.

Responsibilities

• Independently lead strategic and operational initiatives sponsored by the Office of the COO from problem definition and workplan design through recommendations, decisions, implementation, and benefits realization.
• Structure complex, ambiguous business questions; develop hypotheses, analytical approaches, and plans for gathering information and stakeholder input.
• Develop strategic options, business cases, and decision frameworks that explain business implications, tradeoffs, risks, and recommended actions.
• Translate enterprise priorities into executable plans with defined outcomes, owners, milestones, dependencies, performance measures, and governance.
• Anticipate execution barriers and emerging issues, resolve them where possible, and bring focused decisions to executives when intervention is needed.
• Analyze and interpret business and operational performance to identify drivers, trends, gaps, risks, and opportunities.
• Translate quantitative and qualitative analysis into management insights, implications, and recommended actions.
• Shape and drive leadership operating reviews by identifying critical management questions, developing an objective fact base and point of view, and enabling executive discussion and decisions.
• Develop executive-ready performance narratives connecting financial and operational results, key performance indicators, strategic priorities, and organizational execution.
• Partner with business and functional leaders to diagnose performance issues, evaluate interventions, and establish follow-through accountability.
• Establish mechanisms to monitor strategic priorities, leadership commitments, and outcomes; identify execution gaps and recommend corrective action.
• Serve as a trusted day-to-day thought partner to senior leaders on strategic, operational, and organizational priorities.
• Prepare and deliver concise executive briefings, recommendations, presentations, and decision-support materials tailored to the audience and decision.
• Lead and facilitate executive and cross-functional discussions, reconcile perspectives, and drive decisions and accountable next steps.
• Communicate complex or sensitive issues clearly and discreetly, using sound judgment, including when analysis challenges established assumptions or priorities.
• Represent the Office of the COO in senior-level working sessions and advance matters on its behalf within agreed decision rights.
• Act as a strategic liaison and thought partner to Americas member firm leaders on priorities requiring Office of the COO engagement.
• Diagnose operational challenges, develop recommendations, and mobilize stakeholders and resources to resolve them.
• Lead implementation of regional and global priorities across member firms, adapting execution to local circumstances while maintaining strategic intent and expected outcomes.
• Identify patterns, leading practices, and transferable insights across member firms and turn them into recommendations for broader organizational action.
• Build trusted relationships across geographies and influence timely decisions and execution without direct authority.
• Lead or advise on organizational design, governance, operating model, decision-rights, and ways-of-working initiatives.
• Assess whether structures, processes, forums, and accountabilities support effective decisions and execution; recommend and implement practical improvements.
• Design scalable management mechanisms that strengthen prioritization, transparency, decision velocity, accountability, and organizational alignment.
• Clarify roles, responsibilities, decision rights, and escalation paths across complex cross-functional initiatives.
• Facilitate working sessions that turn differing stakeholder perspectives into aligned decisions and implementable solutions.
• Lead multiple high-priority workstreams simultaneously while balancing pace, rigor, and practical delivery.
• Establish operating cadences for complex initiatives, including governance, stakeholder engagement, risk management, decision tracking, and performance reporting.
• Drive accountability across workstream owners, address stalled execution, and ensure leadership decisions lead to measurable action.
• Coach project contributors and guide problem solving, analysis, executive communication, and delivery quality, whether or not they report directly to the role.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• Flexible work location and weekly schedule options, including flex time off, consistent with the firm’s hybrid work model.
• Work-life integration options supporting employees and their households.
• Personalized and comprehensive benefits.
• Employees may be eligible for a discretionary annual bonus based on individual and firm performance, subject to applicable plan terms and eligibility criteria.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior