Director of Strategic Initiatives

Virginia Information Technologies Agency • Richmond, VA

18h • Onsite

About The Position

The Virginia Department of Education is looking for a Director of Strategic Initiatives to serve as the primary coordinator of the Agency’s internal strategic plan and steward of the Agency’s long-term vision. Reporting to the Chief of Staff and working closely with the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Senior Leadership, this is a high-impact leadership role that is responsible for designing, launching, and managing implementation of a comprehensive four-year strategic plan for the Virginia Department of Education.

Requirements

• Ability to work very collaboratively across agency departments and divisions to understand issues, goals, and strategic alignment of various initiatives.
• Demonstrated experience collecting and analyzing data in order to help communicate agency priorities, success and challenges to a wide range of audiences.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, public administration, business administration, education policy, education leadership, or a related field.
• A Master’s degree or higher in Public Administration (MPA) Business Administration (MBA), Education Leadership, or Public Policy is preferred.
• Prior work experience developing, managing or monitoring strategic plans for large organizations, or similar experience executing high impact plans across complex and diffuse departments / partners.

Responsibilities

• Lead the collaborative development of a multi-year strategic roadmap, defining the agency's mission-critical goals and "North Star" objectives.
• Analyze stakeholder input and conduct, in partnership with Senior Leadership, additional stakeholder engagement, including with Board of Education, to ensure full buy-in for strategic plan.
• Partner with Senior Leadership to establish "Measures of Success" for each initiative with clear owners and associated deliverables, defining clear success criteria through quantitative data and qualitative milestones.
• Maintain a rigorous monitoring framework, such as executive dashboards or quarterly reviews, to track organizational progress against the four-year plan.
• Act as a high-level facilitator across internal departments to break down silos, align priorities, and ensure cross-functional buy-in.
• Identify, document and mitigate risks to project timelines or outcomes and partner with leadership to develop pivot strategies or resource reallocations.
• Translate complex data and organizational milestones into clear, actionable progress reports for the Superintendent, Board of Education, and legislative partners.

Benefits

• Teleworking options may be available for Commonwealth of Virginia employees.
• Reasonable accommodations are available to persons with disabilities during the application and/or interview process.

What This Job Offers

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