Director of Strategy - Innovations

U.S. Engineering•Kansas City, MO

About The Position

The Director of Strategy partners with the President to translate USEI’s strategic plan into standard, repeatable ways of working across Project Development, Site Operations and DfMA. The role owns cross-functional handoffs, workflows and communication rhythms so the three groups operate as one delivery system. It leads through influence rather than direct authority: Vice Presidents retain ownership of work within their functions, while the Director of Strategy owns how work moves between them. The position turns the annual strategic plan into a tracked portfolio of initiatives, establishes operating rhythms and shared processes, and improves company-wide visibility into initiative and operational performance. It coordinates with USEC, USES, USEMX and Holdings on shared processes and intercompany resources, and supports the President with special projects, including organizational design, AI best practices and implementation, and communication with the USE Holdings Board of Directors. The Director reports to the President of USEI and acts as chief of staff for strategy and planning. The role collaborates with Vice Presidents, the Directors of Process Optimization and Human Resources, Talent Development, and Application Development. It may eventually have direct reports based on growth and may manage project teams whose membership varies by project. Employment offers are contingent on completing a pre-employment drug screen.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in business, construction management, engineering, or a related field.
10+ years of experience in management of strategy and cross-functional team collaboration.
Demonstrated success standardizing processes or leading change across multiple teams without direct authority over them.
Strong written and verbal communication, including presenting to executive and field audiences.
Technical proficiency in Excel, Power BI, Salesforce, and similar analytical software.

Nice To Haves

MBA or formal training in strategy, Lean, or operational excellence.
Experience developing strategic roadmaps.
Partnerships with C-suite leaders, boards, and executive teams.
Experience in a high-growth organization or in a chief of staff or strategy role.

Responsibilities

Translate the annual USEI strategic plan into a tracked portfolio of initiatives, each with an owner, milestones and measures.
Run monthly initiative reviews with the Innovations Management Team and report status to the leadership team quarterly.
Lead preparation and follow-through for leadership summits and the annual strategic planning cycle.
Map and standardize major handoffs between functions and drive adoption of standard workflows.
Maintain a single library of USEI standard processes, templates and playbooks, and retire duplicate or outdated versions.
Design the operating rhythm that aligns the three functions, including meeting cadences, decision rights and escalation paths.
Own internal communication of strategy and change so leaders and team members understand what is changing and why.
Partner with the HR Director to interpret engagement survey results and team feedback and target communication and collaboration gaps.
Partner with the Management Team to define company-level KPIs that connect functional results to the strategic plan.
Build a leadership dashboard showing initiative progress alongside operational performance.
Coordinate with USEC, USES, USEMX and Holdings on shared processes and intercompany resources.
Support the President on special projects, including organizational design, AI best practices and implementation, and communication with the USE Holdings Board of Directors.
Partner with Application Development on analytical tools, a platform for hosting standardized processes, and AI implementation.
Manage project teams whose members may vary by project.
Potentially hire, manage performance, and administer pay for subordinates if direct reports are added.