Director, Strategic Planning

Goodwill Industries of the Southern Piedmont•Charlotte, NC

About The Position

The Director, Strategic Planning leads enterprise strategic planning, strategy execution, portfolio governance, and organizational performance under the direction of the Chief Financial & Strategy Officer. The role translates the organization’s mission, long-term vision, and strategic priorities into measurable outcomes, coordinated initiatives, implementation plans, and management routines. It facilitates cross-functional alignment, strengthens project and change-management discipline, advances continuous improvement and innovation, and provides analysis and follow-through to improve organizational effectiveness, mission impact, growth, and long-term sustainability. The Director leads the development and refresh of annual and multi-year strategic plans, translates priorities into goals and accountable initiatives, and establishes a cadence for reviewing execution. The role directs the Project Management Office and governs enterprise strategic projects and transformational initiatives, including portfolio standards, prioritization, resources, risks, and corrective action. The Director leads cross-functional transformation and continuous-improvement efforts, integrates change-management practices, and establishes measures and routines to sustain results. The role also leads research, environmental scanning, scenario planning, pilots, business cases, data-quality and analytics efforts, performance reporting, and social return on investment analysis. It facilitates decisions and shared accountability across functions, builds relevant stakeholder relationships, and manages assigned team members, departmental resources, budgets, consultants, and vendors. The Director directly supervises the Manager, Research & Analytics and the Manager, Transformation & Process Excellence. Supervisory duties include hiring, training, work direction, performance evaluation, counseling, resolving problems, and budget development and management. Other job-related tasks may be assigned by the Chief Financial & Strategy Officer.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in Business Administration, Organizational Development, Public Administration, Strategy, Project Management, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
At least seven years of progressively responsible experience in strategic planning, strategy execution, enterprise project or portfolio management, organizational transformation, performance excellence, or a related area.
Ability to lead strategic planning, strategy execution, portfolio governance, organizational performance, and cross-functional initiatives.

Nice To Haves

PMP certification or comparable project-management credentials, where supported by relevant experience.
Prosci or comparable change-management training, where supported by relevant experience.
Lean/Six Sigma credentials, where supported by relevant experience.
Balanced Scorecard credentials, where supported by relevant experience.
Performance-excellence credentials, where supported by relevant experience.

Responsibilities

Lead development, implementation, and periodic refresh of annual and multi-year strategic plans with the Chief Financial & Strategy Officer and organizational leaders.
Translate strategic priorities into measurable goals, enterprise initiatives, performance outcomes, milestones, resource assumptions, and accountability structures.
Establish and manage an enterprise strategy-execution cadence, including progress reviews, status validation, issue identification, and follow-up.
Prepare strategic progress updates, planning materials, and recommendations for executive leadership, the President & CEO, and the Board of Directors.
Direct the Project Management Office and govern the portfolio of enterprise strategic projects and transformational initiatives.
Establish and maintain portfolio intake, prioritization, project-charter, stage-gate, reporting, change-control, risk-management, and closeout standards.
Partner with executive sponsors and project leaders to align project scope, schedules, budgets, benefits, resources, risks, stakeholder engagement, communication, training, and adoption.
Evaluate portfolio capacity, dependencies, and competing priorities; recommend sequencing, reprioritization, escalation, or corrective action.
Lead cross-functional transformation and continuous-improvement efforts to strengthen effectiveness, efficiency, scalability, team-member and customer experiences, and mission impact.
Apply structured methods to identify root causes, eliminate non-value-added work, standardize effective processes, and deliver measurable results.
Integrate change-management practices into strategic initiatives and improvement efforts, supporting alignment, readiness, communication, training, adoption, and sustained results.
Establish ownership, performance measures, and follow-up routines for improvement efforts.
Lead environmental scanning, research, evaluation, scenario planning, pilots, and test-and-learn efforts supporting innovation, sustainable growth, and community impact.
Analyze social, economic, workforce, retail, technology, nonprofit-sector, and organizational trends to identify opportunities, risks, and strategic implications.
Develop business cases and recommendations concerning investment, partnership, scaling, redesign, or discontinuation of initiatives, services, or operating approaches.
Lead data-quality, analytics, performance-reporting, and service-impact analysis efforts, including social return on investment, and oversee identification, evaluation, and reporting of key performance indicators.
Develop and manage an enterprise business-intelligence methodology and design data-capture processes and operational reporting to inform decisions and track performance against organizational goals and priorities.
Facilitate cross-functional planning and decision-making, build shared accountability, and help leaders resolve barriers to execution.
Build internal, community, industry, and professional relationships to identify emerging practices, benchmarks, partnerships, and strategic insights.
Lead, develop, and hold assigned team members accountable; manage departmental resources, budgets, consultants, and vendors in accordance with organizational policies and priorities.
Supervise the Manager, Research & Analytics and the Manager, Transformation & Process Excellence, including hiring, training, assigning and directing work, evaluating performance, counseling, resolving problems, and budget development and management.
Perform other job-related tasks as assigned by the Chief Financial & Strategy Officer.